Pretty sure 22 month old is gifted

[Tsarina1]

Hi all, just looking for some advice on how to handle our 22 month old, she's fantastic, sociable, bubbly & fun. However she has been speaking in full sentances since 14 months, has a huge vocabulary, today she used "actually" in the correct context for example. She has really advanced role play, favourite games being libraries & asking me to sign books(we went to an Axel Scheffler book signing ages ago), she also recites books back to us she freked my mom out last week when she picked up A Squash & a Squeeze & "read it" also does this with the Gruffalo & Gruffalo's child any rhyming books really. Knew her alphabet song at 18 months & counts to 20. How do we continue to keep her stimulated? Imo her social development would be more important now & she goes to playgroups, music classes, library & has plenty of playdates. She mixes well but tends to prefer slightly older children, has to know everyones name & strangely enough wants to know their mammys name e.g Ella & her mammy Helen will be at playgroup. V interested in adults & talks about DH's & my friends quite alot as well as their kids, Does she sound gifted or just bright to you? Not that it really matters she's still our beautiful funny little dd but I read a checklist on giftedness & she ticked the majority of boxes

My firstborn didn't speak until he was 3, couldn't do puzzles, didn't know colours etc. now he is a teenager and he really is a bloody genius. My 'gifted' baby, who spoke in sentences before she turned a year, and could do all the other things you mention and much much more is now decidedly average (and absolutely amazing!) but it just goes to show, you really really can't tell at her age. It does sound like a good memory rather than any real higher order thinking though.

If assume she's bright but you won't know if she's gifted till she starts academic work. Id avoid hot housing her at home though and concentrate on play and creativity as you already do

I am sorry but this is not really meaningful Early progress is not an indication of later success.
My SIL could read by the age of 3 but left school with no qualifications.
My son did not utter a word until 3 and has just won the year medal at school at 17.

Counting to 20 does not mean a child understands numeracy.

By the sounds of it you are getting the balance between teaching her and doing other activities about right if you have managed to teach her so much already and she is still getting time to play with other children and be creative.

I would certainly keep up the teaching and it does not sound to me like you are about to turn it into hot housing.

She's obviously racing ahead in her language development : we found that one advantage of that, having a toddler who had clear speech and a fantastic vocabulary from a v young age, was that many terrible twos' tantrums were avoided because he could express himself verbally.

Development goes in fits and starts. Having had such a fast start with talking I was surprised how long it took DS to read , but then he caught up fast. Now in secondary he is doing well.

Your little girl is obviously bright, go with the flow and don't pressurise her in any way.

She does sound very bright, and it sounds like you really enjoy doing things with her :)

Development does work in unusual ways - my first son was similar to your daughter, my youngest hardly spoke until after he was 2 but he could ride a bike at your dd's age!

As well as social skills you could find out which physical things she enjoys - does she like swimming, does she have a balance bike, etc

I'm really impressed that your child could speak in sentences at 14 months old, that is brilliant. My baby is 1 in a week and he just says da da da da.

I don't know anything about gifted kids, but it is nice to hear about any kid that is exceeding their milestones

x

Or for that matter, meeting milestones.

I am a child-minder and mother of two DSs (ds2 is G&T in maths), and I can honestly say that I have never looked after a baby who could speak in full sentences at 14 months. Some will have two or three word sentences, which I consider very advanced at that age, but never in full sentences. The best I have seen is a little girl who could say things like 'look there's a red car parked outside the house' at 18 months.

However, speed in language development is just that, speed in language development. All children will develop at different rate, some early some late, and it's not a particularly clear indicator of being G&T.

For example, DS2 didn't say a single word at 2, started babbling at 2.5 and said his first words at 3. As a baby and toddler, he missed all the milestones by months. He couldn't say sentences before he was in reception, and needed speech therapy for what we now know to be a speech disorder. He is now in year 3, and in the top group of his class on all subjects, and for maths, he is three sub levels above the next best child in his class - that's 5 sub levels above average. In year 3, he has started working on year 5 maths at school, and at home he takes us by surprise by coming up with very advanced theories and questions, he is constantly thinking in numbers and patterns, and he wants to be a scientist and invent new aircraft engines.

I suppose it depends what you mean by a full sentence.

'Look, ducks!' is a full sentence!

I think people just mean that the child is communicating by putting words together in a way that makes sense, not that they are necessarily speaking in a very complex way.

"The only reason a child will know their alphabet and can count to 20 before 2 is because someone has taught them."

Or really? I presume ANY child can be taught this then?

"I am sorry but this is not really meaningful Early progress is not an indication of later success"
I do not think anyone in this thread said that.

