Is my baby

Is my baby/toddler gifted?

At the age of your daughter there really are no accurate ways to assess giftedness. Since children learn at different rates what could definitely indicate a high IQ could just be a rapid rate of development in your child. Your daughter certainly sounds like she shows the signs of giftedness and you can encourage her education along the way. Usually testing is not done until at least 4 years of age, but most are done in elementary and are performed by the school. I am relatively new to this board, but there are many here who have some great links and information. I have 3 daughters, my oldest is 11 and is gifted and I highly suspect the baby (2yrs 4months) is as well. Good luck to you with your daughter and welcome!!
Posted by Beccam, 3-13-2001
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I believe giftedness in preschoolers is often defined in terms of pathology. When we discuss giftedness in our preschoolers, we're usually discussing the problems that arise when a preschooler has, for example, asynchronous development (rapid development of one skill while another lags) or other issues that go along with giftedness (sensory integration problems on the severe end, perfectionism on the other end). Most of us here with preschoolers are here because our preschoolers have similar traits that we feel can best be discussed with other parents of kids who think differently. Additionally, those of us who assume our children will be gifted at school age (because we were gifted ourselves, perhaps) come to learn from the parents of school-age gifted children who are dealing with the system.

In my humble opinion, giftedness as a diagnosis usually isn't important until the school years unless the problem gets severe. You'll find that most of us who are parents of preschoolers here have not had any testing done, but come here to talk to other parents who want to provide a rich and diverse education to our children.
Posted by Ambrey, 12-30-2000
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Your daughter does sound bright! Many things I've read about gifted babies indicate that parents' intuition is usually correct. Contrary to popular belief, not every parent thinks their child is "gifted"; usually when they do think that, they are right. You might try reading http://www.hoagiesgifted.com. I found lots of interesting info there.

I felt it was important to know exactly how different my children were, even early on, because I have experienced some unusual situations, dilemmas, problems, etc. with my very intense, high maintenance daughter, and to some degree, with my supersensitive son as well. I felt that these problems were somewhat unique to parenting the gifted baby/toddler. So I was very happy to find more information, find friends, and seek advice. "The Gifted Child" bulletin board, http://boards.parentsplace.com/cgi-bin/boards/gifted, has been a very helpful place for me!
Posted by Melody_mom, 11-22-2000