Raising a Gifted and Talented Child

The first time that I noticed that I had a special child was when he was 10 months old and after hearing the Spanish vowels for the first time he repeated them, he didn’t say too many words after that, but my husband and I started reading to him children books, he was attentive and quiet until one day when he was 3 years old he surprised us by reading two of his favorite books «Little Red Hen» and «Let’s go Trucks».

When the time came to send him to kindergarten, we did not think it was necessary and decided to wait.

The time for school enrollments came, and we asked for our child to be enrolled in first grade instead of kindergarten because he already knew how to read and write, the teacher in charge asked:

-Can he really read and comprehend the books or is he only memorizing?

-Yes, he can read and comprehend.

-Ok, let’s see.

She brought him a text book, he went to the table of contents and asked:

-What section do you want me to read?

She realized then that he really could read and write, the teacher went to talk to the school principal and gave our son an IQ test, after the test results the school principal enthusiastically let us know that our son was really a gifted and talented child and that he was reading and writing at a fourth-grade level.

The principal was not sure if sending him directly to four grade was the best option. From his experience, he knew that is best for a child to socialize and attend classes with children of his own age. The principal offered the option of sending him for 1 hour to science class with the four grade and 1 hour with the teacher in charge of the Gifted and Talented Program (GT program) and also installing a computer in his first grade.

In the second grade, the school redistricted children from our neighborhood to another school.

That was a 360 degrees change because that school only had k- third grade without the gifted and talented program.

Our child started to look unhappy and unenthusiastic for school because the new school didn’t offer all the support of the previous school, so we went to talk with his new teacher and the new principal, but we didn’t obtain any help from them, their only answer was that he needed to adapt to the new school, so we decided to homeschool.

Our homeschooling was based not in a structured program, per se, but in a relaxed program following the interests of our child and trying to provide the resources necessary to the learning of the subject. For example, one day after watching the weather news he showed interest in the different kinds of clouds, so the next day we went to the library, and we borrowed books about the weather. Later, when he became interested in astronomy, we went to the library and borrowed several astronomy books, bought him some of his favorites, and also toys related to the subject like space shuttles and astronauts.

We also taught him life skills while playing, for example, while playing supermarket he learned how to pay with cash, count the change and write a check.

When he received a keyboard as a gift, we provide him with self-learning piano books to practice and learn some of his favorite songs at the time.

Then, he became interested in computers and how programs work. We visited the Good Will store looking for and finding old computers like the first Apple computers, so he could work with and program simpler programs.

He also enjoyed solving the Mind Benders exercises from the books that he received from his teacher of the GT program.

A question that people often asked me was:

-And what about his social skills?

-Well, he attended Children’s Sunday School (religious and spiritual learning) and he played outside with the neighborhood children, running, riding bicycles, toy cars, and board games like checkers and chess.

Of course, socializing skills are not easy for gifted and talented children because they are more mature and sensitive than most children their age, and yes they thrive better in the special GT programs, but it is also good for them to play with different peer groups outside the normal school environment.

When he became 14 years old he went back to high school and graduated as a Valedictorian. Alex’s first-grade principal became the superintendent and handed him his diploma.

Do you also have a child that is gifted? Feel free to share some tips in the comments section.