There are a lot of different types of intelligence - about 9 I think? The early sentences would point to having one type of intelligence. In your shoes I'd read lots to her and help her develop a real love of words.

Very early language tends to point to, if not giftedness, then at least above average language abilities - complex sentences at 18 months is unusual and a good indicator I'd have thought. DD was using simple 3-4 word sentences at 14-15 months and you could have a conversation with her at 18 months.

Of course this does not mean that all gifted children are early talkers.

My DD was similar in her speech, and reciting whole books well before she was 2. My crazy bright child is her brother, who had delayed speech and understanding and communicated mainly in colours until he was 3.

I think that a communicative, keen to please child really benefits from a free flow, practical nursery or forest school so they are building self reliance, self esteem, an internal locus of control. You could easily teach her loads of 'party tricks' but that would encourage her to be a 'pleaser', always looking to other people's reactions or their results for her self esteem.

Worriedandlost I think a child's ability to recite the alphabet or count to 20 depends on two things: Their ability to learn and how much education they are receiving. I do not know what proportion of children could be taught these things, but if you enjoy teaching and they enjoy learning, in my view it is good to teach them.

The OP has not said one way or another if she has taught her dd, but there is a tendency on this forum to assume a child is only gifted if they have somehow gleaned the information from the ether or worked out 4000 years of mathematical principles by themselves in the first two years of life.

Anyone admitting they have had some input into their child's learning is assumed to be hot housing and having a child who will not turn out to be the genius of the two year old who has worked out the code of reading and writing by having no one do more than read them bedtime stories without even pointing out the words in the book.

awww she sounds lovely. it doesnt matter if she is gifted/bright/normal, advice would be the same:lots of talking to her, taking her out places, following her interests. she sounds like she has a good memory and enjoys that kind of thing. there are lots of memory games you could play (also maybe foreign language exposure?)

I consider my daughter to be, not necessarily "gifted" ( as this seems to be some sort of holy grail), but clever. Her nursery workers describe her as "at least a year ahead" developmentally. Now, a year is not much. But at two and a half, it's quite a bit. No matter what her accomplishments are (and she can't write fluently, or read Chaucer, or anything), you just have to discuss topics with her to know she is quite clever.
For us, the main actions we have taken, knowing we have a clever child, are to firstly ensure we are doing stimulating learning type stuff at home with her regarding phonics, and also number stuff ( which is her weakest link at the moment). As well as loads of craft, imaginative play, music, exposing her to different environments etc, which we would of course have done anyway.
Also her comparative cleverness so far has made us review our choices in terms of where we will send her to school. I know we are privileged to be in a position to do this and very lucky.
OP, your dd sounds lovely, and like she is doing very well - you must be very proud!

she sounds gorgeous and very bright
gifted is an academic term though so its a too early to tell. Keep doing whatever youre doing

are you sure she is not starting to read? bet you she wil pick up words like her name and mummy and daddy in no time. does she point to the print? follow left to right?

use lots of language... this is the easy one... talk loads use big words...

what about maths? count out one more than and one less than. (dd did pasta, grapes, raisins etc... and ate them. dd loved this at the same age. webegan groups of at some point as well laying the foundations for multiplication and division later. telling the time, halves and quarters, volume, full and empty in the bath, cooking and measuring, how many more spoons do we need? longer shorter, wider, longest etc.

shapes? use describing word such as straight edges, three sides, corners etc.

science: go out look at plants and parts of plants, birds, various insects and other creepy crawlies. (looking ahead,several years plant/animal classification does not come unitl late secondary and there is planty of scope for extension work in future years without trampling on too manytoes in school)

dinosaurs, history, planets and space will also be acceptable topics for her out of school much later.

sod being bored at school. quite likely you could do nothing and she would be bored. do nothing and she will be bored and understimulated and possibly behave worse.

ps gifted is just a label. different people have different definitions of gifted. loads of people will tell you you can not tell at this age... like hell... if your still only one year old is starting to read ffs, or beginning to add... there are different degrees of giftedness, there is not one cut off point and it is not limited to the profoundly gifted who make the papers. All gifted kids are not the same, some are particularly advanced in just one area and ahead but not greatly so in others. Some gifted kids have specific learning difficulties.

many learn in spurts..some learn to hide their ability... some are switched off by being bored at school..

some kids learn easily... if yours is one and enjoys it do not let anyone's expectations of what is acceptable stop you...

