Do siblings all turn out "gifted"??

[Samiam]

So it it normal if one child is EXTREMELY intelligent, ie gifted, that the rest of the siblings would also be....like it is just expected they should be that smart?

 

I ask because of a family that I know. Yes, their first born is truly on genius level, has scored off the chart on any testing that was given, as far as IQ, etc...starting talking and reading at abnormally early age. Does schoolwork several grade levels ahead for his age (like four years ahead). I have no doubt this child is just a true "gifted" child, just one of those extremely smart people.

 

But then siblings came along, with a few years gap. They are still young, 4 and 3, I believe. But mother talks like they are gifted as well, like it is just expected that there will be no other outcome. They haven't been tested as of yet, that I know of, but FB comments indicate that testing will be scheduled as soon as they are able to. Yes, they do some thing sooner than the average child, ie she says they can both read (although personally I thought there was a bit too much "leading" the 3 year old to consder it reading, but hey, who am I!). But it's her constant comments, especially on FB, that just kind of get me bothered a bit.

 

For example, on a recent to trip to a planetarium, apparently they (the family) were talking about planets, etc etc, and when mom asked 3 year old what the planets were made of (and apparently fully expecting the correct answer), the child replied "plastic"....the mom posts that this is just hysterical BECAUSE (and here's the part that made me shake my head) said child just loves to give the wrong answers on purpose. Really!??!! It could just be that the 3 year old thought that was a logical answer? Sounds like a normal answer from any regular 3 year old...but for this child, apparently, she knew the correct answer but choose to give a wrong answer for fun.

 

It's constantly stuff like this for both the younger ones...stuff that just makes me thing that I feel a bit sorry for these younger children that they are expected to live up to such high standards as their older brother.

 

But I don't have experience with gifted children..so maybe this is the norm for families with gifted children????? Yes, I get that they all could possibly be very smart, after all, same genetic base, but would all be off-the-chart GIFTED??

 

I don't even know why I bother to think twice about it, other than she is constantly posting this stuff on FB puffing up her children.

[jujsky]

My brother is gifted, I am not. I think if one sibling is gifted then there is a greater chance of siblings being gifted as well, but I don't think it's always the case.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I don't know any answers. I can just give you the examples from what I know. Dh has a brother who is also extremely gifted- read an entire encyclopedia at age 7, had keys to the chem lab at school in 6th grade so he could go in whenever he wanted to do experiments, was accepted at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and MIT. Dh and his other biological sibs are very bright, but no where near as bright as their extremely gifted brother. She could just be projecting her desires onto her probably very intelligent, just not genius-level kids. That would get old, fast. Especially if I were one of the kids.

[Penelope]

Well, statistically, most siblings are within a few IQ points of each other. Sometimes the ones that don't "shine" are actually the ones that are more intelligent according to the IQ tests. Early speaking and reading don't necessarily indicate giftedness, either.

 

If one is gifted though, the others probably are to some degree. But some parents are a little bit focused on it, aren't they?

[Embassy]

From Hoagies Gifted page:

 

8. If one child in the family is highly gifted, is it possible that the other children are gifted also?

Yes. Recent research indicated that in many cases siblings are within ten IQ points of each other (Silverman, 1987, November). If one child is highly gifted, it is quite possible that the other children are gifted, too. In many circumstances, it is beneficial for families to have all of the children evaluated.

[regentrude]

Since there is likely a genetic component to a higher than average IQ, siblings of a gifted child often are gifted as well - but by no means always.

My kids are both gifted with similar IQ. DH and his brother are too.

[eclipse]

In my family, my brother and I tested very high on IQ tests. My sister did not, but she also has a learning disability that likely affected testing and inhibited her ability to succeed academically.

 

With my kids, my oldest is a lot like you describe the oldest in your friend's family. He has never been formally tested, but it's obvious to anyone who has ever spent a significant amount of time with him. My daughter, while never quite as advanced as ds, would probably score pretty high on an IQ test (potentially higher than ds, because she's much more compliant and eager to please - ds might decide he was done and start screwing around and throw the results). In any case, she's a much more quietly gifted child. Early self taught reader, great memory and critical thinking skills, creative, etc. I'm not sure about ds2, yet. He thinks differently than my other two, and has some communication delays, so it's hard to know.

 

In any case, as others have said, it does tend to run in families - but it's hardly a guarantee. Your friend could be projecting on to her younger children - or her kid could be a lot like my ds, who sometimes gets exasperated with people asking him what he perceives to be "stupid" questions (generally adults who are "quizzing" him) and decides to provide them with a "stupid" answer.

[EKS]

If one sibling is gifted and the other sibling is not, it's important to look for why. Frequently, the "non-gifted" one is actually gifted but has something blocking the giftedness, such as a learning disability.

