What’s gifted at 2?

[Ellie2015]

Many of you mummies have talked about their kids being gifted on this forum. Just curious to know what could your DD’s do (gross/fine motor, speech, social etc) at age 2 to call them gifted..? (Obviously I have a 2 yr old DD and I am under no delusion to call her gifted :))
Thanks xx

Taught herself to read.
She didn’t walk unaided until she was 7.

With ds it was figuring out number bonds and then how multiplication worked. (So he would tell me Three lots of six is blah blah.) He just thought they were interesting facts that I would like to know as he had worked them out.

Oh and the whole creation v evolution thing

My kids are weird.

Friends had to hide the News of the World from their 5 year old who could read every word of it.

DD had a detailed development assessment at 2 years ‘corrected age’ (she was 10 weeks premature and the assessment was provided because she was on a drug trial). The assessor pronounced her to be 20 months ahead cognitively, and commented that she was astonished at the speed of some of DD’s responses.

DD, now 7, may just be ‘bright’ rather than ‘gifted’ though. Her strength is in literacy, and I think it’s more difficult to determine true giftedness in this area, as opposed to, say, maths, in which some children on this G&T board are truly astonishing!

DS knew his alphabet and colours by 16 months. He could read words as I wrote them from 2.

Absolutely no signs at all at two, as was and had consistently until then been behind in all milestones. Things sped up between three and five, then was identified as gifted at that age although still laggy wrt motor skills. Mine is gifted at maths and science, so I don't know how he would have expressed that at two.

Sorry – just realised you asked for some specific indicators. Due to DD’s prematurity it wasn’t that obvious at aged 2 that she was brighter than average. However, by aged 2 she was ahead of the pack in speech (sentences), and her speech was always ‘relevant’: she always gave considered answers.

I remember she was early to be very secure with her colours (21 months ish), and also counting small numbers of objects accurately and meaningfully where it was more normal to recite.

As I said, with her prematurity it took a bit longer to see something.

He recognised all the letters in the alphabet at 10 months and could spell his name at 12 months. By age 2 he could tell the time and would write what he wanted on the grocery list. I thought this was normal! Wasn't until I had my 2nd baby that I realised how far ahead he was.

Bonnie - yeah, dd2 at 3 would read Virginia Woolf over my shoulder - dh made me turn the books on the shelves round so the spines were against the wall. I was working in gender theory and had such magnificent titles as ‘big black penis’ on the go (it’s about African American masculinity. Not porn...)

I never really noticed she was gifted at 2. I thought she was bright and put what she could do beyond her peers down to her interests. For most of primary I thought she was bright and only an outlier because of the cohort. So at the time I didn't really notice anything that indicated giftedness. I didn't compare her then and in her teens I still don't. If anything she still surprises me every time I think I have an idea of how able she is by population standards.

With hindsight I'd definitely say it was her ability to understand and think logically/ reason rather than what just what she could do. What stands out now is that she understood my maths brain explanations straight away, rather than the usual methods. Eg I explained multiplication and division when we were cooking with a recipe in imperial measurements. It didn't occur to me that a brief explanation of how I was converting the recipe and a few vague waves at the scale wasn't an approved method at any age, let alone for a toddler, but she always understood my thought process and haphazard explanations and could apply the knowledge in other situations.

She was an early talker but that alone means nothing. Her vocabulary and sentence structure was above most early talkers, but at the time I assumed it was down to what she was exposed to and being a chatterbox with a good memory. Still not sure if it was related to being gifted.

I do remember her being quite quick at comebacks to the usual toddler interaction with each other. And that she was more likely to have a reasoned logical debate than have a tantrum. Although still a normal toddler in that she could go into a strop if you didn't agree with her logic.

She did have good motor skills early, but I don't think that is related to being academically gifted. Likewise the fact she did the majority of physical skills early, I don't agree they are any indication.

O wow! its so amazing to hear all about your kids...some of it is like I could never imagine for a 2 yr old toddler! xxx

My DD was an advanced talker but not to the extent that she seemed exceptional at 2. She could count, knew her colours, and could pass for 3, but it wasn’t until she was in school that anything was really obvious.

Very little. He was late for every milestone physically and was not talking at all. However he could do quite complex peg puzzles, would put shapes/ toys in categories of shape and or colour. He could identify numbers (where is 2? Where is 4). Could concentrate on a game/toy for a long period of time. Enjoyed watching the clock on the oven (??). Would line up toys in order of size. Was very independent.

Mine has shown huge difference from other children by 2 years old. He was very alert since he was a baby, obsessed with numbers/letters/puzzles. Never had crawling stage or baby talk stage.
He was hyperlexic and shown a lot of asd traits.

I wonder purely gifted children are somewhat look rather normal at this stage, but 2e(twice exceptional) children shows their talent from early on, having read experiences of other parents on this board.

