There is nothing as scary as being handed a newborn and being told: “you are free to go home now”. Your first instinct is “Yay”, because hospitals are not the best places to spend time, but that quickly turns to “Uhmm you forgot to give me the manual”. Watching your little human grow is the best and scariest feeling. Parents are meant to be the teachers, but I genuinely think we learn more than we teach. I think the question I’ve asked most (to google, friends, hubby, etc) is, is this normal?

It was also the question I was asked most about my daughters’ ability to do various things. I had no idea if it was normal or not. Is a 3 yr old doing hundred piece jigsaw puzzles while watching tv normal? Is this level of sensitivity and anxiety normal? Is teaching yourself to read at 3 normal? I didn’t know but it turns out it isn’t.

The question is asked a lot, what are the signs of a gifted/high potential child? These were the signs for us: (this is not an exhaustive list)

– Picked up on adult cues very early
– Self-taught most things, numbers, reading, puzzles, etc
– Really good at puzzles (does Sudoku at 5)
– Very good attention span
– Advanced vocabulary
– Prefers adults and can struggle with the peer group at times
– Excellent memory
– Highly sensitive/emotional

So, @growinguptalented wasn’t normal, but what is normal when it comes to children anyway? The point of identifying if your child is gifted or not is to better understand how to help them. Once we realised, we were able to choose the right school and activities to suit her and better deal with the downsides of giftedness.

Coming soon: The price of being gifted

#giftedandtalented #highpotential #giftedchildren