Do you know anyone who was a childhood genius grown up?

[taximomfor4]

My friend stayed in high school, went to college and got through a masters in two years. He stopped going to school and became a confused mechanic for a while. Then he married the preacher's daughter and finally has a professional engineering job-at age 53 because his wife encouraged him to go back and become an engineer. I adore her, she's so down to earth. He needed someone gentle, practical and loving to guide him to his passion. I think being ultra smart was a burden to him.

I think that can very much be the case. My brother is very, very smart (IQ over 160 if I remember correctly). He is good at any subject he attends to, and floundered quite a bit finding his way. He graduates in a couple of weeks in Actuarial Math (??), then is going to learn nuclear engineering or something like that.

 

[heart4pooh]

My son is pretty smart, not a genius, and he has Asperger's Syndrome. I think in the past the very bright but socially unaware children probably could have been diagnosed with it if it was a diagnosis back then.

Anyhow, the point I want to make is that there are a lot of services for kids like my son. He goes to speech once a week to learn how to hold a converstion and to learn idioms and figures of speech. As bright as he is, he is very literal. It's raining cats and dogs has to be explained to him. Believe me, there are a lot of idioms used every day. But, he is catching on.

He also goes to occupational therapy. He is learning different motor and sensory integration things, and he is doing great with that too.

And he goes to social skills classes to learn the nuances of having friends and fitting in. He would much rather read about how the universe works or anything about animals. He has a scientific mind and taught himself to read at 3!! But quirky is as quirky does.

People with Asperger's that were never diagnosed and didn't recieve services were often maladjusted in society and often lived alone or with their parents. But, now with all the recent services available there really isn't enough evidence of how much it will help in the long run. But I can already see a big improvement in him.

For what it's worth, it's because of a thread on the Dis a year ago that helped me become aware of Asperger's and to get the ball rolling for my son. Thanks Dawnct!!!

 

[taximomfor4]

There are exceptions. My DD grade skipped & will graduate at 16....it was the best thing ever for her & worked out in every respect....socially & academically. Even physically (she's still the tallest of every girl in her class & physically matured ahead of the older girls anyway). Now when the principal talked to me about skipping her a 2nd time, I did say, "No" to that.

I should have asked what grade your dd is in now...yours and mine have a bit in common, it seems. Does yours Dis? I signed mine up -- that way she can chat to her heart's content and I can look at what she has posted. You can PM me if you don't want to put any info on the web.

 

[delilah]

I actually come from a family of people who are all quite intelligent. Many of us were validictorians at our high schools, and most of us who went to college completed doctorates in our chosen fields. We had four children in our family, and we all "maxed out" the mini-IQ test that they gave at our elementary school. It was never necessary for us to do a full scale IQ test, but on the basis of the test in grade school, we are all above 135 IQ's. My brothers are both attorneys, my sister is a PharmD, and I am a family physician. My cousin, who is a self-proclaimed genius, and a proud member of Mensa was an art major. She went to a prestigious undergraduate universiy and graduate school at the Art Institute in Chicago. She never learned to drive, and never married. She designed displays for a major department store in Chicago, which I guess is a good situation for an art major.

I attended a very good public high school in the Chicago area, and there were also many gifted students at my high school, as well. The one classmate I had who I would label the most intelligent person I have known in terms of early achievement in math and science was a good friend of mine in early adulthood, while we were both in graduate school in Chemistry (not at the same university. She went to UC Berkeley, and I attended Ohio State University). She was kind of socially immature, actually, and ended up dropping out of graduate school after several years. I lost track of her until recently, and she finally completed her doctorate, although not from Berkeley.

