Toys for gifted children?

My son, age 8, is being tested for the gifted program at school so I did some online research on gifted children. He fits most of the criteria to a "t". My question is... where do parents go from here? How can we support our gifted children at home and what kinds of toys are good for gifted children? Right now, he loves building and has just about every building toy known to mankind! (Legos, K-Nex, Lincoln Logs, etc...) He recently expressed interest in a microscope... this could be interesting! Marci

My kids are gifted. I don't know about different toys(gifted kids just sometimes use them differently) but, a microscope sounds great. My kids love to play games, especially strategy games. My kids are involved in Odyssey of the Mind. Do you know what that is? If not, it is an educational competition. They have a web site. It is a great thing for kids period. My kids have competed at the world level and got to meet kids from all over the world. Good Luck! Denise

I was in a gifted program throughout school... my absolute favourite toy was the programmeable lego set. You can put together a robot, and then program it to follow commands, such as moving only on dark surfaces or firing miniature rockets after a certain amount of time. It was so much fun, and a good way to learn about building and robotics. It is available at Toys R Us, but is fairly expensive (over $100 I think).... it is worth the money though.

Thanks, Denise! I checked out the Odyssey of the Mind website and got some great ideas for activities and games at home or even in the car (word games). Looks fun! And Jeanne, thanks for the idea! I think my son would love a robot like that! Right now, he has a little motor that attaches to K'Nex to make a vehicle (can't remember which one at the moment) but he's adapted it make other things that he drives across the room... and he sometimes uses toys other than K'Nex as well. He has a plastic skull (with eyes) from some other game that has eyeballs. He attached it to K'Nex wheels and the motor and said it was Michael Jackson. hehe I never know what he's going to come up with next!

I found the name of the Lego set with the programmable robots: Lego Mindstorm. You can find full sets on ebay too.

I used to teach gifted kids. There wasn't anything in my classroom that you wouldn't find in a regular classroom. Most gifted kids are good at challenging themselves, so they just answer questions and solve problems on a different level. As long as you aren't limiting him, he should be fine. I think it's a great idea to follow his interests. Most kids want the same things their friends have, they just might, as someone said, use them differently. Also, you might try out some things designed for older kids, especially books. The most important thing to remember is that a cognitively advanced child is usually not physically and emotionally advanced. He may LEARN like a 13-year-old (or whatever), but he still FEELS like an 8-year-old, and that's what he is, developmentally. So you still need to treat him like an 8-year-old. Good luck, Xanny

One thing I've learned about gifted kids is that while they play with the same toys, they may need different versions of the toys. For instance, a microscope. If you buy the pre-packaged type with a microscope, a few magnifying glasses, and 20 or so premade slides, and he shows any interest in it at all... then his questions will expand more rapidly than his peers' and you'll be back at the store fairly quickly for all of that microscope's expansion kits. In some cases, it's better to buy the slightly more expensive version first. Especially if his friends already have the pre-packaged set and he enjoys it. The set with microscope, a few more magnifying glasses, 5 premade slides... and 30 empty slides that come with needles, tweezers, staining fluid, and instructions so he can prepare his own slides of things that interest him. My brother and I were both in the gifted classes. My brother had a telescope just like his friends did, but his was more powerful - my parents knew if he had one he could use to see down the street, he'd figure out how to look in the neighbors' windows faster than the average kid. We had a swingset, but my parents wouldn't put it up until we told them where in the yard we could swing on it without hitting any trees. We both had toys that needed to be assembled, but we had to do the assembling. But he's still young enough that you'll have to keep reading age labels on boxes. Age labels and guidelines refer to more than the child's level of learning, so they're still vitally important. He may be bored with model cars designed for his age group (for example), because they don't have enough pieces, but moving him to the next group might cause more problems. An 8 year old doesn't yet have the ability to be as precise with finger movements so the tinier pieces would frustrate him, and he doesn't yet have the maturity to refrain from putting super glue on the dog. That sort of thing. If he makes it into the gifted program you'll have lots of information. He'll be getting lots of extra-curricular time to learn and experiment. You'll meet the parents of kids with similar abilities, and he'll spend more time hanging out with kids like him. I think you'd have a more difficult time if he misses the cutoff for the classes by just a few points - too intelligent to be content with the rest of the kids in his normal class, yet not quite up to the level and advantages of the gifted class. Good luck to both of you!

What a bright and growing boy you have! It will be so exciting to see how he progresses :) My son is just about that age and he's really intrigued with motion: trains, wind up cars, etc. But he also has a creative side: he finger paints, and a lot of his thoughts come through that. He mostly uses his hands to communicate, very few words. At home, we've given him a [URL="http://verticalvortextoys.com/"]Vertical Vortex[/URL] to play with and it is the perfect way to combine his love for motion with his need to physically communicate. Because his hands are constantly moving, it actually helps his brain focus on effectively interacting with others.

It is well said that Games and toys provide a way for children to explore different ways of thinking, moving, and interacting with friends and family members. I deal with PFF, whose mission is to see a world that understands that the root cause of childhood behavior is linked to the way kids feel. Thanks for sharing this.