Giftedness is often defined as an intellectual ability linked to an IQ score of 130 or more. However, not all gifted children excel in an academic area. Signs of a gifted child also include a high creative, artistic, musical and/or leadership ability relative to same-age peers.
Signs of Giftedness in Children Include:
an extreme need for constant mental stimulation. an ability to learn and process complex information rapidly. a need to explore subjects in surprising depth.
If you think your child might be gifted, you can see an educational psychologist for an IQ test and a report on your child's advanced learning.
Early reading children need grown-ups to read to them and show them the joys of reading for pleasure and information. When this happens, most highly gifted children will recognize the letters by age three, and recognize their names in print, know the alphabet, and “read” familiar signs by the time they are four.
Gifted children are born with natural abilities well above the average for their age. If your child is gifted, you might notice these natural abilities in the way they're learning and developing.
Social development and skills: gifted and talented children
Gifted children can think faster and/or more deeply than other children their age. So they're often good at imagining what it's like to be in somebody else's situation. Sometimes these qualities mean your gifted and talented child gets along well with others.
A gifted child's IQ will fall within these ranges: Mildly gifted: 115 to 130. Moderately gifted: 130 to 145. Highly gifted: 145 to 160.
Gifted children are challenging to parent in many ways. The more gifted the child, the more often it seems the more the parent is frustrated with the discrepancy of someone able to do school several levels above age level but unable to remember to take their finished work to school.
"Gifted children may be under-stimulated or bored in typical social or education settings, [which] may result in behavior challenges like school refusal, tantrums, distractibility, or general acting out," says Julia M. Chamberlain, MS, INHC, LMHC, a holistic therapist in private practice in Massachusetts.
They may also have behavior problems because of frustration or boredom. Very bright children can be unusually strong willed, negotiate like lawyers, or use sarcasm to make a point. Sometimes, gifted children are disruptive in classrooms because they don't want to do what they consider busywork.
It may depend where you live. While we like to think everyone is special, some people have extraordinary abilities — intellectual, artistic, social, or athletic. Many experts believe only 3 to 5 percent of the population is gifted, though some estimates reach 20 percent.
Being gifted runs in families. If your gifted child has brothers or sisters, there's a bigger chance that they might be gifted too. But they might not be gifted in the same way. For example, one gifted child might be advanced in music and their gifted sibling might be passionate about spiritual learning.
This is because many high+ gifted people do not realize they are high+ gifted, and thinking others should more or less experience the world as they do, they expect others to be as precise and holistic as they are.
Anxiety among gifted students is controversial. Some studies showed that gifted children had lower anxiety scores than their non-gifted peers (15,16). For example, Guignard et al., (9) reported that gifted children display higher anxiety only when they did not have more perfectionism than their peers.
If you were a gifted child, chances are you've had some serious mental health struggles now that you're a gifted adult. Many of them may have stemmed from gift-specific traumas in your childhood, or even some that you're experiencing in your adult life.
Many gifted kids struggle with inattention and disorganization, in part because they're abstract thinkers and in part because they have many diverse interests competing for their attention. It's also very common for a child to be gifted and have ADHD, a state known as being “twice exceptional.”
Most gifted children enjoy learning new things. Not only do they enjoy intellectual activity but they also may display intellectual playfulness. They likely prefer books and magazines meant for older children and adopt a skeptical, critical and evaluative attitude.
Genetics do play a large part in being gifted, definitely. It has been thought that the brain of a gifted person can actually process information faster. However, one's surroundings are equally important. Nature and nurture are at work as some traits are genetic and others are learned.
Writing. By ages four to five, children will start writing letters. Children will learn to write the alphabet in preschool and kindergarten, but it may be beneficial to have your child practice writing his/her letters at home.
Typically kids develop the ability to independently write their name around age 5. Yes, some kids are doing it earlier, but there are developmental skills that need to be in place first.
Between 3 and 4 years of age, they'll also be more adept at counting small sets of objects — "two oranges, four straws" and so on. Most children aren't able to identify numerals or write them, though, until they're 4 or 5. Was this article helpful?