Thanks so much for everyone who replied, DH & I are convinced she is gifted in the performing arts area lol:) She is constantly saying she is different people e.g Emily(not real name) time for dinner, she will reply sorry my name is Emma & this is my baby(her doll) Kate who in real life are her aunt & cousin.
She is constantly saying she is other people e.g her music teacher(jo jingles) & her stuffed animals are the music class named after her peers? She has so much empathy very upset about her younger sister getting her vaccines, put on her doctors coat got her doctors set & "operated" on her so she didn't have to go to doctor.
She is obsessed & fixated on names, any children in books we are reading she asks their names, alot of friends & her aunties are expecting at the moment & she is desperate to know the names of the babies. She also wants to know what her peers in playgroups mammy & daddy's names are to the point that me & dh are getting frustrated & we have to make up names to give her an answer as we honestly don't know!!!
She told my mom that Santa's real name is St Nicholas or Father Christmas. Told her other nana that Panda bears eat bamboo shoots(nana had said they eat fish) & she told same nana that a Narwahl is the unicorn of the sea.
We are finding the constant questioning a bit frustrating at the moment to be honest, she wants to know what everything is & what it's purpose is. What everyones name is which is soooo frustrating as mentioned above & who their sister brother mother father nana is... We read an awful lot with her but this is even a bit challenging at the moment as we are being constantly interrupted with her observations & questions, which I know is fantastic but DH & I can be quite impatient but we always answer enthusiastically.
She is very social & well liked at her toddler groups/ music classes. She likes to play with children at least a year older than her. Everyone comments on her speech & as she's very tall for her age automatically assume she is 3/3 & 1/2 when she's actually not 2 until the end of the month.
I don't want to label her but I do feel she is very creative for her age, she has alot of happyland & the stories she creates with the little people is incredible & all linked to her own little world. She calls all the little characters after her own friends & would have them attending her birthday etc. We bring her to the theatre to see adult ballets, The Gruffalo, Room & a Broom etc & she sits through intrigued, doesn't look left or right & eagerly discusses with us afterward & makes observations we wouldn't have noticed ourselves... We are doing our best to keep her stimulate & I think we are doing ok but if anyone has any experience of a similar child please advise. I think she is very quirky, creative, intelligent(& she is sooo cute too!!!!) gifted I don't know as she hasn't shown much interest in numbers/letters even though she knows her alphabet song, counts to 20 etc I think that's just from having a very good memory. She talks about incidents that happened months ago like her cousin falling in the church & my aunt giving her a plaster & maybe she fell as the sun was in her eyes...

She definitely sounds bright but you can't tell either way as it's still within normal I think. Knowing the alphabet song is no different to knowing twinkle twinkle really but it doesn't mean she won't be gifted though either.

In DSs class in infant school, there was 5 children considered gifted, most of these could read before school and were very good academically. Only 2 of these going into Junior School were still considered gifted so the others were mainly just early starters I guess. This could change by secondary school also.

She sounds very creative and happy so I think you don't need to worry one way or another. A gifted child will be gifted whatever they do or don't do before starting school.

She sounds delightful and you obviously delight in her! Please keep encouraging her love of learning and discovery and WHATEVER you do don't praise her for being 'clever'.
Carole Dweck's theories of mind are well worth reading. Intelligence can be nurtured and grow, and if your little one continues to feel loved and valued, is able to discuss her ideas and experiences with interested and challenging adults, and to develop her range of experiences and risk taking, she will no doubt do very well in life, especially without a 'label'!
So much research points to the damage done to bright girls' self esteem by being labelled 'clever' - when they fail at something (as they will inevitably do) it can be devastating because they don't see the reason as something within their control, but some sort of inate deficiency.
My DD was similar (but had different obsessions than with family!) and has since been diagnosed with Aspergers. Key signs were the verbal precociousness, memory like you wouldn't believe, make-believe as people she already knew, and friendships less with her peers but more with older children/adults or wanting to take care of younger children. Not saying this is true of your DD, and having a label on my DDs condition is more useful now she is at school and having to deal with a whole lot of different issues.
Academically now she is very polarised at extremely high levels for some things, and extremely weak at others. Socially she now struggles generally with her peers (think bossy!) but has a few intense and close friendships and is generally well liked across her year group (and by her teachers who say she ALWAYS wants to chat and is full of questions still!).

Thanks so much for the replies, we really enjoy her, the ctreative play she invents is amazing, involving Santa, Mrs Claus & Reindeers in the North Pole & Penguins in the South Pole etc with her happyland... She turned 2 last month & is using words such as amazing, gorgeous, fantastic to describe things... She is driving me insane with all the questions, we pass a stranger on the street & she asks his name, his moms name, dogs name etc, she never stops talking. Asks what everything is & what it's for e.g matches, telephone pole, sanitary towels!!!! Never content until she is satisfied with answer. I am an introvert by nature & I'm finding the constant questioning (esp about peoples names, who people are & their family members!!!) very tiring!!!!!