Is this a gifted trait?

[joannqn]

A thread on the general board got me thinking. With Christmas around the corning, everyone is sharing which Christmas gifts have been the biggest hits with their kids. Many popular items like dress up, Barbies, Legos, wooden blocks, and wooden train sets are showing up multiple times.

 

My kids' own everything listed above and more but they almost never touch them. My son would rather spend his time at the taekwondo school or studying maps/diagrams/lists in reference books. My daughter would rather spend the day writing long stories on the computer.

 

Is this weird that they rarely want to play with their toys? Telling them to go play in their room is almost a punishment on some days.

[Laura Corin]

I don't know. Calvin (my son who was actually IQ tested) played with Lego at age 8 and liked jigsaw puzzles at age 6. Now he plays chess with his brother sometimes. He spends most of his time reading though.

 

Laura

[Jenny in Florida]

My son has never been big on toys, either. He loves them in theory, but generally loses interest in them very quickly. His pattern is usually to play with a new thing intensely until he figures out everything it can (and cannot) do, and then to either ignore it or take it apart and use it in ways the manufacturer never intended.

 

He mostly has a much better time with "real" things he can put to use in creative ways. Give him a stack of cardboard, scissors, tape and glue, and he'll amuse himself for days.

 

With that said, Legos and K'nex have had lasting play value, although, again, he has a better time with the generic pieces than with the fancy, themed sets. (Of course, my brilliant, 40-something husband still loves Legos and K'nex, too.)

 

On the other hand, my daughter did love toys. In her case, though, her favorites were still sort of generic, flexible items, rather than anything themed. For example, she absolutely adored her dolls, but they were her friends, with distinct personalities with which she endowed them. They were not the "characters" marketed by the manufacturers. By the time she was 8-ish, she was using them like actors in a play. She did the same thing with her stuff animals and her dollhouse and its figures.

 

Actually, we used to joke that she endowed everything with a personality. For example, my mother-in-law had given her a set of plastic dishes and things. One day, I found her completely absorbed in playing with the spoons. The big ones were the parents, and the little ones were the children, and they were all having a very animated conversation.

 

Thinking back, though, I realize she had the exact same lack of interest in anything that was designed to be used only in certain ways. She was interested only in toys that allowed her to use her imagination to figure out what they did.

 

She also lost interest in toys earlier.

 

By the time she was 10, she had more or less quit playing with anything. She kept her dolls and stuffed animals in her room for sentimental reasons, but she was much more interested in reading and doing crafts then she was in toys.

 

My son is now 10, and he still loves to play, when he can find the right thing to play with . . . or figure out some way to make it the right thing.

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

I don't know if it is a gifted trait, but my dd has never really played with toys much. She uses her toys for imaginary scenarios but never plays with them the way they are intended.

[Mandamom]

suggest that it might just be a personality thing. My children are bright, accelerated in some classes, but not gifted and most of them don't really care to play with toys. My dd8 and dss13 would much rather play with people or toys (such as outside ones) that allows others to interact with them. My dd6 would much rather read book after book than play with toys. My ds2 loves his cars and toy tools and what not.

 

We just don't own a lot of toys because they don't really play with them. Ds2 owns the most, mostly cars and trucks.

[joannqn]

Ok, so I guess mine are just that way then.

[cawn009]

Well I don't know, but you can have an IQ test for the both of them jut to be sure.:)

[Storm Bay]

I'd go with personality, as just about everyone of my gifted relatives (there are a bunch in there) played a lot when young. I have one uncle who is pg who I'm not sure about, but I've never asked.

[Jenny in Florida]

My 10-year-old son continues to love to play, but there are very few toys that hold his interest. So many of the toys marketed now are carefully designed to do just one thing and leave no room for imaginative play. I think, for a bright kid, that just gets boring really, really quickly.

[Plaid Dad]

I don't know if it is a gifted trait, but my dd has never really played with toys much. She uses her toys for imaginary scenarios but never plays with them the way they are intended.

 

My dd is exactly the same way. The only thing she uses more or less as intended are building toys - Legos or her marble run - but even then she is likely to swipe pieces from those sets to use for some elaborate make-believe scene.

[BusyMum]

My seven year old loves his lego and constructs an amazing range of very complicated models with it. Last weeks effort was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang complete with red and yellow fold out wings.

