My 3 Year Old Showing Signs of Being Gifted! Any Advice or Input Would Be Great!

I nanny for a little boy who will be 3 in feb. he is super smart!! he knows all letters, shapes, numbers, colors. I taught him to count in spanish up to ten and it only took a few times for him to get it. He can write some letter and numbers. you can read him a book a few times and he will have it memorized!! one day we were reading a book and he said he wanted to read it, and he knew the whole book word for word. i coudlnt believe it and asked his mom when the last time they read it was, and she said about a month ago!! he can also point out different types of cars, like ford, bmw, pathfinder, etc.

My advice is to enjoy your daughter. She sounds precocious, but not super out of the norm. We're all inclined to see our children as extra-special. If she is, they'll notice in kindergarten. I don't think that you need to "do" anything right now.

I have a confirmed gifted 9 yr old , my advice
Don't cram academics down her throat.
If she asks you a question about something answer it to the best of your ability , if you don't know the answer look it up together.
And yes I'd require a thank you from a 3 yr old.
Don't push anything on her. If she shows interest in something then explore it more with her.

Congratulations on having a well-rounded, imaginative, social, bright young daughter. Personally, I would just keep providing her lots of opportunities to be happy, to explore the world, and develop in all areas. Expose her to music. Take her on nature walks. Take her to museums. Teach her to skate, ride bike, and throw and catch, since mind-body connection is so very important. Teach compassion and empathy, and keep up the social side because bright children need to be able to relate to others or they will be miserable later.

Good luck, and enjoy!

yep, she sounds phenomenal! Encourage her learning & life experiences....& when she hits KG, she'll be tested for the accelerated program. When my sons hit KG, even with 9 years btwn them, they had the same teacher....the best KG in the world!!! Anyway, when my oldest son was with her, she said the nicest thing: she said that she applauded our parenting skills because our son came prepared to learn & full of extraordinary life skills & experiences. WOW!!!

My oldest son is 23 & I still cherish her words. As part of that conversation, she mentioned quite a few things which I had just considered "part of life" & not an attempt to well-round my sons' education. We'd been to quite a few historic places, such as some of the Lincoln sites. We'd attended plays, concerts, museum events, state parks, mt. man rendevous, historic re-enactments, & all manner of outdoor activities. We are blessed to be able to raise our sons in a multi-generational family, & they still have one Great Grandma to this day! It was all of this & so much more ....of what I considered simply "our way" of daily life.....which that teacher considered to be the best learning tools possible.

& as for your daughter's remarkable manners: yes, it's usual to hear "thank you's" & for children to exhibit sympathy & empathy. With my daycare kids, I encourage basic manners with each & every interaction....whether it's when I'm assisting with the buttoning of pants or a request for a drink. "Please, thank you, & you're welcome" are mainstays of our daily conversations.....& are inherent once children are taught the basics.

Recall of details seems to be pronounced in your daughter, & can be further encourage thru an abundance of books...allowing her to be as repetitious as she desires. & as other posters have said, really try to encourage the creative & artistic side of her nature.....which will then lend itself to more academic applications. For this age group, it's all about exploration & discovery ......let her squish, squeeze, mold, etc....& you'll be amazed at what she can design & develop! & as with any academics, the more mainstreamed it is....meaning a simply natural progression - as opposed to "rote".....the more your daughter will embrace learning. You might want to read up on Project Construct which is a phenomenal way to teach children.....well, really, it allows them to teach themselves thru building upon life experiences & interactions with others! Good Luck!!

She is quite special. Regardless of whether she is "gifted" or not in accordance to whatever standards, she still is quiet special. She has a hunger to learn and a focus that is above her normal developmental age.

My advice, Montessori School. She seems like the type of child who will thrive in this type of environment. Continue to feed into her love for learning and encourage her creativity and her imagination. Regular trips to the library would be fun and educational. Nature trips too.

