Hayden Vink: Life In The Fast Lane

There was an interesting item on Campbell Live tonight about Small Poppies - an Auckland preschool for gifted children. [If you missed it, you can watch the video]

As a young, proud father, I couldn’t help but wonder whether my son might be a small poppy too. He can’t quite string sentences together yet, but I almost swore he said ’stegosaurus’ or something similar the other day

Later on I jumped online to find out more about the preschool, what it means to be gifted, and how you can tell if your child is gifted or not.

That’s when I discovered this table:

Source: Small Poppies, © Janice Szabos

I think the subtle differences between ‘bright’ and ‘gifted’ are are fascinating, and wonder how much of the difference can be put down to innate capability vs. stimulating and encouraging environment - that is, Mum and Dad (and others) interacting with their child in a way that stimulates or encourages the attributes in the right-hand column.

I reckon there’s a lot to be said for the latter.

Update, 24 Sep 2008 - Speaking of children and learning, this post on “How Children Learn” over at BoingBoing is worth a read. I liked this quote: “The only good reason for playing games with babies is because we love them.” I think I might order the two books the post refers to.