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
Question Hi Ms Bainbridge, Thanks so much (and bless your good heart!) for your response to my long question. I was thrilled by your response initially but when I read through my question again, I realised I was vague about certain descriptions and am afraid now that I misled you into thinking that my daughter is smarter than she actually is. So very sorry but I would be very grateful if you could indulge me giving some clarifications?
I mentioned that now, at 10 months, she can respond to instruction "Please give [object] to Mommy". Actually she responds to that verbal cue by simply handing me whatever is in her hand, or if there is none, then she'll look for the nearest thing to pass me. She does not actually look for the named object to pass to me. If I asked for a toy she doesn't want to give, she'll scream loudly for "no". Does this change your answer in any way? Sorry for the trouble. I'm clueless as to what is atypical behaviour as I this is my first child. I thought she might be gifted because many people mentioned she was clever. For e.g. my friend is amazed that when I tell her "comb your hair" she'll put the comb to her head and try to do it. She's also been turning pages of board books since 7/8 months and recently I noticed she can turn pages of very thin paperback books too. She does it like and adult reading newspapers while holding it up ie by using both thumbs to sort through the pages when she needs a new one. At 7.5 months she was taking books to look at on her own. She liked one particular "peek-a-boo" book and would take it to read on her own, n play peekaboo by flipping the flaps over the giraffe again and again and chuckle to herself. Thanks again for your help. If it doesn't change your answer in any way I'd be overjoyed, and probably feel validated cos I had a really tough time looking after her myself when she was younger and no one seemed to understand. But if you have to revise your assessment that's fine with me too cos I love her just the way she is. I don't care so much about IQ as I care about being a good Mom to her and giving her whatever she needs to grow. BTW your website is great, and the toys recommended are so useful! I think they are great resources and I'm very thankful for your advice. Thanks and God bless, Wendy
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Followup To
Question -
Hi, my daughter is now 10 months old, and she has generally been hitting all her milestones early (especially gross motor). She could support her head well at one month, started sitting up and crawling at 5 months, pulling up at 6 months, cruising confidently at 7 months. In terms of social development, she started waving bye-bye when asked at 7 months, and at about 9 months can point at named objects like trees, chijmes, flower etc with her finger (although we suspect she learnt to recognise the words earlier just that she was "pointing" with her fist!). Now at 10 months, she is standing alone very well and walking with support (we hold one hand), she can understand the instruction "Please give [object] to Mommy" with or without hand gesture (sometimes even stooping down to pick up something on the floor to give it to me), carry out other instructions like "pat your tummy". She can point at our facial parts (but not her own) (started this at 8-9 months). She can say a few words like bubba (bubbles), jees (trees), "wower" (flower), and respond with appropriate sounds when asked "what does a dog/cat say?". She can flip pages of a book (achieved this 2 months back?) but of course she mangles the pages in the process. She also started doing simple actions to songs/books at 9 months, although she quickly dropped these 'tricks' after a while. She is a very active baby, needs constant (new) stimulation and gets bored easily. She was so difficult as a newborn cos she would get over-stimulated so easily and was so different and difficult compared to my friends' kids. At 4 months when she became more curious and understood more of her surrounding she became impossible to feed. Even now when I am bottle feeding her she needs to read a book at the same time by holding it above her bottle otherwise she won't drink! She picks up things very quickly, doesn't need to be told more than 2/3 times before she gets something, provided it is something she is interested in. The problem with her though is that once she has mastered a new trick she will stop doing it, like she has stopped waving bye-bye, and sometimes even points to wrong things on purpose. Can you tell me how my daughter is doing developmentally and whether she is gifted or bright and either way how I can help her grow and occupy this very active child? She's really a handful! Thanks a million! So sorry about the long email, I just wanted to give an accurate picture :)
Answer Hi again, Wendy,
No, you didn't mislead me. What I said about your daughter still stands. Look again at the things she does that I said make me think she is gifted. I did not, I don't think, mention her ability to follow directions. While that is important, the other characteristics are far more revealing!
I'm working now on some pieces for the giftedkids.about.com site that will list the typical behaviors/abilities of average children. That often helps parents understand just how advanced their gifted child is. I don't know when I'll have them up, but if you want to keep track of what is added to that site, then definitely sign up for the newsletter! Just go to the main page (http://giftedkids.about.com) and click on the link at the top for the free newsletter. That way, when I do get new pieces up, you'll find out about them!
