Posted by EKS on 20:32 Sep 14
In Reply to: Acceleration and gifted kids... do they really "forget" the basics, (continued from thread below) posted by Kay in Cal
My son is twice exceptional--that is he is gifted *and* has dyslexia and various sensory processing problems that make certain kinds of learning difficult. Apparently the dyslexia can make him "forget" things. I think this is more that memories are misfiled or inaccessible, rather than truly forgotten, because he can be reminded and he gets up to "mastery" level again very quickly.
When he was younger and we were going through arithmetic the first time, he would get the concepts very quickly and only need to do a few problems to become proficient. Then he would get cranky if he had to keep doing them. At the time I didn't understand that he could actually forget after demonstrating proficiency (I didn't forget as a kid, so it wasn't in my experience). But he did, over and over, and then after being reminded he would do a few problems and be good to go again. And the process would repeat itself over and over. Made (and makes) me nuts.
I think what systematic review does for my son (and maybe for everyone, I don't know) is that it makes his ability to access the memories smoother and more automatic.
So, I don't think you can make a blanket statement about gifted kids needing less review or not forgetting or whatever. It depends on the kid and on his/her own pattern of strengths and weaknesses.