Encouraging a Gifted Toddler
Q: Our son is 2 years and 6 months. In the past few days, we helped him to memorize and recognize more than 20 of the 28 Arabic alphabets, which is his mother tongue. He even observes and recognizes some letters in words on signs and TV. He is also very strong in memorizing all words spoken to him. He will repeat any word he hears and most likely will learn its meaning and usage. He also memorizes street directions. If we are taking him to a park, he will tell us the general direction from home. We think he might be a gifted child. How would you judge him? How can we take special care of him?
A: You are good observers of your child to notice the early skills he is showing in language learning and sign recognition. There are many tests, such as the Bayley and the Stanford Binet to find out the level of intellectual ability that your child has. You may want to contact a university psychology department and ask whether there are graduate students who can administer either of those tests in Arabic to your child, while you are both present. As you watch your son's responses to the wide variety of subtests that include memory for sequences, matching colors and shapes, copying block designs, repeating word and number sequences, copying tile patterns, matching symbols, identification of absurdities, defining vocabulary words and identifying the names of pictured items, both parents will be able to get a clearer picture of this child's particular thinking and perceptual strengths and where this little boy may still need more encouragement, for example, in perceptual-motor skills, such as building a tower with small blocks.
Please share picture books daily with your child. Talk about the animals or activities in each picture. Tell simple tales of what might be going on in the book. Do not always try to read the story line. Be flexible. Make the story simpler where needed or add details to delight your son. Embroider the tale with homey references that your child will recognize as you go along. Make books a real pleasure. Reading together with pleasure is the single most powerful tool you can give your child to keep his enthusiasm for language and learning brightly shining.
Please be sure to give lots of generous attention to your other children. Your son needs to see how fair and kind you are to all the children in the family. If he is highly intelligent, it would be wonderful if he grew up also highly kind and generous, able to empathize with others' feelings and able to play sociably and positively with other children. No matter how "smart" a child may be, if he is selfish or tries to show he is better than others, he will not be a happy playmate or a gentle person in the family. So make sure, as you guide and support his evident enjoyment of early learning that you also support the growth of positive and gracious social interactions with all his family and friends.
Alice Sterling Honig, PhD, a professor emerita of child development at Syracuse University, is the author of many books on infants and toddlers, including Behavior Guidance for Infants and Toddlers and, with H. Brophy, Talking With Your Baby: Family as the First School
