I was very excited to find this article because it featured my coworker, Mandy Herbert and her son. Atleast I know what to get him for Christmas, right? =P
Posted on Thu, Oct. 12, 2006
BY SUZANNE PEREZ TOBIAS
The Wichita Eagle
When an 11-year-old boy can rattle off the earned run averages of every pitcher in Major League baseball, you might not flinch.
When he can tell you everything about an ocean liner that sank in 1912 -- from its dimensions to the number of lifeboats onboard to the number of people who died -- it seems a little more, well, unusual.
Fifth-grader Blake Herron is, according to his mother, "obsessed with the Titanic."
Since watching the blockbuster movie on DVD a few years ago, the 11-year-old from Valley Center has checked out dozens of books, memorized trivia and even spent birthday money on a Titanic replica, which he rams against ice cubes in the bathtub to re-enact the ship's demise.
"We had no idea it would turn into this," said Blake's mom, Mandy Hebert. "You don't hear about too many kids caring that much about an old boat."
Maybe not. But when we asked readers recently to tell us about their children's passions, several parents revealed somewhat quirky kid passions -- pigs, buses, weather, cheetahs, even stoplights.
Child development experts say passionate interests aren't all that uncommon among young children. It's just that some topics seem weirder than others.
"If someone said to you, 'Oh, my child is obsessed with Pokemon,' or 'He knows everything about sports trivia,' you'd probably just think, 'Yeah, I had a brother like that,' " said Perri Klaas, a Boston pediatrician and co-author of "Quirky Kids" (Ballantine Books, 2004).
"Many, many children seem capable of going into some subject, at least for a while, with this really, really powerful hunger for the details. And depending on what the interest is, it can look more or less unusual to the adult world."
Like many educators, Klaas urges parents to embrace their children's interests, whatever they might be, and use them as a springboard for learning.
"The world is full of little boys who understand math because of the baseball thing," she said.
"There are quite a few professors of history who can point their career back to something that captured their interest in childhood."
Ten-year-old Sarah Holmes' obsession with pigs started randomly enough -- when her father brought back a stuffed-animal pig from a business trip. Sarah, who was 3 at the time, named the pig Porky and took it to bed.
"There was no rhyme or reason, she just fell in love with it, and it just kind of took off from there," said Sarah's mom, Teresa Resko.
Now pigs are "her thing," Resko said. Her collection grew -- pig statues, pig pajamas, piggy banks, you name it. And Sarah can't stand the thought of eating bacon or ham.
Her two older brothers discovered that if they mimic the dog in the Beggin' Strips dog-treat commercial -- where the dog says "bacon, bacon, bacon!" --Sarah will squeal and run to defend her pigs, Resko said.
Most local parents who called or wrote to tell us about their kids' crazes said they sometimes grow weary of the obsessions. But they'd also heard that strong passions -- particularly unusual ones -- are a sign of giftedness.
Klaas, the "Quirky Kids" author, said gifted children sometimes tend to have "areas of remarkable expertise." But intense interests don't guarantee genius status, any more than they might signal more worrisome conditions, such as Asperger's syndrome.
"I always think it's really interesting and take it as a sign of intelligence whenever a child wants to delve into a subject so deeply," she said.
"At the very least, it's a sign of intellectual independence and a desire for learning, and that can serve them well throughout life."
Posted on Thu, Oct. 12, 2006
Quirky kid obsessions
Children's passions -- however bizarre they may be -- can be a springboard for learning.
When an 11-year-old boy can rattle off the earned run averages of every pitcher in Major League baseball, you might not flinch.
When he can tell you everything about an ocean liner that sank in 1912 -- from its dimensions to the number of lifeboats onboard to the number of people who died -- it seems a little more, well, unusual.
Fifth-grader Blake Herron is, according to his mother, "obsessed with the Titanic."
Since watching the blockbuster movie on DVD a few years ago, the 11-year-old from Valley Center has checked out dozens of books, memorized trivia and even spent birthday money on a Titanic replica, which he rams against ice cubes in the bathtub to re-enact the ship's demise.
"We had no idea it would turn into this," said Blake's mom, Mandy Hebert. "You don't hear about too many kids caring that much about an old boat."
Maybe not. But when we asked readers recently to tell us about their children's passions, several parents revealed somewhat quirky kid passions -- pigs, buses, weather, cheetahs, even stoplights.
Child development experts say passionate interests aren't all that uncommon among young children. It's just that some topics seem weirder than others.
"If someone said to you, 'Oh, my child is obsessed with Pokemon,' or 'He knows everything about sports trivia,' you'd probably just think, 'Yeah, I had a brother like that,' " said Perri Klaas, a Boston pediatrician and co-author of "Quirky Kids" (Ballantine Books, 2004).
"Many, many children seem capable of going into some subject, at least for a while, with this really, really powerful hunger for the details. And depending on what the interest is, it can look more or less unusual to the adult world."
Like many educators, Klaas urges parents to embrace their children's interests, whatever they might be, and use them as a springboard for learning.
"The world is full of little boys who understand math because of the baseball thing," she said.
"There are quite a few professors of history who can point their career back to something that captured their interest in childhood."
Ten-year-old Sarah Holmes' obsession with pigs started randomly enough -- when her father brought back a stuffed-animal pig from a business trip. Sarah, who was 3 at the time, named the pig Porky and took it to bed.
"There was no rhyme or reason, she just fell in love with it, and it just kind of took off from there," said Sarah's mom, Teresa Resko.
Now pigs are "her thing," Resko said. Her collection grew -- pig statues, pig pajamas, piggy banks, you name it. And Sarah can't stand the thought of eating bacon or ham.
Her two older brothers discovered that if they mimic the dog in the Beggin' Strips dog-treat commercial -- where the dog says "bacon, bacon, bacon!" --Sarah will squeal and run to defend her pigs, Resko said.
Most local parents who called or wrote to tell us about their kids' crazes said they sometimes grow weary of the obsessions. But they'd also heard that strong passions -- particularly unusual ones -- are a sign of giftedness.
Klaas, the "Quirky Kids" author, said gifted children sometimes tend to have "areas of remarkable expertise." But intense interests don't guarantee genius status, any more than they might signal more worrisome conditions, such as Asperger's syndrome.
"I always think it's really interesting and take it as a sign of intelligence whenever a child wants to delve into a subject so deeply," she said.
"At the very least, it's a sign of intellectual independence and a desire for learning, and that can serve them well throughout life."