As a graduate student, I probably associated with many people who were "geniuses" of various types. Some were successful and some less so. In my experience, people who were somewhat less gifted academically, but better developed in terms of "people skills" generally have been more successful in the long run. For example, my preceptor in graduate school was a prodigy. He finished his PhD in theoretical chemistry by the time he was 23 years old or so. But, his people skills are weak (I left his group to attend medical school), so, his success in guiding students through graduate school has been relatively poor. I think that in 30 years of professorship, he has had fewer than 10 students complete a PhD. In contrast, one of the best professors I have known, with excellent people skills (and about 10 years or so older than my preceptor), probably had 10 graduate students per year complete a PhD, most of whom have gone on to successful careers in chemistry. When I was in graduate school (this professor was at my undergraduate instituation), I had nominated him as a candidate for an award at my university, and the faculty had very disparaging comments to make about him, essentially saying that he wasn't the caliber of scientist that they wanted to speak. In my opinion, however, he has a wonderful legacy in terms of his research and the students over the years he has led to success in his field.

 

[taylor1293]

One of my closest friends has a son who is a genius. He’s only 6, so I can't even begin to predict what he will do as an adult.

I can’t remember the specifics, but he’s been tested by several places. His parents were told by one tester that he was the child she had been waiting for over the last 20 years of her career. A true genius, not just a child with a high IQ.

 

[Chuck S]

A friend I grew up with skipped a grade or two, went on to graduate from Cal Poly. He is a very successful parody songster.

 

[pettyone]

A friend I grew up with skipped a grade or two, went on to graduate from Cal Poly. He is a very successful parody songster.

I'll bet he's "White & Nerdy"!!??!!

 

[vetrik]

I don't consider my dad a "genius", but he is very intelligent, skipped 2 grades, and graduated from high school at 16. He was very unhappy about skipping 2 grades, he always felt very socially behind the other kids in his grade. He procrastinated in college and it took him 6 years to finish so he caught up anyway. He got a degree in music education, but has never used it. He works as an engineer and has done very well. Meanwhile, my mom has a masters and PhD in her field - she always says that my dad is a lot smarter then her, but she has the drive.

I went to the John's Hopkins summer programs for gifted kids when I was in high school, and there were a lot of kids there that were amazingly smart (I knew one kid who had scored a perfect or very nearly perfect score on the SAT at the age of 12). I sometimes wonder what has happened to them in the last 10 years.

 

[missypie]

My son is pretty smart, not a genius, and he has Asperger's Syndrome. I think in the past the very bright but socially unaware children probably could have been diagnosed with it if it was a diagnosis back then.

Anyhow, the point I want to make is that there are a lot of services for kids like my son. He goes to speech once a week to learn how to hold a converstion and to learn idioms and figures of speech. As bright as he is, he is very literal. It's raining cats and dogs has to be explained to him. Believe me, there are a lot of idioms used every day. But, he is catching on.

He also goes to occupational therapy. He is learning different motor and sensory integration things, and he is doing great with that too.

And he goes to social skills classes to learn the nuances of having friends and fitting in. He would much rather read about how the universe works or anything about animals. He has a scientific mind and taught himself to read at 3!! But quirky is as quirky does.

People with Asperger's that were never diagnosed and didn't recieve services were often maladjusted in society and often lived alone or with their parents. But, now with all the recent services available there really isn't enough evidence of how much it will help in the long run. But I can already see a big improvement in him.

For what it's worth, it's because of a thread on the Dis a year ago that helped me become aware of Asperger's and to get the ball rolling for my son. Thanks Dawnct!!!

I'd love to get our Aspie sons together!

Our son's being extremely bright is what delayed our getting the Asperger's diagnosis. DS tested into the Gifted program in Kindergarten, which was no surprise to us. But every time we would bring up his quirky behavior at school, everyone would just say "Yes, that can be one of the traits of a gifted child." Finally, when he was in 4th grade, there were just too many things that WE didn't think were typical, so we took him to a child study center on our own for testing.

And yes, DS is gifted AND has Asperger's. His intelligence is a blessing, but also a bit of a curse. The schools are loathe to give special help or accomodations to a child in G/T or pre-Ap classes.

I think you're right about lots of the superbright kids who either have emotional difficulties or don't live up to their potential as adults being undiagnosed Aspies. We had a guy like that at our law firm....MIT actuary major, super-bright lawyer. But he got fired, for what I think were very typical Asperger traits. He's almost 60 and I SO want to tell him that there's an explanation for why he is how he is.