home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: misc.kids
- Path: sparky!uunet!das.wang.com!wang!news
- From: AMY.UHRBACH@OFFICE.WANG.COM ("Amy Uhrbach")
- Subject: reading, giftedness, etc.
- Organization: Mail to News Gateway at Wang Labs
- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 18:19:08 GMT
- Message-ID: <199301261824.AA16933@tuna.wang.com>
- Sender: news@wang.com
- Lines: 34
-
- Regarding Kenneth Staffan's post on a linguistically advanced child and Grace
- Sylvan's response: I agree, you DO need to pay attention to this kind of
- observation about your child (although you may not like the word gifted).
- The good news is, by age 2+ there is a clear correlation between advanced
- facility with language and high intelligence (but NO correlation between
- average and slower language learners either way). The not-so-good news is you
- have to watch out for your child's responses to kids who aren't as verbal. I
- and now my son have the same issue. I was very verbal, and had a hard time
- with peers who couldn't follow my reasoning or vocabulary. My friends were
- always older, which wasn't so great in grade school (but now is fine - my
- husband is older, too :-)). Alex tends to get very frustrated when kids are
- less verbal, or ignores them when they don't understand him. A developmental
- evaluation (for other reasons) pinpointed another issue - he understands
- concepts and especially rules precociously, and gets very upset when other
- kids don't play by them! He IS different in these ways, and ignoring that is
- not going to help him deal with himself and others. Gee, I hope he does
- better at that than I did! :-)
-
- Also be aware that a very verbal kid is expected to be bright (by teachers,
- etc.). This could affect the self-esteem of kids who aren't as quick in other
- subjects as their verbal skills leads the teacher to think they should be.
-
- It all depends on the kid's personality too. The more easy-going, the better
- a child may cope with this, I think (neither I nor my son is exactly
- easy-going). The degree of precosiousness also matters. We had to switch
- nurseries for Alex last July because he had no one to talk to except adults,
- and it drove him to stop interacting with other kids. At age 2 1/2 then, his
- language skills (except pronunciation, which was a year advanced) were tested
- at the 5+ level. He still won't play with kids who can't converse, but at
- least with some real peers now, his social skills with kids have developed.
- BTW, he IS with kids his own age, which I feel is very important.
-
- So revel in whatever your child's talents are, and help them keep gifts
- positive.
-