Very good at puzzles what does it mean

[dottt]

My 6yo dd v good at puzzles. Regularly completes 1000 plus pieces. She is also v observant. . But she's slightly behind with all year 2 targets.

What does it mean? Should I be doing something?

[dottt]

Bump

[thatisthequestion]

Yes, depending on what you have time for. I have one like that. Wonderful at Maths. I work with them. supplementing after school or weekends. As she should be a quick learner it shant be too hard for you to teach her.

[sparklingsky]

She probably has good visual-spatial skills. But lots of the yr 2 curriculum is based on verbal and nonverbal reasoning.

Look out for literacy and numeracy activities that break things down into small steps, use lots of visuals (diagrams, drawings, pictures).

Have a look at home practice books like Rising Stars

[sittinginthesun]

Is she better at maths than literacy? My youngest loves puzzles, board games, spot the differences etc, and loves non verbal reasoning questions. This is starting to show in his maths work.

[dottt]

Tbh she finds school hard and school don't rate her but I think that perhaps they r wrong and I shd be doing something.

[thatisthequestion]

I will pm you some resources to look through and work with her.

[dottt]

That's v helpful all. I'm not sure if I'm set up for 'pm' do I need to register.

[adoptmama]

First of all I wouldn't worry too much at the idea that she is 'behind in her year 2 targets.' All children go a different paces and just because she may be lagging a little now does not mean she always will. Also remember when they talk about what the the average attainment for y2 is, they are talking about the end of year 2.

If she is good at puzzles she probably has good visual memory skills. This will help in several key maths areas, so it is nice that she has this strength.

If you are worried about her overall progress I'd suggest the first thing you do is have a chat with the teacher and find out if they have any concerns; concentration, confidence and so on and whether they feel she is behind and needs a boost or not. I wouldn't necessarily go the root of doing additional work at home unless absolutely necessary as it can make younger children feel stressed and worried about things. If you do want to do extras like maths, reading and writing etc. try to do it in an 'incidental way'; e.g. do some baking and have her do the measuring of ingredients, reading the receipe etc. or writing the shopping list and then finding the stuff you need.

[dottt]

Thank you that's helpful. I'm not worried just want to do right thing and not miss anything or make assumptions.

[dottt]

Visual spatial what careers does that suit?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Does she use both hands to place pieces? If she does it is a suggestion that she would be suited to being a surgeon - there is at least one medical school that uses puzzle completing to assess for surgical ability.
I could use both hands for puzzles and fine surgery relatively easy.
Good gamers then to be really good with scopes that whole watching TV doing something with hands thing.

[dottt]

That's interesting she does. She's good at 3d and got anatomy v quickly from her us borne book. She's got an amazing memory. Which med school is it a London one?

[dottt]

I'm not worried I'm just being nosey

[Sympathique]

Familiar. DD was also slow compared to peers at everything... except puzzles, which she did left handed despite being right handed for everything else. What would folks on here make of that?

Was suggested at the time that she'd be a mathematician. Couldn't be farther from the truth - tho' she was good at some bits. She was no better at non-verbal than verbal reasoning. Became very much an arts/humanities student, was good at Art with a capital A but not genius. Not sporty but good dancer. No idea what the early puzzle-ability was about. But she is fiercesomely well organized - that is a useful life skill.

Given your DD's a bit 'slower' than some at her current target activities I'd cling to the knowledge that she really excels at those puzzles - clearly there is a remarkable part of her brain that will emerge somehow later on.