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Child genius???!!!

71 replies

Calista · 06/11/2004 11:12

Just found this post on another website..
What do you think?

OP posts:
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Calista · 06/11/2004 11:13

My ds2 is also 14 months, which is why I was looking on this discussuion board, but this sounds like a child 3 times that age!! Quite scary really.

OP posts:
jane313 · 06/11/2004 11:22

They may just be lying! Poor thing though if its true.

wallawallabingbang · 06/11/2004 11:39

Wow! My 14 month old can say "ta" "mamamam" "dadaadada" and sometimes nods his head

morningpaper · 06/11/2004 12:12

My daughter was 2 last month and she seems very advanced. I find it very difficult. A lot of people have said to me, "She's just like a little old lady!"

She has spoken in sentences since she was 18 months. She never had a problem with grammar - she just started getting everything right first time. She is now EXTREMELY articulate. With this verbal advancement comes a lot of internal/thought development as well. She often comes out with very 'deep' thoughts, and picks up on people being slightly down, and will say things like, "What are you thinking Matthew?" if someone is SLIGHTLY under par. She also asks me a lot of complicated theological questions about church, which REALLY floors me.

Her nursery carers say she is lovely company and helps them out all the time, leading 'classes' etc. and say she is just incomparable to the others her age. She seems 'on a par' with articulate 6-7 year olds, although to be honest I don't find many of them!

She isn't advanced in any other ways apart from verbal/social skills - although she has been completely potty trained for a few months. She is podgy and just under the centile chart for height, which adds to the pecularity (is that a word?!) of the situation - she is like a 'little old lady trapped in the body of a baby!' as several people have said.

I think the old-lady references come from the fact that she seems to speak a strange kind of 1950's schoolboy english - lots of 'goody!' and 'hurrah!' and 'thank you very much Mrs Smith!"

Anyway, I'm rambling. She is great company, but I do worry about her. She also seems 'sad' a lot of the time, although I think she is mostly thinking a lot. There is a history of mental illness in our family and I worry that her 'deep' nature might half a darker flip-side. I was also 'very bright' but ill with mental problems during my teenage years - I often find myself singing that Pulp song "You look like me, please don't turn out like me..."

God this turned all morose...!

freshname · 06/11/2004 12:14

Load of poop - the 14 month old I mean.

zebra · 06/11/2004 12:52

I think it's telling that she never posted anything else about it.

misdee · 06/11/2004 13:00

all i'm gettingis toddler planning meals.............

dogwalker · 06/11/2004 13:11

symphaties to you morning paper - as for the other thing - I'm with you freshname, wot a load of poop!

yurtgirl · 06/11/2004 14:06

Message withdrawn

yurtgirl · 06/11/2004 14:08

Message withdrawn

freshname · 06/11/2004 14:12

I mean that imo it is a made up post and the child is fictional.

freshname · 06/11/2004 14:16

I mean a 14 month old adding and subtracting in double figures? Do you really believe that?

jampot · 06/11/2004 14:22

my dd is a bright thing and was exceptionally advanced when a toddler especially. I can honestly say I've hardly had to teach her a thing - she just "knew" which sounds odd. On the other hand I didn't go through number work with her nor "teach" her to read pre-school but she had a very early grasp of letter sounds, names and recognition as well as numbers. Very large vocab extending to over a hundred words at her 18 month check. Obviously nothing like this child but I do believe with the right encouragement and exposure a very bright child can do these things. For the life of me though I cant see why you would want your baby to be learning things like subtracting double numbers from 100.

jampot · 06/11/2004 14:24

My dd used to "see" objects in things like clouds (and her poo as well ) which apparently is indicative of a bright child. - or one that's lost her marbles

yurtgirl · 06/11/2004 14:47

Message withdrawn

hmb · 06/11/2004 14:58

DD was speaking in full, coherent, sentences for 8 or more words when she was 18 months. eg 'Mummy, can I have an icecream please' she wasn't discussing Plato or anything By 20 months she knew her alphabet and would point out letter when we were out in town. We did not hot house in any way. I read to her but that was all. (in terms of educational stimuli). She would be taken for a child at least a year older than her age. She taught herself to read at 3.5. She isn't as advanced in maths but has a reading age 5 years ahead of her chronological age. She doesn't stand out from her friends as an odd bod.

