2.5 yr old intelligence-Is this normal???

[KingstonMom]

is he potty trained? How does he play with children that are younger than he is?

He is potty trained, since 2.25 mos. He still wets at nighttime, maybe 2 out of 7 nights. He no longer naps at daycare, just requires a 1 hour lay-down in a dark room alone but will not fall asleep.

He would MUCH rather prefer older playmates than younger ones. He expresses this when the little ones wake from nap (even those his own age or a year older) he has cousins aged 5 and 7, he LOVES playing with them.

[daycarewhisperer]

He is potty trained, since 2.25 mos. He still wets at nighttime, maybe 2 out of 7 nights. He no longer naps at daycare, just requires a 1 hour lay-down in a dark room alone but will not fall asleep.

He would MUCH rather prefer older playmates than younger ones. He expresses this when the little ones wake from nap (even those his own age or a year older) he has cousins aged 5 and 7, he LOVES playing with them.

I've never met a kid who didn't prefer older playmates. The much older the better. Even my special needs kids highly prefer way way older kids.

For me, I would nix the short nap deal. At my house he would need to sleep for 2.5 hours EVERY day no exceptions. His possible intelect doesn't change that he has a toddler body that needs sleep.

I would also exclusively have him only play with the younger children for a few months. If you really want to see what he's made of you will see it in how he is able to bring the younger ones into his play and make do with what he has.

I encourage you to consider that he MAY be a child who has a lot of symbol recognition work done at home. He may have an adult spending HOURS with him doing cards, shapes, sizes, workds... etc. He may simply be a product of a lot of exposure and a lot of praise and adult.

You will know much more of what he is made of to see how he does with no adult and nothing coming IN... just what he puts OUT when he's in the worst case scenario... play with younger kids and on his own. THAT'S where you can REALLY tell.

He may not be resting because he's all jacked up in his brain from the amount of "in" he gets everday hosted by adult. You may find that he zoinks out and takes a LONG hard nap every day if you have him do the HARD work of playing with much younger children where he is the one who entertains and not the one being entertained. It's ALWAYS easier to be the one who is entertained which is why nearly every single kid on the planet prefers older kids.

I've had three total real gifted children in my 30 plus year career. I've had many kids go into the TAG program over the years but only three were able to sustain it into the upper years of school. When you see these kids you KNOW it. You don't know it by flash cards and symbol recognition and order. You know it by how amazingly adaptable they are to make any situation brilliant with little on their side.

I've also had kids who were able to do what your guy does at about the age of turning three. One in particular the parents spent endless hours with from birth doing symbols and TALKING to him constantly. He learned to talk really young and had a wide breadth of symbol recognition and words. He was quite jacked up and really really suffered when he was left to build, sort, free play, and interact with the other kids. He was very very adult dependent for his minute to minute. When left to his own devices to play toys he spent most of it just talk talk talk talk talk. Not interactive talk but terms of engagement talk to get the adult to "do" him.

He left my care and took a year to potty train. He went into parent care and the Mom had such a difficult time managing him that she had to go back to work and have the Dad stay home with him. They believed he was a genius but they had substantial issues with his behavior when they weren't pumping him with preschool work and crafts.

I never thought the kid was gifted from day one. It was a very hard balance for me to listen to and see what he could do (quite similiar to your boy) but then see in real life how disobedient he was, how jacked up he was, and how repeated proximal corrections were overlooked and he was unable to learn from past to apply to future. He was the second hardest kid I have ever had. I had two staff assistants during his run and both said he was the hardest. Yes he could read words and write... he could even do back wards words.... but he was really overstimulated and had WAY too much adult in his face. We choose to not do ANY preschool activities with him because he so desperately needed to just learn to entertain himself and play and follow directions. We focused on THOSE things because he really really needed them. His defecits in playing and following directions were profound.

To me, he didn't show any signs of giftedness from day one but he did show that he had adults playing with him and adults believing he was extraordinary. He had adults believe that he was far higher in thinking and problem solving then he was. I think nearly any kid with average intelligence could produce what he could if they had a team of adults from birth spending their awake time feeding the "he's gifted" machine like my little guy did.

Now he may be gifted... he may be one of the precious few who are. But for me... in my setting... it really wouldn't matter at all. I would look at him overall and say he will take a good deep sleep every day, eat well, exercise with the kids on the walk, and play toys with the younger child in the day care who needs to be mentored by someone who can talk well and play. I would not ever let him choose his playmate and I would always pick the youngest walker in the group to be his primary buddy. A few months of that and THEN you will see his true skill set. I also wouldn't do any school work with him. Sounds like the parents got that covered. (unless you love doing that then do it for you).