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Gifted and talented

Talk to other parents about parenting a gifted child on this forum.

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Original poster

Is my 13 month old gifted or normal? He can.....

18 replies

Blondie2009a · 18/02/2014 14:13

Hello Mumsnet!
I have two children - a very active 13 month old and another son due to start school in September. My youngest continues to amaze me and I am wondering if he is gifted or simply just coping his big brother. Can anyone tell me what they think please, he can:
-Walk (started at 10 months)
-Say Mummy, Daddy, Dog, Sq (for squirrel), bd (for bird), Mmmm (for food)
-Can stack five stacking cups
-Can build a tower of wooden blocks to his own height, then stands to admire it (whilst sometimes clapping!)
-Keen and competent to walk up the steps and slide down the slide in the park (that my four yr old enjoys)
-Loves books and reacts to stories.
-Understands 'big', 'tall', says 'Oh Oh' to monkey and jumps when he sees a frog (picture)
-Feeds himself with spoon.
-Can operate our iPad (sorry Daily Mail!)
-Turns off the TV when Ben and Holly finishes (!)

Is this all normal behaviour?
Best wishes

OP posts:

GinAndaDashOfLime · 18/02/2014 14:18

Yes normal (but lovely) I think. My 13 month old dd does all the same. If they have older siblings they do learn more quickly. Enjoy him

extracrunchy · 18/02/2014 14:23

Normal - and yes big brothers definitely help he sounds adorable!

Kittymalinky · 18/02/2014 14:27

Dunno but if so my 16mo is also gifted as she could do all those things at 13mo. (My first so no experience)

It is amazing though if you think back to what they could do just a year ago!

TunipTheUnconquerable · 18/02/2014 14:30

I think the block towers are really impressive!
The term 'gifted' is pretty much meaningless at this age but it sounds like he's developing really well.

NancyJones · 18/02/2014 14:37

I think it's normal but quite lovely too! I do have a gifted child, plus a normally developing one and one with SN so quite a spread to compare. My gifted one could hold a full coherent conversation about all sorts of things by 16mths. He understood pretty much anything we said and was going to fetch shoes, coats and other various items when asked before his 1st birthday. He also walked at 10mths. By 2yrs, he was reading, counting, adding, writing his name etc. he had also had 2 lots of stitches and a broken wrist from crazy escapades!

Tbh. It can be a pitb but he's also a very confident happy child. I know of other gifted child who struggle socially or are very introverted so I consider us quite lucky.

Your DS sounds delightful!

mercibucket · 18/02/2014 14:41

my second was like that. he is clever but just as clever as his older brother (didnt talk til 2) and sister (didnt walk til 18 months) so i dont know whether it is a sign of future cleverness in particular

mercibucket · 18/02/2014 14:45

it could be a sign of sporting talent actually. sounds like good hand-eye coordination etc. maybe think about trying sports from age 3plus

MyNameIsKenAdams · 18/02/2014 15:27

Normal but lovely! Dd is similar and imo bog standard but wonderful.

MostWicked · 18/02/2014 16:22

I really don't like the term "gifted"
I don't think it does anyone any favours!
Children who practice things a lot, become very good at them.
Just enjoy him being an inquisitive child.

nonicknameseemsavailable · 18/02/2014 21:02

I would say normal but probably brightly normal if that makes sense. I wouldn't say gifted myself. My sister and my eldest daughter were talking in sentences by their 1st birthday and whilst I think DD1 is gifted a lot of the time I also doubt myself on that regularly. It depends greatly on what your definition of gifted is. If it is the schools one of top 10% then yes probably but if it is the more traditional one then I think you can't always tell at that age but usually they are children (in my opinion) who see the world in a different way. hard to explain but when you meet a child like that you know.

Sovaysovay · 26/02/2014 17:42

Totally normal. Mine does about the same - a few more words, better manual dexterity than her older brother (she likes a stacking toy threading discs on a stick), better at holding crayons.

It can be a big jump when they stop being babies and start actually doing things, it can all look pretty 'genius'. But it's just what they do. Language and new actions just rocket from here, there'll be a new trick every week.

