Do parents of gifted children generally see themselves as gifted, too? (degree, kindergarten)
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I've run into Facebook pages for gifted education where the parents spend a lot of time talking about their own educational experiences and how they struggled as a gifted child. I'm getting the impression that a lot of parents of gifted children also think of themselves as gifted, and I'm wondering how often this is the case?
I wouldn't normally think of this as being typical. I don't think giftedness is inherited or taught, so I think this is suprising.
Haha! Yep! They think that since they produced a gifted child, they must be gifted, too. Honestly, I think it's about how far ahead your child gets before kindergarten. I think it's something that is taught.
No. Dh and I are not gifted but dd#2 is gifted. My parents were gifted but only 2 out of 6 of their children were gifted. I do, however, have one brother who is gifted and has an extraordinarily gifted child. However, by comparison to his son, my brother is nothing to write home about so you won't hear my brother comparing himself to his son. My brother struggled with ADHD which made it very difficult for him to learn in spite of a very high IQ. He did it though. He's quite successful in life in spite of his ADHD.
My other gifted brother has a dd who is gifted and possibly his son too (never tested). My nephew never really did much besides play dungeons and dragons until one day he up and decided he wanted to go to law school where he's in the top of his class. Go figure.
And I do believe that giftedness is inherited to some degree. My mother was gifted, my father was gifted and my step father was gifted (spouses tend to be close in IQ) they produced 2 gifted children (one from each marriage) and their 6 children have produced 4 gifted grandchildren out of 10 grand kids. Two of the gifted grandchildren do not have gifted parents and two do. One grandchild is too young to tell but he's not showing the early signs seen in the gifted grandchildren.
I do think smart parents often have smart kids but genetics is funny. Smart parents can have kids who aren't so smart too. We have quite a mix in my family ranging from average to very high IQ's but you seem to see the high IQ's in every generation. Around 1/3 of my family would be considered gifted in each generation. My mom wasn't the only gifted child in her family. My dad was. It's hard to tell with my step father's family because they are not educated and giftedness is usually identified in school. (My step dad never finished the 6th grade because his mother died, his dad was a drunk, and he had to go to work to support his younger brother and sisters. He was, however, quite brilliant with machinery design in spite of having no education.)
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 10-08-2013 at 03:51 AM..
Is giftedness actually innate or is it learned? Does a child become or develop giftedness via stimulation / interaction at home ( aka encouragement that motivates the kid)at home or is giftedness slaughtered by abuse / avoidence / ignoring the kid?
My brother, who is not the brightest crayon in the box, has three children who were all "invited" to attend the magnet school for young genuises in Livonia, MI public schools. What are the odds all three were NATURALLY gifted? Pretty low I would say.
BUT, he worked with them everyday from day one to engage them in activities and he read to them in group and one-to-one. He provided opportunities outside the home in the way of trips to museums, zoos, community events, ect ect ect.
I believe there are external influences that create the desire and motivation to learn. Tabula Rasa...barring any genetic mutation or complications early on.
I'm a bit confused by your question actually. What difference does it make if the parents see themselves as gifted? There are four possible subsets of parents of gifted children.
1) Gifted parents who correctly perceive themselves as gifted.
2) Non-gifted parents who incorrectly perceive themselves as gifted.
3) Gifted parents who incorrectly perceive themselves as non-gifted.
4) Non-gifted parents who correctly perceive themselves as non-gifted.
By your question and later comments, I'm sensing you are preoccupied with group 2. How do you know they are not actually group 1? I was told by the psychologist that tested our child that gifted children usually have at least one gifted parent. I am guessing you find it annoying that parents of gifted children talk about their own experiences as gifted, and that you doubt their giftedness. Why let it bother you? There may be something to gain from listening to their experiences, and if not, you can ignore them.
I say it depends on what definition of gifted is being used. Many people believe the definition of gifted is interchangeable with talented and/or advanced. Some people understand the definition to be directly connected to IQ. Other people see the differentiation in gifted learners versus typical learners.
A parent who was in the top 10% of their graduating class may consider themselves gifted.
A parent who can play a song on the piano by ear may not think of think of themselves as gifted.
A parent who knows all the answers to trivia questions may consider themselves gifted.
A parent who envisions the outcome of a problem without working it may not consider themselves gifted.
So, of course some people consider themselves gifted while others do not. Occasionally these people are parents and have gifted children.
However, I don't think many parents believe themselves to be gifted merely because their children have been recognized as gifted. Although some may not have realized they actually were gifted until they had personal experience as an adult in understanding what it means, so they belatedly realized they are gifted too.
Depends on your definition of "gifted." According to my definition, it is quite rare for a truly gifted child to have a truly gifted parent. Even more rare for a gifted child to have two gifted parents. I know there are instances of it in history, but it is exceedingly uncommon. Parents of truly gifted children do not typically regard themselves as gifted by virtue of their child's talents.
I've run into Facebook pages for gifted education where the parents spend a lot of time talking about their own educational experiences and how they struggled as a gifted child. I'm getting the impression that a lot of parents of gifted children also think of themselves as gifted, and I'm wondering how often this is the case?
I wouldn't normally think of this as being typical. I don't think giftedness is inherited or taught, so I think this is suprising.
There's actually quite a bit of evidence that intelligence is inherited (especially in boys from their mothers), and while environment obviously has an influence, too, intelligent parents are more likely to provide more intellectual stimulation for their growing children. I don't understand why people accept that a child's eye and hair color, predisposition to certain heritable diseases, body type, etc. would be influenced by genetics, but not their intellectual capacity.
For the record, I was in G&T classes as a child and so was my son; I have a master's degree in science, and while his dad is old enough that there was no such thing when he was in school, he has a doctorate in the sciences. From what I've seen of my friend's children, this is typical, not unusual.
Does it matter? Not really. All the smarts the world don't mean doodly-squat if you have no common sense, street smarts, good health, or social skills. I'd rather have a well-adjusted "average" kid than an emotionally- or socially-crippled genius child.
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