(Picture taken 2015 in front of Dr. Rita’s office)
There isn’t enough information when I research, gifted kids. We don’t know if testing really high equates to success in life. But I do know that my son and daughter are gifted in different ways. Here I will discuss what I learned about my gifted son Nico, who is academically smart.
Nico- At 4.5 years he really wanted to join the tutoring school with his older sister. We were a bit skeptical because he was barely finishing pre-school. I mean does he really need to learn ahead?? But the truth to this is that HE wanted to learn, not us pushing him. We were actually very reluctant in sending him to after school tutoring programs. His math, english and director sat me down and said, “Nico is gifted in his academic studies.” What does that even mean when he is only 5 years old. They recommended him to see a private psychiatrist and get him tested. 6 months later, we saw Dr. Rita in Santa Monica and we tested him. His scores came and lets jus say it is between exceptionally gifted and don’t give a shit area.
Anyways, IQ testing means nothing, but it helped us understand our gifted child. We now understand why he rather watch how to videos of science, hacks, highly knowledgeable about marine bio with a stupendous vocabulary. He is most excited when he is explaining mathematic concepts or sharing his ideas of life hacks.
Supplementing their advance learning abilities gives them excitement and opens up many doors for their fast developing brains. We do all have different type of brains and our learning capabilities are at a different level. Therefore for gifted children it is important that they are challenged and learning; otherwise they will stop learning at once and be bored. Possibly even cause trouble at school. I never thought of Nico to be gifted, I was mostly stressed out about his emotional needs which led to a lot of crying, which he still does very often. He would cry, no he would sob as if life is crumbling behind him for every littlest thing that can happen at home. He is always unhappy about everything and he was extremely difficult with daily life in general. Highly sensitive and a perfectionist that lead him to be critical of his own self, that I thought he may be depressed for the things he would say. “I deserve to die, I’m not worth living” were common phrases that I had to hear. For months, I thought of Nico and discussed with my family. Not that emotional children means gifted, but it is true that gifted children are emotional. It is apparent when your child at 7 years old is doing advanced 5th grade math and learning like it is multiplication drill. We are now educating him differently. Differently by making sure he is constantly engaged and learning but mostly focusing on his emotional social skills. The unspoken downside of kids on the gifted spectrum is their lack of emotional social skills. We all know this is major life skills and this is something we are currently focusing now.
“An exceedingly confident student would in theory make a terrible student. Why would he take school seriously when he feels that he can outwit his teachers?”
I’m so glad we were able to define our son quick because let me tell you he is the most misunderstood in his life. I can see this to be a problem at school, social gathering, etc. A great Huffington post to learn more “gifted.” Also, a relieved that I chose to homeschool him, because I’m not too sure if there is enough studies that going to school will teach good social skills. But I did see studies that being outside of school the gifted can reach their highest potential. I’m happy to be able to give Nico an individualized lessons, who thrives in learning about technology and science.
*Not all gifted child are the same and the above post is just my own experiences with my gifted son.
Books I’ve Read that help me understand gifted children with emotional needs.
