09/25/98

The Gifted Toddler

Q: Our daughter is only 20 months old but is far advanced mentally. She speaks as well as most four-year-olds and can describe her day or things around her, such as, "Rain, Mommy. Tiny water falls out of the sky." She knows the alphabet, can pick out letters on a page, counts to 16, knows the concepts of numbers to five and can choose the CD she wants for the computer to play her favorite games.

I'm afraid I may not be up to the task of keeping her stimulated as she grows older. Is there some plan for education of gifted toddlers who are beyond the Sesame Street set?

A: Raising a gifted child is a big responsibility but also great fun! Don't worry about not being up to the task. Even though your child catches on quickly to things, the wisdom you've gained from life experience will always be a significant resource to her.

A cautionary note about use of the word "gifted." For the purposes of schooling, a child is considered to be gifted if he or she measurably excels intellectually, musically, artistically or in other areas of development. The measurement process usually includes standardized assessments of intelligence and achievement, plus anecdotal reports and recommendations from teachers and others, which place the child in the 98th-99th percentile or higher in the areas of giftedness.

Gifted children acquire skills in the same sequence other children do; they just acquire them faster! Here are some of the approaches I took while raising a gifted child, approaches which generally apply to nurturing the intellectual, social and emotional development of any child:

• Read to your child every night. Also invent stories, making up characters and fanciful plots. Puppets enhance this activity. My daughter was reading independently by age three, so we read to each other every night after that, even after she started school.
• Encourage intellectual curiosity by eliciting and responding to questions. Listen carefully and wonder about things together. It isn't necessary to always find answers; learning and inquiry can remain open-ended.
• Concentrate on building social and emotional skills, too, such as sharing, empathy, turn-taking and tolerance. Your child may catch on to things more quickly intellectually than emotionally, and that can feel quite frustrating to him or her!
• Provide enrichment activities of all kinds, such as crafts, music, museums, theater and other creative outlets. The more your child learns about the unique talents of others, the better perspective she will develop about her gifts as well as her limitations. (You don't want her to get outrageously impressed with herself!)
• To my daughter, as she entered school, it became apparent that she did not want to be singled out or pulled out into special classes for the gifted. Fortunately, school administrators responded favorably. They identified a group of four gifted children in her age-group; put them together in one class; and provided the teacher with special training for making curriculum/enrichment adaptations. These four children became close friends and stayed together throughout elementary school. Establish close communication with teachers to be sure that your child is receiving appropriate educational challenges, rather than just coasting along or getting bored.
• Read about creative, gifted children and how to educate them. Your local library is an invaluable resource, as is the Internet!

Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.