HSHS Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 OK, I saw this mentioned in another thread and just thought I'd mention it. Me and DD went through the 'levels of giftedness' on another site and figured... she's a lot more gifted than either of us ever knew. It explains her frustration in school though. All through primary school (4-11 y/o) she didn't learn anything, because she already knew everything they were being taught. Because of that though, she's never been challenged. So when I give her something that's a bit complicated (she's not really a 'science person' for example) she gives up immediately because she's never had to work at anything and doesn't know how to. Is there anything I can do to encourage her? Anyone been in a similar situation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 My ds never felt challenged by anything until he started studying Japanese. He had found Spanish and French too easy so he tried Japanese which interested him because of his interest in Manga. He loved it from the first day. After two years of Japanese at the local CC, he decided that he wanted to go to a university in Japan. He even started taking other foreign languages again. I started to question what planet he was from when he started taking his notes for Italian class in Japanese. He has told me that he always knew he was gifted but that was meaningless to him. What he really wanted was something that challenged him. After he is fully fluent in Japanese, he wants to learn Russian, then maybe something obscure. He is also thinking of getting a Ph.D in linguistics. He is still following the new excitement of being challenged, and hasn't yet figured out what he is going to do with it, but he wants to travel with world and find a way to help people in the process. It took him until he was 16 to find that thing that excited and challenged him. I'm glad that he did. I hope your dd can find her challenge somewhere. Neither my ds nor I would have ever guessed where his had been, but we never stopped seeking it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starwarsmomma Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 wow-- what a great experience! I have a gifted son, who also gives up easily when things do get challenging. We're working on learning to stick with things (he's 7), find the fun in every challenge. He just discovered sign language-- interesting both found a challenge in language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babysparkler Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 wow-- what a great experience! I have a gifted son, who also gives up easily when things do get challenging. We're working on learning to stick with things (he's 7), find the fun in every challenge. He just discovered sign language-- interesting both found a challenge in language. My gifted ds is just like this... he has never been challenged by anything in his life, and when he started Algebra a few weeks ago he finally found his challenge :) At first he wanted to give up and didn't "like" it, but after a few weeks now he wants to spend all of his time doing it and is loving it completely! Once he got over the fact that it was something unknown, he found how exciting it is to tackle the challenge. He is doing great with it and I am so glad I didn't throw in the towel that first week that went so badly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 (edited) So when I give her something that's a bit complicated (she's not really a 'science person' for example) she gives up immediately because she's never had to work at anything and doesn't know how to. Is there anything I can do to encourage her? Anyone been in a similar situation? Calvin is like this, even though he barely went to school. What I try to do is have areas of challenge and other areas that are easier. That way he knows that there will be parts of his life where he will have to struggle to achieve, mixed up with many easier bits. This seems to be a fair analogue for life as a gifted person. It also reduces his frustration (and mine!) by not making everything a hard grind. We have found Latin to be good for him, in this regard. He found it easy at the beginning, went through a really tough stage during Latin Prep 2, then worked through to feeling more at ease in LP 3. It's been very good for him. He also worked hard on doing an IGCSE early (Biology). Again, it pushed him as he had never been pushed before, but the certificate at the end proved to him that it was worthwhile. Lots of hugs and kisses help too. Laura Edited September 22, 2009 by Laura Corin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momofjae Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 Me and DD went through the 'levels of giftedness' on another site and figured Could you tell me where you found the giftedness info? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSHS Posted November 12, 2009 Author Share Posted November 12, 2009 Sorry I didn't reply for a while. Momofjae - it's on the NAGC site in the parents section under 'levels of giftedness'. (: After languages were mentioned I talked with DD about languages and such and she's now got the russian alphabet written on her bedroom wall and has a vocab book on the way. We met someone who spoke french a couple of days ago and they spoke english too and DD found she'd learnt more than she thought in school and was able to pick out main words even when she didn't understand the whole sentence. The woman wasn't natively french though so DD's worried about 'accent problems' but she was encouraged by that and is working on french vocab too. Thank you so much for your help! It seems DD's found her challenge in languages too. :001_smile: She's had a couple of days in tears over biology (not a 'science person' as I mentioned) but finally got herself past the first page of biology yesterday (yes, it's been that much of a problem xD). So another