Were you a gifted child?

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Here’s an interesting article about how being labeled as gifted can affect your life as an adult:

https://www.bustle.com/p/how-being-a-gi ... dult-32168

My NT brother and I were both labeled gifted, but he’s been able to translate it into his adult life more easily than I have. He’s had issues with depression and anxiety, but he mostly doesn’t have the emotional issues that I do. He’s been out of work a couple times but bounces back more easily from career setbacks than I do. Both of us have multiple passions and skills; his are music, theatre, and cars, while mine are writing, art, and animals. We both share an interest in cooking and are skilled at it. He’s a fantastic dad, and the prospect of full-time parenting scares me.

I’m interested to learn what your experiences have been.

No, I've never been gifted. My NT cousin is rather gifted though. He is into art and has excellent focus, attention to detail, and has even sold some of his paintings. He used to play the guitar and wanted to form a band but his friends didn't seem that interested in music like he was. I don't know if he still does play the guitar but I do know that he has talent with art.
As a child he got a lot of A's at school and spent more time working extra hard on his school projects than he did with his friends. When he was little he preferred making things or drawing, rather than playing with toys. When he was just 6 he would spend hours in the garage happily making all sorts of things out of wood, under adult supervision of course but he still had excellent hand-eye coordination and could use a saw and other tools to make his work perfect. He was amazing.

He's not on the spectrum though, he's just gifted. But his dad is gifted as well, although his brother is the opposite; got low grades at school and isn't really good at much except the basic stuff. And yet both parents treated both kids exactly the same.

Yes, I was. For disclosure, I am self-identifying as being on the spectrum. My grade school class was tested at the start of third grade and I was labeled in the highly-extremely gifted category. The teachers were at a loss on what to do with me. My reading comprehension was above high school level at that point in time, higher than some of the teachers. There were only a few gifted students at my rural school, so we studied together. We did problem solving sessions with sets of stories that were based upon different concepts. Before I had moved out of state at the end of fifth grade, I had done all of them that they had on file (up to high school level). I had even started to tutor high school students in science and math, as my older sister and her friends struggled in those areas.

Unfortunately, this label was something I had to hide at my new schoolhouse to bullies. It was a curse that I could not hide from, as it showed up again on another test. My classmates learned of this and hated me even more. That was when I started to use the dark side of science to defend myself. People will always be jealous of others who have something that they cannot easily get. I still deal with that issue at the place where I teach at. Depression is a dear friend of mine even to this day.

I inherited my intelligence abilities from my father’s side of the family tree. He had some gifted talents that he used to design houses, yet he was never formally taught how to do so. Many of his houses still exist and are sought after when they go to market. He had a knack for getting the look and function just right. What he did with houses, I now do with molecules in a laboratory.

I don't think giftedness was a thing when I was in school. I never heard of it until about 20 years ago.

I do know a lot of gifted millennials and they're all having some issues with emotions and employment like you describe. They are all passionate people with many interests and talents.

Hello,
I was identified as gifted when I was seven or eight and placed into the Gifted and Talented Program, but I do not think I stayed in for very long as I remember doing all the puzzles and intelligence testing that they had for us, but being bored by them. The GIT program was located in the school library, where my Mommy worked as the librarian, and I remember leaving my seat, hiding behind some bookshelves, and finding some books and going to my favorite place in the library, which was underneath the front desk where I kept my baby doll and Miranda the Panda, my back leaning against the hard wood and just reading away from the testing, into a preferred place.

I think that I would still test as gifted even though I have never really identified as such. I have just seen myself as different, in a way that my early ADHD diagnosis could not fully explain, that I was constantly being catapulted between intense emotions and trying to handle a world that was uncontrollable, yet so lovely, a loveliness in the trees and the sky, in how a leaf can be divided into two colors in its detachment from the tree, that others did not really see. I have never really struggled with school, except in math and then science when it started involving math. I almost did not graduate because I was failing math, but I am not sure if it was because I did not care about-- as I have always been an English, history, animal science type of girl-- or if it was because I actually struggled doing it.

