The Giftedness in Early Childhood Seminar was the seminar I would have loved when my own children were little. Our youngest is now 18 and studying Arts at Deakin University.
It would have been so good to hear from Lesley Sword that some things which seem quite unusual to the general population are in fact “normal for gifted”. I would have been saved a lot of anxiety about the sensitivities of our children particularly our older son.And hearing from Ann Johnson of the O’Connell Family Centre about sleep issues would have saved me a lot of beating up on myself.
When I could not get our eldest daughter to go to sleep I just assumed I was a bad mum. All my friends’ babies slept so beautifully! I did take comfort that even my friend Marg whose mothering skills I held in high regard could not get her to produce a big burp and go to sleep!
She spoke in single words at four months, phrases like”Thank you, Daddy” at eight months and full conversations before she could walk unaided which she did at fourteen months. Some people found it rather disconcerting; like the elderly lady on the bus when she was 17 months old, who asked her “Where’s the gee-gee?” We had never used baby talk and she was quite mystified by this; but looked out the window and commented on the only distinctive thing she could see “Two horses eating grass?
Talking to Nella from Playgroup Victoria I remembered an incident with our youngest son at a playgroup. One of the mums had a son who was five months older than our son and well advanced in walking. When set on his his feet would run off to play. During one session this mum had Christian on her lap while I went to do something and she was shocked that when she put him down on his feet that he fell splat on his stomach rather than running off. She had forgotten how much younger he was because he seemed like an older baby in many ways.
It was also great to show Carla and Anne examples of early drawings and quotable quotes and remember the years from 3 to 8. Ah memories…