To think when your child starts talking is a sign of their intelligence?

[Yuep]

Or is there no link?

bit worried as dd is hitting all milestone and can communicate and understand instruction but at 20 months is only really articulating 5 words with any real sense.

I think it must vary. Different dcs develop different skills in a different order

My ds didn't say a single word - not even mama - until he was 25 months. Within six weeks, he was chatting away in sentences. But he was walking at 7 months and climbing stairs at 11 months. So verbally a bit behind, and physically a bit ahead.

Now he's taking A'level maths & physics 🙂

Unfortunately very intelligent people can still be shitheads.

No. DS had 5 words at 18 months but, according to his reception teacher, he had no peers at his level in maths out of over 100 in the year group. He was one of the very youngest too. He went on to do 4 A levels in maths/comp sci/physics.

Ds1 spoke v early indeed 10 months? DS2 was much slower - partly because of hearing loss due to glue ear - DS2 is the most academic

@Angrymum22 'DS and I have a high IQ but both of us have learned to dumb down, occasionally surprising people with our intellect. Most of the time I happily identify as a “dumb blonde” life is some much easier when people have low expectations of you.'

I sympathise with this.

I worked for a company where part of the onboarding was to take an IQ test. I beat the CEO, which went down like a rat sandwich. After that, if ever I got anything wrong, no matter how minor, he would take the piss and say 'Not so bloody bright now, are you!'

It became very boring over the months.

Nope. I watched a video of my eldest child singing a full nursery rhyme and chatting away at roughly 20 mths and then looked to my other child beside me at 20mths just babbling away and saying a few words but definitely had understanding like yours but I was very very worried. Turned out I had no reason to be, both are very clever and the second one maybe more so but slightly lazier. Try not to worry if she's meeting all the other milestones

DC2 was a late talker. Didn’t babble, barely any words by 18mo, and the words she did have at 2 were a bit skew-whiff. She got a referral in to SaLT, but by the time she was seen at 4 she had caught up just enough that they weren’t worried.

She’s no MN-level genius, but got“exceeding” in her Y6 SATS, and in Y8 is in the top sets for the (admittedly few) setted subjects in her comp. I’m sure that the early talkers are bright, but late talking does not necessarily mean the opposite.

No link me, my brother and my eldest DC all spoke late. All reasonable bright.

“Autistic people are usually 'gestalt language processors', meaning that they learn sentences or figures of speech rather than single words“. Although this applies to 2 of the 3.

Agree with this. My child started talking at 10 months, believe it or not. They are averagely intelligent, but I realised a couple of years ago that their dad probably has ADHD, quite severely actually (refuses to get tested) and that set off a few alerts in my head about our child and why they were quite so challenging as a toddler!

My DSs are 15 and 18. Both neurotypical. Both clever. DS1 got ABB at A level and is at a Russell Group university. DS2 doing GCSEs next year and in top sets. DS1 didn’t utter a single word until he was 2, then spoke in sentences a few months later. DS2 didn’t speak at all till he was nearly 3. Both had lots of interaction from carers, chatted to, stories read etc.

From my experience it's usually the later talkers that turn out to be very intelligent. My oldest(19yrs) was talking in sentences by the time he was a year and a half. I love the bones off that laddie by my god he definitely isn’t the cleverest 😂

My older son didn't talk till he was 7 (autism)
He's now 25 and about to finish his masters.

Not necessarily. I was talking from 7 months but didn't walk until 20 months. Dd didn't say much until 2 then came out with complete sentences.

How do you know they are clever, if they are non-verbal? And why are they non-verbal?

It depends on loads of factors. Girls typically talk sooner than boys. Learning more than one language can often delay speech too.

Honestly, I'm sure there's a "normal" range and as long as you're in that, you're "normal" and I imagine 20 months is normal.

Anecdotal, but my younger sibling didn't talk until they were 4 (autistic) and they are off to Oxbridge soon.

7 months?

I have a hypothesis that more extrovert, socially-motivated children speak earlier and more introverted children with a rich inner world speak later. That was the case with mine - but not a very large sample to go on 😂

Yes, @S1lverCandle. Words like dada, cat, dog, more, no.

My nan took my dad to the Dr when he was about 2.5 because he hadn't said a word. Dr said to wait until he's fully 3yo (not sure if that would still be the advice now). Sure enough, just before he turned 3 he came out with full sentences. I believe it's called Gestalt Language Processing - it's just a different way of processing language.
He's very clever, speaks multiple languages now, good career etc. But he still processes what he's going to say in full beforenhe says it.

My mum says she often doesn't know, when she starts a sentence, how it will end. But that's totally alien to my dad - he plans what he's going to say in full and then says it.

My son didn't talk until he was 4yrs. He was on the waiting list for speech and language therapy. All of a sudden all the words came. He's now top of his class, a complete knowledge sponge and can tell you everything about everything and learning just comes easily to him. My daughter was talking at 2.5yrs however she has never been lucky enough to be able to pick things up as quickly as my son. She has to work very hard to achieve. So no, in my experience (albeit of only two), age at which they talk had no bearing on intelligence.

My elder child was pretty late talking but had no speech problems and soon caught up. Now at 11 he is bright, socially and emotionally very intelligent, did well in all his SATs and generally a smart, switched-on kid. So no, I don’t think being a late talker is demonstrative of their intelligence

I'd say no. My daughter was talking at 12 months more than my son was at 2. He's the more academic one now at 11. I also have a 2 year old son now who's only just talking but have no concerns about it.

I was much later than that with speaking, and could read at 3. I think some kids prefer to just listen until they have it all worked out.

And then there's Einstein:
"The story goes that Albert didn’t speak a word until he was three or four years old. Then suddenly, over supper one night, he said, “The soup is too hot.” Greatly relieved, his parents asked why he had never said anything before. “Because,” little Albert replied, “up to now, everything has been fine.”

My DD was talking fluently and clearly by 1 but I wouldn’t say she’s any brighter than any of her peers. She’s good at story writing but I wouldn’t put that down to talking early. She just likes to chat 🤣