About Carol Bainbridge Expertise I can answer most questions on parenting gifted children, from infants on. Questions can be about parenting, advocacy, and support and I can provide suggestions for toys and books gifted children love. I can even help you determine whether your child is gifted or bright, and I can point you to more information you might need. I can answer some questions about programs for gifted children, but can`t help much with information on colleges. Visitors wanting to know if their children are gifted might want to read the article "Is My Child Gifted?" before asking a question.
Experience I am the parent of a gifted child and have been working with other parents of gifted children for 13 years, helping them find support and providing them with information. I founded a local gifted organization and helped organize a parent day for a national gifted conference. I have been an active member of my state's gifted association since 1999 and created and maintain their Web site. In addition, I have created a website for parents of gifted children who are looking for toys and books for their children: www.giftsforlearning.com.
I am also the Guide About.com Gifted Children Site.
Education/Credentials I have a bachelor's degree in psychology, an MA in English, and completing a PhD in linguistics with a focus on verbally gifted children. I have been helping parents of gifted children for nearly 20 years and am currently the guide to gifted children on About.com
My son (Xavier) who is 2 1/2 has demonstrated a great memory. We play a memory game using picture cards. One side of the card is a picture (dog, cat, tree, computer etc) and on the other side of the card is the written word of the picture.
Initially, all cards are (picture) face up. I then ask him to identify each picture and turn over the card to face down. As soon as all cards are face down I then ask him where a certain card is - eg "where is the dog"? He will then proceed to flip over the card with the dog. I will then ask “where is the Cat” etc? Each game consists of 12 cards (in a 3x4 rectangle or table configuration). In most cases he completes the game perfectly 12 card matches from 12 attempts.
I've recently started to increase the quantity of flip cards to 15 (3x5).
The first question I asked myself - maybe he is able to read the card when it is face down with the written word exposed but i then repeated the game in reverse and he wasn’t able to find a single correct match.
This has lead me to a few unanswered questions - especially because my memory is less than fantastic.
1. Is this normal with children?
2. Is he gifted?
3. How do I progress the learning?
Hope you can help. Thanks.
Answer Hi Tim,
It is really impossible to say whether your son is gifted or not based solely on his ability with a memory game. I tried to find some data on performance on these games and indication of intelligence, but wasn't successful.
Gifted kids do have good memories, but we are usually referring to more than this kind of memory. It usually refers to more to long-term memory. This doesn't mean your son isn't gifted; it just means I don't have enough information to say one way or the other.
Here are a couple of articles I've written that might help you out:
