Truman’s teacher at school wanted us to have him tested for gifted and talented because she saw higher-order thinking processes in him.
“Higher order thinking (HOT) is thinking on a level that is higher than memorizing facts or telling something back to someone exactly the way it was told to you. HOT takes thinking to higher levels than restating the facts and requires students to do something with the facts — understand them, infer from them, connect them to other facts and concepts, categorize them, manipulate them, put them together in new or novel ways, and apply them as we seek new solutions to new problems.” [http://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-increase-higher-order-thinking
]
Tru’s teacher helped me understand this with a simple example of her son.
There was a field fire and Ms. Holley commented to her son, “Wow. That is a really big fire.”
Son, “I wonder what happens to the earth worms in the fire.”
Ms. Holley had expected someone his age to respond with, “The firemen better come quick.” or something like that.
I’m still understanding what this means, but I think it’s super interesting. Sometimes Truman comes up with things that are fascinating to me. Things he calculates at his age. And questions he comes up with.
For example:
Telling Time
Last year – age 5 – Truman was waking up too early.
He came in and we told him he couldn’t watch tv until 7.
It was 6:37.
Within seconds he said, “That is in 23 minutes.”
I had this wild feeling that this was extraordinary for his age.
Probably because I have to think and process 60-37=23 to figure it out.
But his mind computes it so quickly, like it’s natural.
Days until birthday
Today Truman – age 6 – was begging me to buy a membership to Club Penguin.
I told him that if he wanted it, we could buy a 1-month membership on his birthday.
I told him since it’s February, his birthday is in 8 months.
5 minutes later, he came downstairs and said that his birthday was in 240 days.
I found this calculation on the internet because I wanted to see how close he was:
I asked him how he figured that out.
He said he counted on his fingers by 30s.
Way to think outside the box.
8 months x 30 days/month = 240
Anyhoo… I just wanted to note Truman’s way of thinking.
I wonder if many of his behavioral hard times are because he’s bored.
He doesn’t think or focus the way I do, so perhaps he needs different stimulus and education.