I have had a of setbacks. I was always described as being very book smart, but having absolutely no street smarts...

I do seem to have what is often called in autism research: a spiky profile. I have above average language skills (even though I do sometimes have trouble reaching the point in the arbitrary expected time as there is so many surrounding things that relate to and construct the point), but I struggle with communicating effectively with people in a way that makes sense... At least I think I do... I am not sure... I have some self assessment issues even though I am constantly self analyzing...

As a child I was noticed to have a higher IQ than average, but that's it. Children that have higher IQ than their peers that others catch up with as they age isn't all that rare, so I was probably one of those.

I read books early but that's about it. I went to 7 different schools so nothing was picked up.

Plus I'm the only person in my family to get a university degree. My mum could have done it too but there was pressure on her from her father to get a job instead.

Nope. Learning disabled. Needed special ed.

All I know is that I underperformed at school . I would very likely be dxed with dyspraxia and learning difficulty if I was of school age now .
Back in the early 60s to mid 70s such things were scarcely considered if you were of above average,or higher,intelligence .

If 2e had been around then I'd have probably fitted that category .

When I was a child, a so-called "Gifted" program didn't exist in the school I attended for grades 1 to 8 (it was a small parochial school). But I did very well academically and was then able to attend the Bronx High School of Science (a special public high school for kids who do well in science and math) and was placed in what were called "honors" courses in some subjects.

Throughout most of my childhood it was generally recognized by the adults in my life that I had very strong abilities in math and science (starting at age 6 or so) and music (starting at around age 4; I figured out on my own how to play the piano by ear at around the same time I belatedly learned to talk).

Yeah, I was considered "gifted" as a kid. I began reading at age 3 and was in the Talented and Gifted (TAG, as they called it) program in school as well as honors and advanced classes. I hated it. I loved the learning aspect and we did a lot of hands-on projects that I found fun, but I found my peers to be less than understanding of differences and often mean and extremely competitive. They apparently no longer have the TAG program anymore in the school district I went to due to budget cuts.

Nope. I was considered a smart child but never to the level of being gifted. Unfortunately, due to this perception I was often assumed to be lazy when I underachieved. I was a bookworm and had a higher than average reading comprehension level. Despite struggling in a considerable amount of my classes, I received little help. I was tested on my logical reasoning ability when I was ten and I scored above average. As a result, I was not allowed extra time on tests even though I was clearly having a difficult time.

Then as a teenager I was allowed extra time, but I no longer qualified when I later retook cognitive tests at seventeen. So I was often on the borderline for getting help. I was perceived as a nerd despite being a fairly mediocre student. Quite frequently people used to remark "Wait, you're in this class? Aren't you supposed to be smart?"

When I was nine I was told that I'd never amount to anything, and growing up I was punished for traits that people now complement me for. I was given a lot of mixed messages. You're so stupid, you'll never be anything! You have no potential! Why aren't you living up to it?

I tended to feel as though I were playing a losing game. That I'd never achieve any better than almost good. I remember telling a therapist about my childhood and she was horrified. Apparently she thought that some of my behaviour was actually advanced for my age and that if I'd acted that way around her she would have been impressed instead of punishing me like my educators did.

My abilities are all over the place. In certain areas I am way below average, whereas in others I am above average. My parents are both intelligent and successful. I find my dad to be an interesting man. He's dyslexic but a rather smart guy with a lot of knowledge about science. Retired early and excels in quite a few areas. Both of my parents have worked in a think-tank together. For a brief amount of time they were even business partners. Shared experience working with technology and science. Both academic types.

I tested into a gifted program in elementary school (third or fourth grade), but nothing ever came of it except a bunch of extra classwork.

I didn't really understand how the program was supposed to work; I think the teacher explained it at one point, but I didn't retain the information (probably due to my auditory processing issues), and my parents didn't get involved at all, so I had little direction.

I think the other kids in the program went on to further testing and...who knows after that.

Nope.....never was considered a gifted child.

I had the reading level for "SP" ("special progress") for junior high----but was placed in regular classes because I wasn't "mature" enough.