 

When it became apparent that my younger son was highly gifted at age 2-3, I stepped up my efforts to figure out what was going on with my older one (who appeared to be somewhat delayed). Many years and much hard work later and it was confirmed that the older one is highly gifted as well.

 

I'm sure that it is not always the case that all siblings are gifted, but it is a red flag if one obviously is and one isn't.

[Corraleno]

My father and I are both in the "highly gifted" range; although he never went to college (due to having to support his own family as well as his mother and younger sister), he's the kind of guy who reads Chaucer for fun (in ME ) and can tell you pretty much anything you would ever want to know about American and European history. He also paints, writes short stories, and never goes anywhere without a book in his hand. OTOH, my mother and all three siblings were C students in HS with no desire to go to college, and they rarely read anything more challenging than People magazine. Although statistically, siblings tend to be within 10 IQ points of each other, I think that depends a lot on whether the parents are within 10 IQ points of each other, KWIM? In my parents' case there was probably about a 50 pt gap (and no, they're not still married :tongue_smilie:).

 

Jackie

[Supertechmom]

Well, statistically, most siblings are within a few IQ points of each other. Sometimes the ones that don't "shine" are actually the ones that are more intelligent according to the IQ tests. Early speaking and reading don't necessarily indicate giftedness, either.

 

If one is gifted though, the others probably are to some degree. But some parents are a little bit focused on it, aren't they?

 

 

We were told this and that the youngers were likely to be higher due to environment. BUT, the likely hood that it would be the same type of giftedness was very unlikely. They might be similar in abilities but a stand out area would probably be different. And we do have one that doesn't seem to be as gifted as the other and it's turned out he has a vision problem we're just now getting worked out.

[Nicole M]

Well, statistically, most siblings are within a few IQ points of each other. Sometimes the ones that don't "shine" are actually the ones that are more intelligent according to the IQ tests. Early speaking and reading don't necessarily indicate giftedness, either.

 

If one is gifted though, the others probably are to some degree. But some parents are a little bit focused on it, aren't they?

 

I have only known one truly gifted child in my life, though I know of others. I work at a university, and I think I've read that giftedness can cluster in certain communities. The gifted child I know is now grown, in his early 20s and sorta drifting since his dad died, and he seems just a regular-but-passionate and bright fellow. His sister, who was always overshadowed tremendously by her brother, is now in college and astonishing even her own family members with what she is accomplishing. It turns out that her areas of extraordinary talent have simply not come into the light.

 

So I think it's probable that siblings will also be quite bright. And yes, I agree that some parents are a bit too focused, but I imagine it would be an overwhelming position to be in. I'm quite happy with my bright boys, and am relieved not to have been blessed with a genius. (Wry, apologetic grin here.)

[MissKNG]

My dad is profoundly gifted, my mother is average, I am pretty average. I did inherit his beautiful eye color but not his brains.

[StephanieZ]

Obviously, there is a good deal of variation within sib groups.

 

That said, my experience is that sib groups do tend to have similar levels of IQ, which makes sense since they have similar genetic backgrounds and similar environmental conditions. . . So, both nature and nurture would tend towards similar outcomes. . .

 

My brother and I were both highly gifted. My 3 dc are all highly gifted. There are variations among the groups in areas of interest, strengths, challenges, but I think the IQs are likely to be within 10 points of each other in both groups.

 

If I were in your shoes, I'd assume my friend knew her kids quite well and was recognizing things in her youngers that were present in her olders.

 

If anything, I think it can be easy for parents to not realize a younger sib is gifted when an older one is highly gifted, just b/c not every signal is the same for the various kids and b/c raising a gifted child sort of makes it no-big-deal and expected that your kid is reading at 4 or having complex conversations as a toddler. . . So, your second kid seems "normal" compared to your older, but really, that "normal" is skewed upwards quite a bit.

 

My mom didn't think I was very smart b/c my brother was much more verbally precocious & hard to handle than I was. It wasn't until routine school testing put me off the charts and follow up IQ testing placed me 10 pts higher than my gifted brother that she realized that just b/c I was an easy-to-manage & quieter child than my challenging, very verbal brother, did not mean that I wasn't gifted. Appropriate academic placement then proved that I was able in all the same areas as my brother (and more so in some areas), but that my personality just made my differentness less in-your-face than my brother. (Oddly enough, as adults, my brother turned out to be much easier to get along with than I am and I can't shut up to save my life. . .)

[Dandelion]

Well, statistically, most siblings are within a few IQ points of each other. Sometimes the ones that don't "shine" are actually the ones that are more intelligent according to the IQ tests. Early speaking and reading don't necessarily indicate giftedness, either.