TheBakeryQueen · 27/02/2014 22:18

He sounds lovely, language & walking normal.

The block building is pretty impressive though so he must have very good co-ordination & concentration for that.

sydlexic · 27/02/2014 22:26

My DS didn't speak until he was nearly two, didn't walk until 14 months. He would spell what he wanted in plastic letters on the floor age 1 and sort his blocks into different colours and shapes. He would put piles of equal amounts on the floor, first lots of two and then three! then four. So he obviously understood how to count even though he could not speak.He didn't drawer a picture until he was forced to at school.

I think it is so hard to tell if a child is gifted when they are that young as even gifted children are all different.

Original poster

Blondie2009a · 27/02/2014 22:52

Thank you for all your comments and sharing your experiences.
Lovely to hear.
I will continue to observe and will continue to be proud of both my lovely boys.
I won't be contacting Mensa just yet!

OP posts:

Idratherbemuckingout · 07/03/2014 08:06

My daughter said her first word aged 8 months and never stopped after that, people mistaking her for a child a full year older than she was when only aged 18 months (she was quite a tall toddler). She went on to miss year 6 out at school going straight to secondary (selective) from year 5. She is a primary school teacher now.
Her younger brother (by 19 months) hardly spoke for a long time as she did all his talking for him, but he is equally bright.
The next one down was a chatterer like her, and turned out to be the brightest of the three with a genius IQ.
The last one is also very bright and could give us directions while out in the car when he was only two.

blueberryupsidedown · 15/03/2014 18:52

Don't be fooled by early language development though. Many parents will be very proud that their child speaks early, which is lovely by all accounts, but many high profile scientists, computer experts, mathematicians started speaking late. Or very late in some cases. DS2 had lots of strange looks as a toddler, even had health visitor nagging me, schools calling ed psychologists and DS going to all sorts of speech therapists because he was not talking at age 3. Now he is in year 2 and on G&T list for maths, and now (as of last week) for literacy also. In the Head Teacher's words, his 'understanding of maths concepts and problem solving capacity are phenomenal'.

ForFcuksSake · 13/04/2014 23:13

I would second the not being fooled by early language.

At 6, ds1 is thought to be g & t. It's only the past 2 years that people can actually understand his speech though. He used to have awful pronunciation and would just miss out random bits of words in his speech. At 4, he was still dropping the last part of his words like a baby does - ie 'sho' for shop, 'ca' for cat which led to people speaking to him like he was a baby when actually at that point, he had the comprehension and vocabulary of an 8 year old...he just couldn't pronounce the actual words.

Even at 6, I sometimes have to tell him to slow down and repeat himself, and it can be very difficult to catch what he says when he's excited about something. Speech therapy never did any good, he just found it frustrating. My personal opinion is that his mind was just going so fast, he never gave himself time to pronounce the words properly.

waterhorse123 · 18/04/2014 08:23

Many children develop at different speeds in different areas. Some children have early hand eye co-ordination, some speak early. I was what would now be termed a gifted child, talking and walking very early, but a bed wetter for a long time, able to draw so well my drawings as a four year old were stolen from an art exhibition! Sadly I guess, I didn't fulfill my potential. This might well have been because no-one really saw me as exceptional (an exceptional child in a very bright family does NOT stand out as a bright one would in a below average family for example) and nothing was done to encourage me particularly. I went to grammar school but did minimal work, got my O and A levels, but have coasted rather lazily through life doing the minimum every since! It's only now at a very advanced age that I realise what I SHOULD have been doing and am working hard(ish) for an Open University degree. But even that doesn't require the hugest amount of effort, although I am far more diligent in my old age than my youth.
I think if you have a bright or gifted child, you should recognise this and encourage and support them as much as you possibly can, in order that they should fulfill their potential or you risk them coasting through life like I have done. If you're exceptionally bright, then everything always comes easily, so why work? The gifted frequently need to be made to work to their full potential as it is far too easy to just do "enough" to get by.

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