What was your gifted child like when they were 2 - 3 years old

[ChazDingle]

Won't go into too much detail but DS has been identified as potentially showing some signs of autism. One of the main things is that he extremely good with numbers and letters. Its early days still but it was also mentioned that some of the other signs might be toddler behavour that he grows out of and he might be gifted. When i look at the signs of autism and the signs of giftedness there is quite a big overlap. If your child is gifted what were they like at 2-3 and were they suspected of being autistic? Did they turn out to be autistic as well as gifted.

My kitchen table currently 😂

My sons always been really socialable and always been ok with eye contact. His speech was also in line for age. I think it’ll just be a case of wait and see. I take it she’s had her hearing checked?

This.

Well say what you want but it was defiantly an early sign as it turns out (I am the original poster of that comment from 2013) , he liked order, putting things in an order like numbers and letters. We are now 10
years on and he has a lot more obvious signs of autism

Ds was the same with puzzles, he's not autistic, just gifted, especially at maths and spacial stuff. Going on to do computer science and maths at 16, not exceptional but does well without much study. Some issues with disengagement in primary.

So did it show itself in puzzles at a really young age? Was their activities you gave him to encourage that learning?

I posted months ago upthread. He was doing 20 piece puzzles at 20 months, up to 100 piece ones sometime when he was two. I bought him more cheap cardboard puzzles, he had my old lego and duplo, then his own sets for birthdays and Christmas. He was following instructions for 7+ kits at age 4. He liked to watch mythbusters dvds, history programmes like timeteam, engineering programmes. I taught him numbers and letters like many parents before school. The maths he just understood the first time he was taught, and he wanted to learn new things all the time, we just talked about it in the car. He was assessed at an end of year 2 level for maths halfway through reception, he did it all in his head though as he had no formal instruction.

I’ve found this thread and find it really interesting. Our son is in the category but to be honest to us he not to be rude isn’t well above his peers by any means. He’s always been interested in learning, reading and we’ve always I suppose since he was little as a family encouraged that as we as people both are.

I was in the G&T at school and didn’t really see much benefit a lot of the time. We did get to go on some courses that were interesting and some development but senior school after Y9 it just stopped.

and my concern is when our bairn gets to senior school, I certainly felt I was then isolated in these sessions with my friends (not included), as me and they were from a lower background income wise to the rest of the group in G&T and that was difficult.

im not sure how it works in secondary school now but i do worry about that. As someone who was on a sports team too, it was clear that the school prided sporting over academic achievement

At age 2-3 DD had really good language acquisition she started talking very young actually. DH has ASD, DD has dyslexia but tested really high IQ, when we smashed the dyslexia , she started reading Shakespeare obviously when she was 8. Shakespeare has really helped her developed a love for reading. She started drawing when she was 2-3 for hours at a time.

Just noted this is old thread - but if it's of any help to anyone my gifted DC did not say a word until he was 3. Fab social skills but very independent. Amazing concentration, but happy to stop if asked.

My DS (2nd child) was incredibly aware of surroundings and showed very early signs of separation anxiety and lots of other people commented on how it looked as if he was an old man in a baby's body as even when a few months old, it looked as if he somehow knew what was going on around him.

Other than that, with an older toddler, didn't have time to teach him letters/numbers but he picked it up himself. Was astounded when, a much older child was showing off his counting in tens to his parents, when DS (still in a buggy) was able to carry on past 100! Definitely strong ability to see signs/read early, numbers and full understanding of number.

Pre-school commented on how he would actively seek out learning opportunities even when very young and sometimes away from other children. But he was still sociable but incredibly self conscious (again aware of surroundings). I did ask the question about ASD/spectrum but teacher, very experienced, said 'he's just very bright'. Generally speaking school and other adults have always commented on how bright he is, but we did notice his capability to remember things and process and draw connections at quite adult levels, made an appearance very early on. And was quite interesting as with oldest child, we didn't see these things so it was evident DC2 was different in that sense.

DS now is still an extremely chatty child, still a bit self conscious but has lots of friends and a great sense of humour (quite sarcastic and adult)! He's still gifted and has a high IQ.

At that age my DD was planning a lot of the activities she ended up doing at nursery. She kept the staff very entertained.

My DD is 22 months and showing possible signs of being in the spectrum . She is highly anxious around new people , very picky eater and toe walks . Other than that she is on track for everything. She can pass the ASQ questionnaire for a 24 months and scores zero on the MCHAt test . Just to show how girls can mask

DS knew all letters and numbers at 2. He was especially good at numbers & had a terrific memory. He also had a wide ranging vocabulary. By four he was very good at (for eg) following lego instructions. By 7 he got very very into strategic board games aimed at older kids and teens. He was an early reader and still reads extensively and fast.

He has no signs whatsoever of autism. Is happy, popular and sociable at school.

He was adorable, and lovely, but nothing special that I can put my finger on! He was late walking, late talking, couldn't read before school 😁 Honestly, it wasn't till high school that it was highlighted to us!

Mine was hard work! He wouldn't sleep, he was hyper and never sat still. Difficult managing emotions and lacked social skills but had a photographic memory and loved maths from an early age.

10 years later, he is into all the academics and sports on offer, surrounded by a lovely group of friends.

My kid was a loud babbler as a baby, at 2-3 knew “all” the colours, numbers v g, able to build intricate domino runs etc. able to do reasonably difficult mental maths by age 4, better additions than I might be able to do now, but his reading was average and his writing was rubbish in comparison. Drawing was a bit crap too. Left handed and complained it hurt to write :-).

Logical rather than imaginative so he would read books about science rather than stories. Sport kicked in about age 7. He was a late walker, like a previous poster. But is now v sporty.

Was (is) a lovely kid, socially able, values friendships and is kind.

would categorise him as gifted since he got academic scholarships in the 11+ here in london

I’ll say kids change a lot. I knew he was v v good at maths. But I wouldn’t have dreamt he’d be good at sport or that languages would be something he’d excel at. He was and is very logical - a code breaker (hence he can do languages!) but maths is still his big favourite. NB when he was born I was worried he might be brain damaged following a difficult birth - he was a very quiet newborn. If I could have a word with myself I’d say Not to worry (but that’s much easier said than done of course!)

DS is 16 and very gifted at maths and has a place at a specialist sixth form maths school that has amongst the highest A-level results in the country.

However at 2-3 YO nothing really stood out. He was quite a bit later to talk and walk than DD. She was a bit more precocious and has always been a lot more extrovert.

Around 6YO he started showing some interest in music and by 9YO he was showing a lot of talent in maths and music.

By 11YO he was so far ahead of his year group at maths that the school didn't really know what to do with him.

At times we have wondered whether he might be a bit neurodivergent but at no point in his first few years did we have any indication that he could be so gifted.

One thing that may have helped is he used to sleep an awful lot as a baby. Maybe that was good for his brain development!