I have a 3 year old who is right on track with yours...she can do addition and subtraction, spell simple words, can hear a song once and sing the whole thing complete with intonation and rhythm. She has an amazing imagination and has been speaking in complete sentences since she was 14 months old. My point, maybe she is gifted and/or maybe she just has the opportunity to be exposed to more things. At this point, I would continue doing what you are doing. Make sure she has lots of opportunities to learn and grow. Perhaps enroll her in a class or two. My daughter LOVES her music class. Enjoy your special G., make sure she keeps learning and that she has fun doing it! How lucky she is to have such an attentive mama who want to make sure she reaches her full potential. :)

The best thing you can do for her is just keep her busy and interested. Kids a lot of times are not actually identified as GT until 3rd grade so a lot of kids who are ahead of the game can get lost in the system once they start school and lose interest pretty quick. Your job is to make sure she keeps her desire and excitement for learning.

I have three kids, my oldest is in 5th grade and was identified in 3rd grade but ultimately I pulled him from public schools and put him in private where his gifts could be cultivated further. My second boy is on the same track as the first and starts kindergarten next year. I take time every day to be sure he is academically stimulated but I don't force it down his throat. My goal again is to keep my kids interested, not burn them out. They have years of education ahead of them, the biggest thing you can give them is the love of learning and the process to help them flourish. Cramming academics down their throats does not give them these skills and could potentially wear them out. Now my daughter is 2 1/2 and even beyond where my two boys were at her age. Funny thing about her is she knows her ABC's, can count to 20, knows her colors and even recognizes words in books and signs yet I haven't taught her these things yet, she is not in preschool yet and she is resistant to doing some of the educational things her brothers do. Needless to say I address it the same with her as I do with her brothers, I focus on the process and making learning fun rather than pushing the academics.

Believe me, you have a huge head start and you are lucky the school will only enhance your daughters smarts. Just teach her to love it and be creative!

Good luck!

I'm sorry, but that all sounds very normal, not gifted. In fact, my 2.5-year-old says "Tankoo" anytime I get him something and when I make dinner. He follows cues from the adults around him who are polite and say please and thank you. And it's very common for kids to be intuitive about feelings and say things to make you smile - they hate seeing you upset!!
But it's great that she's picking up on your manners and people's feelings :) Keep fostering that.

Aww, she sounds like a sweet angel child :)
You have done an awesome job raising her so far!
She may not be "gifted" tho, just an early learner.
There are special, private pre schools you could put her in if you wanted to, but she seems to be thriving and happy doing what ever it is you've been doing. I would suggest getting her into piano lessons. My youngest was 4 when he started, but she sounds mature enough already....

I've been a daycare provider for 24 years and your daughter does indeed sound VERY special and out of the normal. I have to disagree with the answer below. It's true we all think our children are special. But your child does sound extremely smart. I would encourage her every way possible. If it were me, I would buy her a computer and get her enrolled in time4learning.com now. I would also sign up for the new starfall program. It's 35 for the year. www.more.starfall.com There are many good learning programs. There are also many programs designed to encourage creativity on the computer.

I would get her started with painting or drawing or both and work on her writing skills and help her make books out of her stories. You need to give her ways to express herself. There's no reason to stifle a child that has talent and brains. We chose homeschooling and I do have to say that my ultra gifted child lost interest in school once we let her go to highschool. She graduated with honors. But she dropped out of college after just one semester. My 2nd two daughters have gone onto college and are doing very well for themselves and my 4th daughter has a very long lazy streak in her. You can't make her do anything above and beyond. In the end, it will be up to her to use her gifts or let them be idle. But you certainly can encourage her in every way.

Your daughter sounds like my oldest daughter. She was reading, still reads a 1000 words per minute. It's sad to me that she decided not to go onto college. But she is an awesome person, has risen up through the ranks in her company, loves to cook and enjoys her life and still reads more and faster than anyone I know.

I do agree with the previous poster. Enjoy her.

I agree with the suggestion that she attend a Montessori school. My 4 year old son has attended a Montessori school since he was 3. He has always had a very long attention span and seems to be an eager learner. Montessori is great because it lets him learn at this own pace and the school has no barriers to kids moving on to harder tasks simply because of their age. He has thrived in this school.