huge thank you to you all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 My son isn't very interested in academics, so challenging him academically hasn't always been the right approach. I've had better luck broadening than deepening, if you know what I mean. I added foreign languages, art, and music rather than going farther, faster, and deeper into regular subjects. He learned to work through a challenge in gymnastics, I think. Just in case this helps... Nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 The Sponge gets overwhelmed easily. If there are too many words on a page (that she can read EASILY, like the little kid readers), she will shut down and not want to try ("I can't; I'm too little"). But reading big words by themselves or reading words herself from what I am reading, words that are much harder but come with less pressure on her, those she reads easily and happily. She doesn't like feeling pressure, or feeling overwhelmed by things. I'm learning how to work around it (like pick out one word from the reader page and isolate it, and once she reads one word and it isn't scary, she will just blow through the rest). She loves learning, remembers almost everything, etc, but she doesn't like it when the pressure is on her to perform. She shuts down. I try not to push it, generally, as she's so little. We'll keep working on little challenges like turning a big list into just words for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmichigan Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Would this be Ruf's 5 level's of giftedness? My DD is much higher than we thought too. We finally moved to some challenging math and are currently working through her daily closing of the computer and stomping to her room while muttering under her breath about how she can't and won't do it before slamming her door. :D Ah, to actually be challenged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissKNG Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 (edited) I found that my dd is more apt to take on challenging stuff at night - I think it's a combination of getting to stay up later and the night time burst of energy she seems to have. We started night time school on Monday and she whizzed through a whole week's worth of math lessons (we are on a 3 day a week schedule right now). So last night, we worked math out of her CTC math book instead of EB B (since we were ahead of schedule!) and she did a bunch of pages...correctly and asked for more! So now, I'm doing the more project stuff during the am and the more "thinking" stuff at night. Ruf's levels of giftedness can be found here: http://educationaloptions.com/resources/resources_levels_giftedness.php Though the article is nice, the book gives examples and more detail. One note on the Ruf IQ graph, her IQ scores are lower than the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler IQ scales. Actually it looks like she lowered "bottom" Level 1 IQ from 120 to 117. Here's a nice comparison: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm Edited November 12, 2009 by MissKNG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 One note on the Ruf IQ graph, her IQ scores are lower than the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler IQ scales. Actually it looks like she lowered "bottom" Level 1 IQ from 120 to 117.[/url] I've heard the reason for this is because on the newer versions of the IQ tests there's been a compression of the range. So if I were to have tested at say 150 when I was a kid back in the early '80's, I might only test at 140 today. A longer explanation from Dr. Linda Silverman of the Gifted Development Ctr can be found here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSHS Posted November 13, 2009 Author Share Posted November 13, 2009 Miss KNG - I couldn't agree more! My DD doesn't have a 'bedtime' though but she has to go to her room when we go to ours. She's free to stay up longer as long as she doesn't wake anyone else in the house up but she normally does her math any time after we've gone to bed - I'm a morning person so I'll never understand that. :D She does work better at night, definately but she managed to get through biology at 5.30 in the morning a couple of days ago but she was tired for the rest of the day after being up so early, even though she was asleep early too so night time is her 'energy time' too. Nan in Mass - Thank you for that. :) DD isn't really very interested in music/art but as I said, we've picked up the foreign languages and as you mentioned gymnastics we're considering some sort of activity whether it's in the house or out of. If only they'd let kids into the swimming baths when everyone else is in school in our area... melmichigan - how old is your DD? She sounds so like mine :lol: 'Cept it was throwing a textbook at the wall last time. Oh the joys of that biology textbook... LittleIzumi; yeah, although your DD is only little I can see patterns with what my DD is like. Feeling overwhelmed is probably a big part of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexfam Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 This was one of many reason why we pulled ds out of PS. He has been out for 2 years now and he still has the "I can't do it" attitude. He (7 yrs old) crys every time that something is challenging for him and wants to stop doing it. We are slowly working on this issue and hopfully he will see the fun in a challenging situation and not just give up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmichigan Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 melmichigan - how old is your DD? She sounds so like mine :lol: 'Cept it was throwing a textbook at the wall last time. Oh the joys of that biology textbook.... She just turned 10. I'm not sure if I will survive the teen years... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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