 

 

Interesting thread... I had read about the above statistic too.

 

My son is definitely gifted (per his pediatrician and everyone else who has ever met him - we haven't pursued testing). I generally avoid using the term "gifted" in reference to him because I do feel it's overused and everyone's definition is different. But at just 7 years old, he can carry on indepth (and 100% accurate!) conversations with people who have doctorates in chemistry and physics within their areas of specialty (he reads our old college textbooks for fun). He has come up with engineering designs for new military equipment that are quite good - my DH (who has his own goverment contracting company) took them on base and reviewed them with one of the guys at the Battle Lab and they said the designs are something they'd be interested in pursuing further. So even without testing it's safe to say that his IQ is quite high. My daughter seems pretty average as far as I can tell (but then again, she's only 2.5).

 

So...too soon to tell in our family whether this holds true or not (but I agree that some parents take their expectations of giftedness in their children too far).

[CAMom]

Haven't read the other responses yet but...

 

My firstborn is definitely "gifted." My second two are above average in most areas but in no way on the level of their older brother.:)

[Samiam]

Interesting responses! Thanks for the insight....so it looks like it could go either way, they are probably just really smart, or truly highly gifted.....guess I"ll find out soon enough by her FB posts:tongue_smilie:, lol!

 

But yes, the fact that mom is so highly focused on this, and rarely fails to mention it, is slightly, umm, "old".

[Ravin]

Not necessarily. I was fairly gifted, at least an accelerated learner (skipped a grade). My younger sisters (who are identical twins), were middling-average with some learning and (particularly in D's case) emotional problems that held them back. If I had to guess their IQ's, I'd say probably 115-120, above average but not within ten points of my own, which is around 140-145.

 

Of course, developmental quirks of them being identical twins probably have something to do with it. Certainly they have gifts I don't--R in particular has a good deal of talent for drawing, and I can only wish I inherited their fast metabolism!

 

My best friend growing up also has a brother with a much higher IQ than she does; but he's also severely bipolar and has other issues which make him not even remotely a productive adult; 150+ IQ notwithstanding, the man has never been able to hold a job, never got married or had kids, and never went to college. My friend, on the other hand, has 2 master's degrees. She's capable, above average intelligent, also artistic, but always had to work hard for the good grades that came easily to me, and didn't qualify for the "gifted" programs in school.

 

Research showing close association of IQ shows average differences. It doesn't mean there's not more likely to be outliers, and I'd expect the bigger the high-IQ outlier, the wider the gap likely to be between the gifted child and siblings, if for no other reason than that IQ shows only certain aspects of intelligence.

[Laura Corin]

Unless she has done further research, her original findings were based on the children who were brought to her clinic, not any other siblings who might not have been brought. Given the price of testing, children whom the parents did not recognise as potentially gifted may not have been seen by Silverman.

 

Laura

[....]

I'm going to say no.

 

Like I said in another thread, Kid Numero Uno is gifted, Kid #2 is more like a modern Dennis the Menace -however, I was told at a parent-teacher conference that he's a ringleader (that's good, right? leadership skills? :blush:). Kid #3 talks constantly and I get this nagging feeling that she's going to be an RN or doctor or something like that. Kid #4 has a really friendly personality and generally follows Kid #3 around the house.

 

Do I think they're all gifted? Heck, no. They're all really good-looking, though. :lol: And how many 2 yros can eat with chopsticks, come on!

 

I also think there is an environmental play in these things - been having that argument with my sister (who has psych degree) for years.

[Renee in NC]

I have 4 dc that have been tested and according to their official IQ results, there is a 50 point span.

[Dmmetler]

Aren't most US children screened for IQ at about 2nd/3rd grade, using something like the CoGAT or OLSAT? If so, wouldn't it be possible to look at that data and see where siblings fall?

 

I'm thinking of the ps GT programs when I was teaching, and it did seem like if the older sibling qualified, so did the younger ones unless there was a definite disability. Now, these weren't Highly/exceptionally/profoundly gifted kids, more like the "top 5% of the school population" type, in a school where the top 5% probably would have been in, maybe, the top 25% elsewhere, but there did seem to be a relationship there. And those kids did seem to have brighter parents than the pack, as well.

 

Conversely, there were families where every single child fell into that "slow learner" category, perhaps with one or two crossing the line into qualifying for a developmental disabilities label. And in talking to the parents, many of them had been in that same category in school as well.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

Kids can be vastly different from each other. However, mom's perception will likely be tainted by her experience with the first kid.

