Is my child unusually clever?

[Cursingtheboobytum]

Hi,

Just wondering whether my 18 month old is just a bit smart or unusually clever. Purely out of interest at this stage.

So here goes

She's 18 months old and has a large and wide vocabulary (haven't counted but pretty sure we're talking in the hundreds here). For example, she knows all her animals, wild and domestic and what sounds they make. Can recognise a lot of objects and name them from puzzles to jugs, toothbrushes, cars, sofa, bowl, spoon, fork, door window etc.... Speaks three word sentences in two languages and knows when to use each language. Knows up and down, in and out, on and under, in front and behind. Knows her colours and can count to 5 in two languages. Can understand complex instructions (e.g. can be given an instruction with more than one step in it). Does things like using her place mat to 'fish' for things out of her reach on the table, has tried to take apart her bike with an alan key and will use chairs and steps to reach door handles etc..... Seems to be playing at pretending things sometimes, like being asleep ir eating with her play food.

What are your thoughts? Do I have a kid who's a bit smart or is she unusually clever? I don't really have any other child to compare her too.

I have my reasons for asking so don't flame me. And I'm definitely NOT a pushy parent.

Thanks for reading

Should add that she started with the 'fishing' trick, step trick and alan key trick at 16 months.

Sounds like a kid who likes words - they spark her interest and she learns them easily.

Can't predict at this stage whether it is any more than that.

Just enjoy for now.

I wouldn't worry about it to be honest. She sounds normal to me though, maybe slightly above.

She sounds like an early talker with a good memory, so I suppose 'yes', she is clever.

The thing is, at any given stage in the future other children around her could catch up with her, so the 'clever' thing is a bit of an unknown quantity at this young age (iyswim).

My DS was like this, also amazing with puzzles and numbers before the age of 2 yrs old and was a fluent reader by 3 yrs old. He is still very bright, but has a diagnosis of Asperger's and is socially very immature. My DD was slow to talk, but at 3.5 yrs old she as bright as a button and coming along leaps and bounds with reading etc.

So a bit early to be thinking in terms of 'clever', if that makes sense.

sounds normal to me and very inquisitive.

She sounds delightful. Enjoy and have fun! Not sure that there is anything unusual about any of what you say though. She sounds a bit like my boys at the same age, although I never suspected they were anything out of the ordinary. They are bright boys though, doing well in school.

I think it's normal. Isn't there a word explosion at this age?

my dd was like this, with a marked ability to think through a problem and how to resolve it

don't know if she was particularly unusual at all, but what talent she had for some things she more than lacked in others, ie, eating and sleeping

Think they all reach stages of development at different times so not correct to label as "clever" because they get there sooner than others.

DD1 very slow to walk and talk - her little friends all pointing out words etc at 18 months she was quite abit later. She is now 5 in year 1 and has streaked ahead - little friends on level 4 reading she is level 24 basically off the scale used for the class. But am sure the little friends will all catch up they just reach milestones at different times.

you can't tell yet, she might well be but all this means is she's developed her speech and stuff a bit early.

And if she IS a genius, it won't do her any harm for you not to notice for a few years yet and is more likely to do harm the other way round - ie if you thought she was and made a big fuss and then she didn't live up to it.

Are you a particularly talkative family? Are you good with words?

Oh i dont know if you really get unusually clever 18 month olds do you? Theyre all just different.

My dd is 17 months, shes been walking ages and does the 'fishing' thing and standing to reach things though the last 2 ive never thought about until you mentioned them. Shes been doing them for a very long time though.

She uses cutlery and 'draws' much earlier than my son ever did. Shes only very recently started talking though. Thats the thing - 2 weeks ago -I would have said she wasnrt talking, now she has loads of words and a few two word sentences.

I thought bilingual kids were generally quicker at language acquisition initially but i could be wrong.

What are your reasons for wanting to know? My advice would be just forget about it and enjoy her, theyre only little for such a short time.

That is very advanced for 18 months. Well, for an 18 month old in the real world, I mean. Mumsnet babies are all like this!

I think the important thing to realise is that it doesn't really matter. We need to be with our children "in the moment" if you see what I mean, so just keep talking to her and playing with her, taking your lead from her. she may carry on being advanced or she may not. Take your lead from her.

As all the others have said, she sounds normal. My DD had a vocabulary list of hundreds at the same age and was speaking in simple sentences. (On the other hand she couldn't walk properly until a couple of months later!) What they understand you saying to them far outweighs what they can say back, so following complex instructions isn't unusual either.

She may well be brighter than average, or just an earlyish developer (linguistically) but it doesn't indicate genius at this stage.

thing is there are plenty of people on Mumsnet with kids who did stuff early and then turned out to be gifted, so in retrospect it seems like it was obvious early on, but equally there are people whose kids did stuff early and then turned out averagely bright.

Bilingual children generally are a bit slower in the individual languages, but overall have a larger vocabulary.

Having said that, my bilingual children were exceptionally slow at language acquisition, first words not until past the age of 18 months. This has not stopped then all being intelligent and talented as they have become older.

Ooh. I'm everso nosey.

What are the "reasons for asking"?

It is too difficult to say at this time.

For what its work at 18m my DD was very verbal. She talked in sentences, could have conversations, knew 100s of words (way too many to count), could put words into proper sentenced, couple be understood by pretty much anyone. She could recite numbers to 10 and more, could follow instructions, etc.

However, she is now 9 years old and her academic abilities are very much normal - average for her age. She still talks all the time and vocally is very articulate, but very much normal.

Ah, you can left. Ds learned the all of the letters of the alphabet (random ones), how to count to 20, colours and basic shapes in 2 weeks from a toy bus he was given. He was 1. He could speak sentences of 8 words also. It's very hard raising a child like this though, he doesn't make friends easily as he struggles socially. He also argues, a lot, as he doesn't see himself as a child.

She definitely has a very large vocabulary for an 18 month old - some only have a couple of words at that age, most around 30.

The other stuff sounds fairly normal though.

Not unusually clever, advanced at present, yes, but that's not necessarily a sign of anything much.

The two language is, I assume because you (parents) are duel language, they develop what they're exposed to. For example people used to exclaim over dd2 singing the alphabet letter perfectly at 18 months. That was simply because her sister sang it a lot, and she was singing it phonetically and had no idea what it meant.

Also I don't think it's possible to tell at this stage. My dd1 was very articulate at 18 months, and had a friend of the same age who ended up having speech therepy for lack of vocabulary at 2.6yo. At 4.6 yo you wouldn't have been able to tell you which one had been "advanced" and which had needed extra help.

I knew a child that could open child proof medicine bottles at 15 months. I think that was called "dangerously dextrous".

No

I was so worried as my friends baby was chit chatting away at 18 months and mine was not. 14 years later they both as annoying and chatty as each other !!

Who knows? Does it matter at the moment? My dc2 was a very early talker and sounded very precocious at the age of 3 , however he didn't crawl until he was 1 and didn't walk until 18 months. Dc1 was the other way round, early walker, but didn't speak until he was 2.5, apart from the word concorde!

Now, dc2 (11) is bright (as they always are on mumsnet ), but nothing special. He still sounds articulate and interacts well with adults and always has. I think he likes the sound of his own voice. Dc1 still doesn't talk much, but at least he can now.

Nope. Normal. Quite an early talker, though not unusual.