Connection?

I was waiting at the doctor's office and in came one of my students with his mom and two younger brothers. I figured the two little guys would probably be bright. After all, they are Joey's siblings.

I was correct. Five year old Tony filled me in on the Colts' home games the family had attended, including date, scores, important plays, and times that the refs had muffed plays which Tony attibuted to their watching from the wrong angle. Then three year and a half year old Will started showing me the Sports Illustrated he was examining....football again. He was absorbed by a two page spread showing a play where one guy was flipping over the back of another player. Will looked at this page for 10 minutes, excited by the action. He talked about what had probably happened before the picture, every player's number, which team was which complete with city and team name, what body parts were probably injured in this fall, etc.

Impressive. I asked Will if he went to preschool and he said, "No. I can't go until I decide I want to be toilet trained." He wandered off, still engrossed in SI.

Their mom and I started talking. She said that their pediatrician said that in general, the brighter a little boy is, the later he is potty trained. Mom sighed and said, "My boys must be geniuses. All three were over three and a half."

I had noticed this same thing, often bright little girls too, and I've been wondering why this is. My guess would be that these bright little ones are so involved in noticing and exploring the world around them that they can't be bothered with something so mundane as toileting. Or maybe it's that the developmental drive for this type of independence is overshadowed by the excitement of other types of learning in these kids. Or maybe these young cherubs realize at an early age how to push buttons for mom and dad. In any case, it just makes these gifted preschoolers even more interesting in my opinion. Such uneven growth is fascinating as long as I don't have to buy, wash or change the diapers.