@twofishfingers athats interesting, as those sound like the classic symptoms of autism. Is he on the ASD spectrum?

Interesting thread. My 26m old came out as 48m cognitively at a developmental but I wouldn't think of him as gifted,just for now he's ahead but I'm sure it's likely it will even out over the next few years.

Those saying your child knew the alphabet and numbers, obviously they were taught them, right? Which is different to the pp who said her child told her off her own bat that three twos are six.

Mine was not an early talker, had maybe 20 words at two. At 18 months he could be trusted to play in the playground supervised from a distance (steps, ladders, bridges, slides etc).

Could do 20 piece puzzles before two, or would methodically work through a stack of peg puzzles at nursery, taking from one pile, turning them over, completing them, then placing them in a pile when finished.

Mostly just had the attention span and sense of an older child.

TheHogfather, excellent memory and wider vocabulary is an indicator of later intelligence/academic success by the way, so there is something to early speech/sentences. Again, so dependent on what they're exposed to.

Both very alert, both had very developed speech very early and quickly learnt numbers, letters, colours, sounds. Both were reading in reception. I knew they were very bright. They were interested in everything. DS excelled in sport, DD in music. No school or teacher ever remarked rhey were gifted but we had to send ds to an independent at 8 because he was bored and naughty. DD is quiet and found school a hard place to settle in but was fine when we found the right one. Very late we found put she was high performing but had ADHD/ADD.

DS took a first from Oxford last year and starts a masters this year. DD dropped 7 UMS points at A'Level and has a distinction for grade 8 voice. She starts Cambridge in September. DS is an all rounder; DD is more of a quirky boffin. She has been less challenging overall personality wise.

They are both liberal arts people although still got A* GCSE for maths and science.

I knew they were exceptionally bright feom birth. I never articulated it beyond dh because it's inappropriate. Just made sure they had all the love and encouragement and opportunity i could give.

That is lovelyOhTheRoses :)

Would you say you taught things like numbers, letters etc? You've reminded me of the other NB indicator of intelligence-curiosity and interest.

@chewe, he was tested for autism on three occasions and although he still displays some autistic traits, they are very, very mild. He was diagnosed with Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia at 4.

I have posted loads of times on this board as many parents assume that an early talker/developer is linked to being gifted. And the assumption is that children who talk late will always struggle academically. I often heard parent in playgroups etc saying to children who speak early 'she is very bright!' And this is very disheartening when you have a child who doesn't talk or is not developing at normal rate.

Ds didn't say a single word before he was 2.5 and he had speech therapy intensively between the ages of 3 and 7, on and off. To start off with at school he was just above average in maths, OK in English but struggled to write as he also has dyspraxia and issues with motor skills. But from around 8 years old teachers started to notice his understanding of maths, his sense of logic, his capacity to understand complex maths concepts (we always knew at home that he had a talent for maths). He is now doing very well in all subjects at school (in year 6) and G&T in maths. He plays 3 musical instruments, including the drums which is a major achievement as he is dyspraxic.

He does struggle socially, still struggle with chaotic situations, and likes things done a certain way. I think in the years to come he might be diagnosed with high functioning autism but overall he manages ok. But he can get very upset at times especially if his classroom is chaotic and the teacher isn't managing behaviour efficiently.

Gifted and Talented is not a helpful label at 2. Bright is better.

My five year old can read anything, literally anything you put in front of him, and was very verbal/physical at 2. But he is seeing an EdPsych next week because he has enormous meltdowns at school

My 2 year old can say 'ice cream'

Absolutely mikado, but a bright dc in the top 10%, exposed to a wide vocabulary could also demonstrate those skills so I'm not so sure it's a sign of being gifted as opposed to bright.

With teaching counting I didn't do it in the usual way. I attached numbers to items, stairs, groups of animals, toys etc and dd would also 'count' them. She started before she was 1 so at the time only a few numbers were recognisable words even to me, the other numbers were more her using different baby babble for each item she counted. And again in my mind once she understood the basic concept of counting single digit numbers anything else to do with larger numbers, basic manipulation etc is obvious.

I wasn't aiming to teach her to count, at the time I did it in the same way I said please and thank you, or told her the oven was hot. And same as any of those normal everyday things we might all say around a baby I didn't have any time frame in mind as to when she would understand them. I just assumed she'd learn when she was ready, and had no idea what was normal.

There were definitely clear indications from a very young age, I just didn't notice then that they weren't just typical bright.

There were plenty of occasions other people noticed but even then I put it down to her being bright and interested. And in some cases that dd had opportunities they didn't.

I know now if I hadn't been so young, and had perhaps researched child development, met more babies/ toddlers from a wider range of backgrounds I would have noticed. Certainly if I'd been on here and aware of the normal expectations at primary I wouldn't have missed it.