Is she gifted and do I need to do anything to support possibly gifted 2 year old?

[RainbowsFriend]

DD's childminder has been commenting for ages on how advanced she is - I don't really see it as she's my first!

But DD is 22 months old - talks clearly in sentences.
Names and recognises shapes like square, rectangle, triangle etc,
Counts to 12
Can say without counting whether she has one, two or three of anything - needs to count them if above 3
Knows all her colours
Draws fairly recognisable rocket shapes, or raindrops, or rainbows - her favourite things
Is starting to recognise some letters and numbers.
Is starting to use "s" to signify plural (even when wrong, such as "sheeps" )
Probably some other stuff not immediately to mind.

Anyway, I don't do a lot with her - take her to the park, read her the same bloody books over and over, chuck her in front of her chalk board or play doh every so often - usual stuff - but I don't teach her anything is what I mean!

So is this gifted? And if so should I start doing more with her than the vague sticking toys in front of her that I currently do?

Happy - no need to teach them to read, they will teach themselves.

Reading at a young age is no problem at all (well, until you start school anyway, lol) so it's not the reading that's the issue. It's the teaching.

Teaching isn't necessary for a 2 yo. Exploring and learning is.

Sorry if that wasn't clear. Nowt wrong with a kid reading at 2. But no need to teach them at all.

Rainbowsfriend, your dd sound quite bright, but it is too early to say or sure, it can be just temporary developmental thing, and then she may slow down. You have to look at dynamic of her brightness, if she is GT there will be no ways of slowing her down.

I am not sure I meant your DD was "normal" except in the best way, Rainbow - she sounds super bright.

Just that child development is hard to gauge and she might be an early developer or genuinely gifted - it's just so hard to tell at this point. Just have fun with her, keep reading to her, playing with her and she is likely to learn quickly and fast. (If she is super bright or gifted, you won't be able to stop her!)

It's interesting how we put so much emphasis on learned skill rather than an enquiring mind.

I personally think my DD3 is very bright. She's 4 and not reading, etc., but her questions are incredibly enquiring.

For instance, one day she suddenly put her hand on my throat and asked me to swallow. She'd noticed the movement.

She asked how zips stay together.

I love that.

Lougle, there are different types of "brightness"-some children can be extremely enquiring and creative, other will learn encyclopaedias by heart-both types are bright but just different as abilities are different. Though I read that it is the second type that can be developed into first and not the vice versa :)

I don't think my sons are particularly gifted, but they are quite bright. DS1 is 6 and struggles with reading, simply because he gets frustrated as it is the first thing that hasn't come easily to him. I've pretty much left reading to the school. Last year, during the summer hols after reception, he decided that our gate needed a child lock to stop my younger son from escaping. He designed and made a very effective childlock out of Lego. I'd much prefer him to do that kind of stuff through choice.

With both of my boys I ask lots of philosophy type questions to encourage their brains to think beyond the obvious. This can be a fun game. I'd rather them question things they see around them. DS1 has already observed that the media tells us what they want to us to know, rather than what actually happens.

They both play a lot with mud and construction toys. Apart from want I described above, and reading aloud to them, I really don't do very much.

As an aside, they both love Numicon at school. DS2 is 3 and can do basic sums just from playing with it. It is worth checking out. I bought a kit for them to use at home and they play with it a lot. I don't do any activities using it, the box is in the living room and they dip in and out of it at will. I usually chuckle to myself listening to DS1 "teaching" DS2. I've learned more about how they do maths at school from listening to them play with it than I ever did before.

This is my long winded way of saying let her be but encourage her interests in a subtle way.

Ds is about to be 22 months and like your dd is bright. We're having great fun together as he devours 'sophisticated' books eg learning about planets, European countries, volcanos etc and is so fascinated I don't see anything wrong in exploring as much as he wants to. He asks me what words are constantly and when we're out and about points out 'no cycling' etc. DD is 6 and has spellings every week which he shows interest in too.

In your situation I would do more if you're taking her lead and if you might both enjoy it- I really recommend it as I'm finding our trips to the library so rewarding and DS thrives on any new knowledge eg loves being told countries' capital cities / knowing who Thomas the Tank engine books are

I didn't teach DS to read as I didn't want him to be bored when they started learning to read at school. I also had terrible problems having learned to read before going to school because I had internalised reading and could read very quickly - which wasn't believed by the teachers. It also meant that I struggled to read out loud as my eyes and brain were going so much quicker than my mouth could so it all came out wrong. DS is now reading several years ahead of his age very competently and starting slowly has clearly not held him back.

Saying that, he asked what 'negative' meant on a walk the other day and we talked about it then taught him about negative numbers - and he's now happy to do mental calculations with negative numbers and crossing the 0 point now. Not quite sure when he will be meant to do those at school

She sounds really bright to me. There's no way my ds will be anywhere near her in terms of speaking, recognising letters, shapes, etc. unless something extraordinary happens! He's great with a football though ! I think I'd follow her lead if I were you. Maybe get some new books, lots of chatting with her, outings, etc

Farking hell, my DS could do literally none of that at that age - she's definitely very bright!

Children progress at different rates. Enjoy exploring a range of activities and being a child. Learning should be fun, and never more so at that tender age! The 'gifted' label can be a PITA and frankly doesn't mean very much.
Treat her as if she is able and interested and she will meet and no doubt exceed expectations but playing and creating and using imagination is a worthwhile foundation for future life satisfaction