 

My son who, as a 4yo, was functioning like an 8 yo according to the tests he took, learned to read at 3 (started at two, his first words were 'on' and 'off' as seen on the calculator). I do not have his IQ level, because we refused to pay for the full report. But he's somewhere 'up there'.

 

Then came my daughter. I could not understand that, at 3yo, she couldn't understand letters! At 5yo, I was depressed because she couldn't add (DS was already doing double digits multiplications). I thought my daughter was dumb, because my references were skewed. Turns out she's artistically gifted. Not mathematically. She also has a gift for languages. Who gets perfect pronunciation in Mandarin in her first year, even though she's never been exposed to the language? ( Mandarin speakers are telling me that, not me).

 

So I would say that yes, giftedness would tend to run in the family, but does not always take the same form. And mom's expectations can also be completely skewed.

[....]

Kids can be vastly different from each other. However, mom's perception will likely be tainted by her experience with the first kid.

 

My son who, as a 4yo, was functioning like an 8 yo according to the tests he took, learned to read at 3 (started at two, his first words were 'on' and 'off' as seen on the calculator).

 

Then came my daughter. I could not understand that, at 3yo, she couldn't understand letters! At 5yo, I was depressed because she couldn't add (DS was already doing double digits multiplications). I thought my daughter was dumb, because my references were skewed. .

 

OK, I think maybe you are absolutely right. I was actually thinking this last week. I have a thread on the curriculum board where I'm worrying that my son's writing is horrible. My daughter and son are only 13 months apart, his writing should be at least "almost" where hers is - in the back of my mind. I think my references are also skewed.

 

I definitely need to keep watching grade level expectations to make sure that I'm requesting developmentally-appropriate tasks. The last thing I want to do is have the 2nd grader doing 4th grade tasks and then not doing well and feeling bad about himself. :thumbdown: Poor, Buddy. House full of women talking to him all day AND inappropriate language arts expectations. lol.

Edited August 22, 2010 by starrbuck12

[Renee in NC]

Aren't most US children screened for IQ at about 2nd/3rd grade, using something like the CoGAT or OLSAT? If so, wouldn't it be possible to look at that data and see where siblings fall?

 

I'm thinking of the ps GT programs when I was teaching, and it did seem like if the older sibling qualified, so did the younger ones unless there was a definite disability. Now, these weren't Highly/exceptionally/profoundly gifted kids, more like the "top 5% of the school population" type, in a school where the top 5% probably would have been in, maybe, the top 25% elsewhere, but there did seem to be a relationship there. And those kids did seem to have brighter parents than the pack, as well.

 

Conversely, there were families where every single child fell into that "slow learner" category, perhaps with one or two crossing the line into qualifying for a developmental disabilities label. And in talking to the parents, many of them had been in that same category in school as well.

 

I was GT, my brother was not.

 

I have 2 dc whose full scale IQ falls below 70.

 

I have cousins where the 2 oldest were brilliant (one had a PhD in Engineering at 23) and the next two were not - they were bright, but not brilliant like their sisters.

 

IQ/intelligence is a funny thing.

[stripe]

So it it normal if one child is EXTREMELY intelligent, ie gifted, that the rest of the siblings would also be....like it is just expected they should be that smart?

Expected by her, yes. I don't think it's the case that all children are the same, and I also know families with one child with physical or mental disabilities (for lack of a better word) that the rest don't have.

 

When I was a kid, my mom was friends with a lady with one "genius" kid and a younger kid who was seen as a disappointment. That younger kid now has a very interesting life, while the older went on to some "genius" life designing stuff for the government (yawn!) so I think it's worth noting that genius is not everything.

[talexand]

Statistally speaking, first born children, especially boys, are much more likely to have the classic signs of academic giftedness. I have noticed that most (but not all) people say their younger children are not as highly gifted as their first born. I see no genetic reason that this would be true so it must be environmental. So yes, I think it is completely reasonable for the mom find much different signs of the younger children's giftedness and I would think they are very likely have a similar IQ to their older sibling, especially if both parents have high IQs.

[saw]

My three bio children are gifted (tested). The joke is that #4, adopted at 2.5 years from Asia and now 4, is showing signs of giftedness as well. We certainly had not expected this, so now I'm going to claim that it's all due to my nurturing (kidding).

[Rhea]

Those of you who have had your kids tested, what tests and at what age? And, how do they test for giftedness, or IQ, (or is it considered one and the same?) in young children? I'm just curious about how it works, not in need of the information. :)

[Renee in NC]

Those of you who have had your kids tested, what tests and at what age? And, how do they test for giftedness, or IQ, (or is it considered one and the same?) in young children? I'm just curious about how it works, not in need of the information. :)

 

All 4 of mine were tested with the WISC-IV at various ages. One was 8, another 12, and the other two 9 and 7.