I have not been able to express how I have been feeling for a long while about Kioni's possible giftedness. It stressed me out when I talk about it, because I have seen how others look at us, "Alright, she knows how to read, that's good", "You are making a mistake by pushing so hard, she is only 3, for crying out loud!"
"Add the label 'gifted' to a child and a whole range of preconceptions kick in to judge what that child is like. Some will see him or her as a 'little Einstein' and others as the product of pushy parents." National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC)
Sometimes people plain don't believe us. I deleted a whole section in our recent newsletter where Dan listed all the 2nd grade home-school subjects that Kioni is taking for this particular reason. How do we tell people we are not pushing her?
Kioni writing a "book" complete with illustrations
It is almost painful not be able to talk to other people about her daily activities, because I cannot explain why she LOVES to do Kumon pages and other school work, how easy it is for Kioni to learn German, how easy it is for her to spell "concentration", "veterinarian" and "rehearsal", how much she loves to read the "Woodland Mysteries" stories (a series of books in 10 chapters or so with only black and white drawings), and handbook for dinosaurs and field guide for mushrooms, how she can identify the "ring-tailed lemur" immediately when she saw one on TV, how much she loves to sit down and write a "book" for hours, complete with illustrations.
A ring-tailed lemur
But I have decided that I need to acknowledge the fact that she is gifted in words and languages, and work on guiding Kioni to the best of my ability, instead of worrying about how people look at us. We need to know how to parent her, because she has unusual needs that comes with the giftedness:
"Advanced cognition often makes gifted children aware of information that they are not yet emotionally ready to handle, particularly over moral and ethical issues. They tend to experience all of life with greater intensity, rendering them emotionally complex and very vulnerable to dilemmas as they grow in awareness. There are no 'developmental norms' for gifted children and comparisons with children of the same age become meaningless; they have more advanced play interests and often are academically far ahead of their age peers." NAGC
How it all began
Dan and I are not "kids" people, we didn't really pay much attention to kids, and if you asked how old a kid is, we probably would get it wrong. That changed when we have Kioni, not much though, except now we know probably how old a kid is. But when it comes to learning abilities, we still had no clue what a 6 months old could do. We of course looked up the internet for milestones kind of stuff, but I often thought they were not accurate because it seems like Kioni has exceeded many of the milestones. So after a while, I didn't pay attention to those anymore, naming them going to easy on what kids can do.
It was not until we started hearing our friends, particularly those who have several kids, telling us Kioni possesses some special abilities, then we started to think maybe she is a bit different. But still, "gifted" is a word that never entered our mind. Afterall, Dan and I are both "average" people, two average people, logically, should not have produced a "gifted" person, plus it sounded a bit scary to have a "gifted" kid.
When Kioni uttered her first word "lamp" at 5 months, and searched the floor for our dog when we said the dog's name (MeMe), we were amazed, but didn't think too much about it, thinking that's quite normal. She also loved to sit still at my lap and listened to me read to her, and flipped the pages when the page was done.
Coming into realization
Then at 10 months of age, she started learning the alphabets, both upper case and lower case through a great website, then we thought, great! We knew by then she loves to read.
At 18 months, Dan had to find something for the two of them to do while I was at work, so we contacted a Kumon center, the evaluation on that day confirmed our belief that she is good at reading. Six months later, she was enrolled, she was two years and three months old. By the time she is in the program for 2 years at the age of 4 years and 3 months, she will complete over half of the Kumon Reading program.
While researching how to help Kioni live and learn during our future years in Aberdeen, Scotland, I came across the above mentioned website NAGC. The following Level 4 descriptions in many ways describes Kioni on the spot, I highlighted those points. (The UK identifies students in 5 levels of giftedness, with level 5 being the highest.) Kioni is clearly gifted in Language and Words, (her vocabulary level is at U.S. 6th grade level), probably in some other areas that we still have to put a name to it.
Only doing what Tiger Woods' parents did
We know for sure she is not "Little Einstein", she is gifted only in certain areas, but it is enough for us to pause and ponder how to best raise her to be someone who will be used by God in a powerful and wonderful way. I believe God gives her a good brain for a reason.
Afterall, we are just doing what Tiger Woods' parents did -- "His parents identified their son's talent at an unusually early age. (His father) devoted his energies to developing his son's talent and to furthering the boy's career as a golfer. All the while, Tiger's mother made sure that her son's rare talent and his budding golf career would not interfere with his childhood or his future happiness." (from Answers.com)
Level Four Gifted
How many Level Four children are there in our schools? Many parents of many Level Four children turn to home education to solve some of the school behaviour issues, schools where most of the parents are highly educated professionals, can expect that about 2% of their students may be at Level Four or higher. A middle class population primary school with 100 children per year group will have one or two of these children for every two year groups, which means the school will probably not have a pupil this intelligent every year. By the time the pupils are all drawn together for secondary school, there may be 1 to 3 students in each year group.
- Almost all paid attention within months of birth while someone to read to them (Kioni - 4 months)
- Books were a favourite interest before three or four months (True for Kioni)
- Almost all understood parental directives by 6 months (True for Kioni)
- Most knew and said some words by 5 to 9 months (She utter her first word - lamp when she was 5 months old)
- Many had large vocabularies, receptive and expressive, by 14 months (Friends who baby-sat her would often made that comment to us, at the time, we didn't know better.)
- Many recognized and picked out specific numbers and letters by 12-15 months (True for Kioni)
- Most knew many colors by 15-18 months (She knew hers before 12 months)
- Many liked puzzles by 15 to 36 months (35+ piece puzzles) (Puzzles are one of her favourite toys)
- Many read numerous sight words between 15 and 20 months (True for Kioni)
- Almost all knew the entire alphabet by 15-22 months (Kioni knew the alphabet by 12 months)
- Most read names on signs and stores from between 20 months and 3 years (True for Kioni)
- Many memorized the books that were read to them before they were 2 years old (True for Kioni)
- Many showed interest in letter sounds and sounding out short words by age 2 (True for Kioni at 18 months)
- Most were speaking in complex sentences, more than four words, by 15 to 24 months (True for Kioni)
- Many could rote count to 10, many higher, by 13 to 20 months (True for Kioni)
- Most printed letters, numbers, words, and their names between 2 and 3 years (True for Kioni)
- Many had high interest in factual information, how things work, science, by 3 to 4 (True for Kioni, she has a lot of books on animal facts, science, space and such.)
- Most knew many sight words by age 3-4 (True for Kioni)
- Most grasp skip counting, backwards, addition, subtraction, more and less, by 3 to 4 years (Kioni has been doing all of the above since age 3 with Kumon, and continuing with homeschooling in Singapore Math, she is grasping the concept of fraction also recently - November, 2008.)
- Most were independent on computer by age 3 to 4 years, most keyboarding by 5 (Kioni started to use the computer (mouse) at 2 and a half. She is typing, properly with all fingers, by 5.)
- Most read easy readers by age 3 to 4 years (True for Kioni)
- Many question the reality of Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy by 3 to 4 years (She never believes they were real)
- Many understand some multiplication, division and some fractions by 5 (She is doing exactly those in Singapore Math in 2008-2009, somewhere from age 4-5.)
- Most read for pleasure and information by 5 (Kioni started doing that by 3, she would read shampoo bottles, cereal boxes, instruction manuals, anything that would rive her information on a certain product.)
- All read two to five years beyond grade level by age 6 (Kioni is about 5 years beyond her grade level)
- All read youth and adult chapter books independently by age 6-7 (True for Kioni)
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