Raised ds the same way and he had speech probelms and wasn't making much sense until he was 2.5+ You get what you are given, just one of those things.

tortoiseshell · 06/11/2004 15:02

At 14 months they barely play with each other anyway, so I don't know why she would seem bored with other kids - I would have thought it would be unusual for her to be both academically and socially so much advanced. I do find it hard to believe though - dd is 15 months now, and has about 5 or 6 words. It's the concepts though. Like the concept of addition/subtraction. I once read that there is pretty well a 'set' age for getting concepts, and before they reach this, it is just 'monkey tricks'!

tortoiseshell · 06/11/2004 15:02

hmb - cross posted! Not referring to your dd as a monkey!

Stripymouse · 06/11/2004 15:15

I just do not believe it. If she were 2 years plus I might just about believe the forwards and backwards alphabet but the maths skills on top seem just too far fetched - I reckon it is a send up (I have problems with reciting it backwards straight off and I don?t count myself as particularly thick!)
Also - repetition and memory skills does not count as intelligence in my book - it is what you do with those skills that counts.

hmb · 06/11/2004 15:28

ts

Jimjams · 06/11/2004 15:55

Can't read the original thread for some reason but I always think "george and Sam" when I read stuff like this (well george from george and sam). Always remember charlotte Moore saying how chuffed they were to have a child genius. Unfortunately at 13 ish he knows pretty much the same as he did at 2. For instance apparently before the age of 2 George would stand up to recite 'dark brown is the river, golden is the sand, it flows along for ever, with trees on either hand". His ability to use rote learned language hid the very serious language deficits he had. Come across a few other autistic kids who showed amazing precocious early development so whenever I read something like this I think "uh oh". I can't read the original thread as I said- so what's the amazing social stuff the child is doing? if its interacting with adults I would have doubly loud "uh oh" warning bells ringing.

Stripymouse is right as well about the repetition. My autistic son knew his alphabet before 2 and his numbers and shapes like trapezium etc- and he is about to go t panel to be considered for a place at a school for those with severe learning difficulties. Incidentally his NT 2 year old brother has somehow learned that stuff as well 9and boy did I try and keep him away from it as it made me very paranoid) but he can use the information he has in a much more useful and sensible way. I'm far prouder of the fact that he knows how to make pancakes and bread than he knows his letters.

freshname · 06/11/2004 15:59

300+words"
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Author: smartked Jul 30, 2004, 1:16 PM (PDT)

I took the time to count. She already speaks in complete sentences. In addition to knowing the alphabet forwards AND backwards, she has mastered all the numbers to 100 and has started to add and subtract in double digits. Interestingly, she is able to sing whole songs - not just kids songs, adult ones too. Finally, the other day my wife and I were watching a French movie while Candy was in the room. The next day we took her out and she pointed at a car and said "voiture." Again, she is only 14 months and seems far ahead of other kids her age.

My issue is: she gets very bored around other kids and seems sad, what should we do?

freshname · 06/11/2004 16:00

for you jimjams

hmb · 06/11/2004 16:11

Jimjams when I read this thread I thought about what you had posted about ds1. It made me a bit worried too but didn't feel I had the infomation to post as such.

MarsLady · 06/11/2004 16:13

ds1 could recognize letters and count and speak in sentences at 18 months. People at mums and tots groups would tell me to get him assessed because he was "bright". Well ds1 is still very bright, but I wanted him to be a little boy first and foremost, not my show and tell toy. He loves football which I feel has rounded him out. He would read atlases for hours and even today can tell you a whole host of information that you never believed he could know. He's in a local grammar school and doing very well, but the most important thing to me is that he is happy and has a lot of friends. I know plenty of bright people who are as boring as f... and I'm glad that I stayed well away from assessment.