2 year old gifted or very bright?
Hi everyone,
The director of the day care where my son goes twice a week believes that he may be gifted. She wants to have him assessed. I have done a lot of reading up on this subject, and have looked at the characteristics of gifted children... but I am still not sure if he is just very intelligent or is actually "gifted". Not even fully sure if there is much of a difference! There are some things that he is capable of doing that shock other parents and the day care director says is not "normal" for a 24 month old to be doing (turned 2 on 19 December). This consists primarily of :
Knows full alphabet and recognizes the letters individually (since 20 months old)
Counts to 10 and recognizes the numbers individually (since 20 months old)
Counts items accurately up to 3 and tries to count items higher but not as accurately
Has just started reading (16 words that I know of so far) words like fun, cow, goat, pig, cup, bellybutton, rhinocerus, hair, and stand up (he has been watching the "Your Baby Can Read" series for 2 months).
Has a very long attention span for instructional/educational videos, but not for regular TV or entertainment-based videos
Knows shapes such as circle, oval, rectangle, square, star, heart, triangle (since 19 months old)
Knows colors such as red, black, white, yellow, orange, purple, blue, green (since 20 months)
Knows at least 150 words
Plays on his own for 1.5 hours in his room
Fascinated with letters and numbers, and names them while out and about
Loves books and being read to, started turning pages when he was about 14 months old
Quite good at puzzles, does them quickly
Says things like "a clock - a circle"
Is starting to understand humor
I am just looking for some guidance on this subject, and I just want to make sure that he is provided with the environment he needs. He gets lots of play time with other children as well as on his own and with us. But he is very interested in learning and seems to prefer books etc. sometimes to other "normal" 24 month old activities. Will he be OK with going to a normal school or should we start thinking about a different type of school when the time comes? I was above average in reading, and my husband has an IQ of 146 and is fantastic with mathematics and engineering.
My son James does seem to be far more interested in letters and numbers than the other two year olds, but I don't want to miss the fact that he is a young child as well as an eager learner. Also don't want him to be labeled as "gifted" if he is just very intelligent as some sort of line seems to be crossed when that happens (how people treat the child, school issues etc.. ). I just need some guidance.
Thanks for your help!
Cheers,
Lorraine