 

One thing that has made a huge difference to his enjoyment of Lego is that my husband will sit for hours with him helping him construct and I think that has taught him many ways that he can use the blocks to achieve what he wants.

[KinderSafari]

That would be interesting to see a study about different types of play and traits.

 

I am a big analyzer. :)

[KinderSafari]

My kids all have different interests in toys.

 

My oldest never seems to play with them in the way they were intended - he is very creative.

 

My daughter has to play with them the "right" way - she is a rule follower.

 

My youngest 2 boys turn every toy into a car or destructive monster and destroy the toys (unintentionally) with their rough play.

[KinderSafari]

And I must say, I really don't mind them destroying the toys as they are the youngest of five, and the less toys there are in the world, sometimes I think that's better. :)

 

Although, they would be nice to pass on to someone else or send to some kids in Africa without toys.

 

Although if the toys can't withstand my kids rough play, I probably shouldn't ship them somewhere else.

[frogpond1]

because they had each other 4 of them less than two years apart to play with. Toys combined with very social kids made for a lot of imaginative play here. Only one of my 4 is more of a by herself girl, especially since she is now 6th grade and the only girl. For my last born, it wasn't the toys, it was the people interactions that they spawned. Alone he'd rarely just pick up a toy and play with it. He'd rather monkey with the coffee pot or microwave etc.

[Arch at Home]

My dc are accelerated. They love imaginative toys (Fisher Price Little People and Sweet Street still get much use at 5, 7, and 9), dress-up clothes, construction toys and craft supplies. Very often I will find them re-enacting a movie they saw or a book they read or combining imaginative and construction toys to expand their made-up story lines.

[SunshineMom]

Both my children play make believe games/scenerios, craft projects of beading necklaces/bracelets, loom weaving/begining sewing, playing piano, drawing/painting and writing, clay/dough crafts, made up dance routines, some legos/circuit building, unsupervised science experiements, puzzles, and various board games. Most of their "play things" are open ended activities for which they control.

[Guest sharon333]

I would give it some time and see.

[WTMindy]

A thread on the general board got me thinking. With Christmas around the corning, everyone is sharing which Christmas gifts have been the biggest hits with their kids. Many popular items like dress up, Barbies, Legos, wooden blocks, and wooden train sets are showing up multiple times.

 

My kids' own everything listed above and more but they almost never touch them. My son would rather spend his time at the taekwondo school or studying maps/diagrams/lists in reference books. My daughter would rather spend the day writing long stories on the computer.

 

Is this weird that they rarely want to play with their toys? Telling them to go play in their room is almost a punishment on some days.

 

My kids have never really played with toys much. The one exception is that they both like Playmobile sets. They enjoy playing with and collecting those. But other than that, I've never found any toys that get played with regularly. Books, however, are a different story!! :001_smile:

[Storm Bay]

I've never found any toys that get played with regularly. Books, however, are a different story!! :001_smile:

 

Do they play with books;)? Just asking, because not only do my dc read books, but they've used them to make roads & runways with, among other things. Plus, having fun with the way this reads (NOT critically as I write this way often, but having light fun with semantics is my kind of humour humour...)

[mommyof4DB]

Actually, we used to joke that she endowed everything with a personality. For example, my mother-in-law had given her a set of plastic dishes and things. One day, I found her completely absorbed in playing with the spoons. The big ones were the parents, and the little ones were the children, and they were all having a very animated conversation.

 

 

My second dd does this, and has for as long as I can remember! She didn't care for bread as a toddler (like 2), so I would just give her cheese and lunchmeat on a plate instead of a sandwich. The turkey would be a blanket, and she would break the cheese into little pieces. The bigger pieces were Mommy, Daddy and the big sister, the little piece was baby and "Mommy" put "baby" to bed, covered it with the "blanket" and sang to it! Lunch took an hour every day! :lol:

[Storm Bay]

On the other hand, my daughter did love toys.

..... (took out some great stuff)

Actually, we used to joke that she endowed everything with a personality. For example, my mother-in-law had given her a set of plastic dishes and things. One day, I found her completely absorbed in playing with the spoons. The big ones were the parents, and the little ones were the children, and they were all having a very animated conversation.

 

.

 

Oh, my gosh, this is what I did & my dc do. For me, forks were mothers, little forks & spoons were teenage and little girls. Knives were men. My dd's do this, but have it broken down differently. Plus fingers, pencils, pens, rocks--you name it, my dd's will make them people at times.