I think a lot of people have this misconception that if you have a gifted child, a smart child, or a high-achiever child then you've got it easy. It's the total opposite. Giftedness is considered a special need. Gifted children have excitabilities and quirks that neurotypical kids don't have. They also have sensitivities. Parents of gifted children need to work harder in order to support the development of their child or children.
Two questions I get asked the most when people learn of my son's giftedness are what I did when he was a baby that made him so intelligent and what do I do now to support his giftedness.
If you have a neurotypical child but would like to enhance their talents and abilities more, read on! Anyone can use the tips that I wrote here.
First, I believe that giftedness is a gift from God. It also has to do with genetics. I believe that it's both nature and nurture.
When my son was a baby, we noticed a lot of advanced traits during his first few months. After a week being born, he was already sleeping on his side. He would roll on his side on his own. He was walking at 7 months old. He was solving puzzles for preschoolers when he was 11 months old. He was able to master those Melissa and Doug wooden puzzles at around 8 months old. He was reading sight words at 1 year old, sentences at 2, and chapter books at 3.
What I did in his early years
I started homeschooling him when he was 5 months old. My mom and I were his teachers. I put different posters on the walls and my mom would point to them and tell him, "This is a square. This is the number 8. This is the letter B." When he learned how to stand on his own, my mom would ask him, "Where is the color yellow? Where is the letter Z? Where is number 9?" He would point to the pictures on the wall as he couldn't talk yet. He babbled a lot and back then, I couldn't understand what he was saying but when he got older and I watched some of his old videos, I could clearly understand what he was talking about. It was "baby talk" but I was able to understand them. For example, for the word crayon, he said "cweyons". For squid, he said "pid". He was clearly communicating with us verbally at a young age. By the way, we never used baby talk on him. We spoke to him in clear, correct words and sentences. I guess that's one of the reasons why he was able to develop language and comprehension rapidly. I let him talk his way but always asked him, "You know that it's pronounced world, right and not word?" He would say yes and then say that he's just having a hard time pronouncing the 'l'.
I exposed him to music even when he was still in my womb. I love to listen to music so I guess this was something natural to me. When he was born, I would play different kinds of music whether he was asleep or awake. His favorite was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. I even put a foot piano in his crib. He was a kicker even in my tummy and so when he was born, his legs were overactive! He would keep kicking for a long time and so I tied a baby piano on his crib and he would have more fun because now, he could hear different notes depending on where he kicked.
No gadget or limited gadget time
Our pediatrician warned us early on not to give any screentime so that's what we did. We would only play them for background sound or music. My husband was the one who started giving him screentime so that he could go and do his own thing. When I was the one in charge of him, I make sure to give him challenging and stimulating screen-free activities.
Food and Nutrition
He was breastfed until he decided to wean himself. Yes, he did. One day he just stopped breastfeeding and preferred the bottle. Then he stopped drinking formula altogether. When he was older, I asked him why he stopped early and he said that he was shy to breastfeed. He was around 1.5 years old when he stopped breastfeeding. (The same thing happened with his potty training. He told me, "Mom, I will start using the potty when I turn 2 so please just let me wear nappies." We checked in at a hotel for his 2nd birthday and he told us to bring his potty. Sure enough, when we got settled there, he removed his diaper and used the potty. And that was that.)
I didn't give him candy, regular juice packs, soda, and junk food during his first 6 years of life. I made "candy" using natural ingredients. I gave him freshly-squeezed juice. I baked goodies for him that are made of 100% organic and natural ingredients. A lot of people say that he was deprived, but I tell them no. If I give him junk, I'm ruining his health. Sure, he's deprived. I am depriving him of having an unhealthy diet and lifestyle.
Montessori
When he turned 1, we started doing Montessori work. I would give him activity trays every day. (You can find some of them here in my blog). He would do some trays for long periods over and over again. He wasn't happy with just one activity. I had to make a box of activities for him for the whole week.
Reading
I read to him a lot when he was in my tummy and when he was born. I bought a ton of picture books, board books, etc. I would read to him whenever my time would allow it (I was a work-from-home mom then).
2 Years Old - homeschooling proper
When he was 2, he was given a standardized test and the results were suspected gifted. At this age, everything is "suspected". The Lord put it in my heart to homeschool him early on. I was still pregnant with him when I decided that he was to be homeschooled.
After learning the results of the test, I inquired around the neighborhood and eventually the city, for a play school. They took one look at my son and said that they cannot accommodate him. I remember when we went to a Gymboree and while I was talking to the person in charge, he heard my son singing to the nursery rhyme that was being played on the speaker. He said, "Oh, he knows this song already!" I told him that it was his first time to hear it. He looked at me like I was from outer space. I was interested in their geography program where the kids get to learn something from a specific country. Then my son started blabbering about his knowledge of different countries and their culture. At this point, the guy told me, I'm sorry but we can't do anything for your son. I've experienced this countless times in different schools.
One day, I inquired from a school for gifted here in Metro Manila. I was inquiring about their homeschooling program when the directress told me to bring my son so they could test him. They tested him for 10 minutes and then told me to enroll him as it would be a shame not to start his studies now. Long story short, he started nursery at 2 years old, finished it within 6 months, finished K1 and K2 in about 10 months, and was in first grade by age 4.
Preschool age
During this time, I still provided him with a lot of books, a lot of toys, and a lot of manipulatives. My son is a visual-kinesthetic learner. Now I know that some people argue that the types of learning theory is false but I stick to my own beliefs. Based on my experience, my son responds better if I make his lessons visually appealing and his activities involve a lot of manipulatives.
Today
He is 9 years old as of this writing and in 6th grade. We took our time in some of the other grades as I felt he was going too fast plus the provider in the US where he was enrolled before asked us to repeat 3rd grade as he was still too young for their 3rd grade.
We are independently homeschooling now. That means that I'm in charge of his curriculum, assessments, lessons, activities, etc. This style is very effective for him.
For nutrition, I still make everything from scratch if I have the time. We do eat fast food, chips, some candy, and sweets from time to time but never overboard. It would take about a month before we could finish a bar of dark chocolate. And we even share it! We still prefer home-cooked meals. I allow this so that our bodies can get used to different foods to alleviate our allergies.
We still have a ton of books in our library. Just last month, I purged about a hundred books from our library but we still ended up with a lot. We also have digital books.
He still has a lot of manipulatives and enjoys playing strategy games like chess.
Gadget time is still limited and he needs to earn them by finishing his homeschool work.
This is a tricky age that he is in and I'm still learning. I research regularly what other parents are doing. I read books about twice exceptionality. I'm writing this post so that new parents of gifted kids can have some guidance. This post is also for those parents who want to have their children get a headstart in life.
If you're a parent of a twice-exceptional child and you've read some books, please share those books with me by leaving a comment below. I would also love to hear some tips on how you support your 2e child.
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