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

Sure hogfather I agree with pretty much everything you said, but we're on a thread where "what's gifted at 2" is being talked about, and that does matter more what a common language is as presumably the OP is trying to identify ideas of what a particular combination at 2 might mean.

I certainly agree a G&T label isn't useful in the slightest, but identifying individual needs is.

I thought my son was a bit dim at two to be honest! I know that sounds awful!

He was an early walker although went from sitting like a huge inactive pudding at 8 months to crawling and then walking at 10 months. His speech wasn't particularly advanced, I'd say quite average. His sister talked at eight months and had full on conversations at a year old which is why I thought he was a bit dim!

I guess at that age looking back you could say that he was good at working things out, usually how to get to food, ha ha. He used to go off and quietly get into trouble quite a lot !

He was also very sensitive! He lost his shit quite a lot and through awful tantrums. He is incredibly strong willed and still won't take no for an answer at times.

He was very late to potty train. He finally got it when he was four at which point he had also taught himself some times tables, could recognise and name numbers up into the tens of thousands. He was adding and subtracting double digit numbers, building amazing models etc. He had been quite obsessed by letters and numbers for awhile but I didn't realise he could read until his first week at school when they told me he was a fabulous reader! It was news to me . I think he'd taught himself in private somewhere!

Reading, writing, and maths of a 4/5 year old. Didn't know they were gifted till a little over 3½ when they started really excelling. Never properly been taught anything though.

My ds1 could do a 70 piece jigsaw puzzle in less than 10 minutes just before he was 2. He was playing chess from the age of 5. He has aspergers syndrome and he is very good at certain things but very behind in others. He can hear a piece of music a few times and then he will teach himself to play it on the piano, using both hands and no music. He is 12 and has been playing piano since he was 6.

With DD1 (tested IQ of 160), it was never things like knowing the alphabet early. Instead, it was understanding and interacting with us in a very mature way

At 16 months, she took her nappy off, folded it, pressed the tapes down to seal it, placed in the nappy bin, closed the lid carefully and said "nappy full, nappy gone now"

This thread is fascinating. Ds has just turned two and taught himself to read some months ago. He recognises over 100 words, but the interesting part is the rules and patterns he applies to new words he sees.
I’m not sure what to do with it tbh. I haven’t pushed at all. I’m a teacher and love the phonics system but I don’t agree with pushing structured learning at a young age. Then again, he is learning from recognition and won’t need phonics at all unless I step in soon.
He recognised numbers at an early age and knew his colours before other kids. Once, around the time he turned one, he played an actual tune on the piano. I called DH and sang it and he told me that they had played it together the day before! He hasn’t repeated this trick though! In other ways I’d say he’s fairly typical. He’s always been very active and inquisitive, even at 3m and he shows no signs of autism.
I wouldn’t mind if he has a specific gift but I do hope he turns out to be a good all rounder.

Shampooeeee, I agree, he doesn't need structured learning at 2. He can learn phonics when he start school. My ds was able to read any words, but he still enjoyed learning phonics at school.
He seems like musically talented too. Maybe you can explore that? My ds started learning music quite late, I wish I introduced it to him earlier. If he is good at pattern recognising, he would be good at reading music too.

My son is 2e so no idea on just plain gifted but at two he could do year 1 mental maths but could not drink from a cup without emptying the entire thing down him.

Gifted is very tricky. Often doing really well at one thing is mistaken for being gifted. Gifted has to be a sustained, widespread clear 3/4 yr gap between where they are meant to be and where they actually are. Not just reciting facts but showing the intellectual maturity of those several year their senior. Basically if they aren’t reading the TLS by 2 and a half or writing by 3 or adding and subtracting by the same (multiplication is too easy to parrot) then they are just bright- which is great - but not gifted. Often two year olds can bridge a gap to where a six year old should be but this is not the same as a 6 yr old who can work like a ten year old. I teach primary (also have a first from Cambridge - so have met (am not myself) a few genuinely jaw dropping wonder students when at college- and see many brilliant lovely kids in my classes who are super bright but rarely, rarely see a gifted child who is operating several years ahead of their peers. Many children can read brilliantly before they enter Reception but if they aren't reading Dahl or Lewis to you in that first year of school (and “getting” it) then you aren’t probably into the “blimey - this is a bit unusual” camp just yet. What is much nicer about this whole thread is that people are excited about education/hard work/brightness and prepared to celebrate it like we would a sporting or musical or dramatic success.

