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Jetting ahead and then backing up?


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Is it normal for gifted children to accelerate rapidly and then back up? I have recently noticed this in both math and reading for my son. He zoomed ahead in both but seems to have retreated to a more comfortable place. For example, he learned multiplication into the hundreds and long (written with short notation) division but then doesn't want to do them and wants to return to adding and subtracting- to the point where my usual shortcut taking son will add the same number 4+ times rather than multiply it. He does know how and is competent in it. He doesn't have the speed in his multiplication facts and division facts that he has in the addition and subtraction facts so I think that plays a little into it. Same with reading- he was reading for hours every day and lately only wants to play with Legos and barely reads except for snippets here and there. He was burning through 3-4 books in 3 days for a while.

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I don't know if it is normal, but my dd does it.

 

She has the ability to do far more in math, but we're parking for a while at one level, because she doesn't like it that much and she really needs to have her multiplication facts down cold. We're close. She, too, will choose to add four number together rather than multiply. It isn't happening as much any more. I don't know if we will get any more surges in math, she just doesn't like it enough. I'm hoping when we get to algebra things will change.

 

DD reads all the time, but she goes through phases of only wanting to read easy books. I've let her do that, but, for the first time, I now have required reading and literature analysis. I don't want her to get used to just reading easy books.

 

I don't know that this helps, but you are not alone.

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Thank you for your response. After I posted and was pondering, I began to think back to my son's other developmental milestones- when he learned to stand, he would stand as long as no one was looking and if he caught you he would slowly sit down as if to prove that he was not standing. He has a history of testing the water and then backing out and then jumping in full force without seeming to practice. I suppose that addition and subtraction were so slow coming upon him, that he didn't even notice, but with multiplication and division, they came a bit faster. He LOVES math and will spend hours doing it- but doesn't want to do the thousands in division or multiplication. I am ok with that- after all, he is only 6.5!

Thanks for the company though.

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