Chewedupcucumber
I found your post very interesting, particularly the love of learning being an important factor in success. Though I admit I did actively teach dd, the love of learning was always important.

Even at two, children will have had different educational experiences, so what a child can do depends not only on their genetic makeup, but also adult input into their learning. I tend to mentally dismiss any comment of "my two year old taught themselves to..." No they did not. Someone somewhere has read to them, counted to them, shown them letters etc. It seems as silly as saying that my dd taught herself a language, but luckily it was the same one we speak.

It may be children can be taught at different rates due to their genes, but equally a child may be more diligent or studious due to their genes, or may develop an intesive I would rather not ask the question of whether a child is gifted, but what each child can do now and what they could be taught next.

Oops, caught the send button too early.

I was saying they may develop an intensive interest in something when older in which they excel.

Basically if they aren’t reading the TLS by 2 and a half or writing by 3 or adding and subtracting by the same (multiplication is too easy to parrot) then they are just bright- which is great - but not gifted.

Complete nonsense! What about gifted children who haven’t had access to books? They have the inbuilt ability but never the opportunity to use it. What about children who are gifted in other areas, such as dance or music?

Also I think you have “high achieving” confused with gifted. A gifted child who isn’t confident won’t reveal their skills at school and are famously often underachievers. In fact a lot of gifted children drop out of high school completely out of sheer boredom.

They are just people at the end of he day, just with an amazing capacity for abstract through, making connections and understanding. They suffer the same highs and lows as everyone else (actually they are often even more sensitive than the average person) and will react in different ways to different life experiences.

The high achiever is the child who always does well, always has the answer and may indeed skip a year at school. The gifted child is the child who knows the answer but would prefer to ask the interesting question.

I didn't know DD was GAT until she was assessed at school at 6.

Gifted is born not made. It’s a brain difference tbh. Gifted and talented is top 10% of cohort and may never include any actual gifted kids. The gifted kids can also be the class clown or those with SEN. As for the whole they must be ahead by this many years that’s also bull.

Gifted is born not made

^This.

Apologies for my many typos. Don’t post when falling asleep.

The most gifted children are the ones who at two don’t try and give them a silly label because they have social sight vocabulary and can say the alphabet!

They don’t give themselves a label?

I think at two most parents of gifted kids don’t even realise what their children do is abnormal, even at four they don’t. They try to resist the elephant in the room.

Tbh gifted, especially when 2e, may not even be a bloody gift either. More likely to drop out, experiment with drugs and risk take as they often need more stimuli. Also more prone to depression, anxiety and other MH issues.
Happy new year. Time for a parade.

Definitely, Tomorrow, but if it can be managed (noting this is especially hard with 2e) then they really can flourish.

Schools and teachers really need to get an understanding of the issues involved but they’re too busy making statements like that above of making incorrect diagnoses.

My 2 year old is on the autistic pathway, he won't say 'mummy or daddy' but can count objects up to 20, (as in, can count his fingers and toes etc)
If you hold up 4 fingers he'll do a quick glance at your hand and just tell you how many.
He knows all his alphabet and will see an apple and say, 'A is for apple, a-a-a apple' like on the phonics songs, he has also started doing this with objects not in the songs though, when I showed him an egg he repeated the word then recognised the 'E' sound and swapped it for the phonetic version, saying 'E is for egg, eh eh eh'.

He knows all his shapes, colours and animals.
However! He cannot hold a conversation, he doesn't talk unless it's for his own amusement and doesn't follow direction. He's very bright and extremely obsessive, he will demand you write out the alphabet on a piece of paper for hours and hours, I've never seen a child with such a long concentration span!

He is now 14. At 18 months was adding and subtracting. Was talking in full correct sentences of several words at 14 months.
Knew and understood his times tables at 3.

By 5 was using words I did not know (am Uni educated) and taught himself Chinese and the periodical table at 5.

He has an amazing memory and a thirst for knowledge. Is always learning something and sharing it with us.

He has ADHD and ASD and is a bit quirky.

Despite his intelligence has terrible handwriting so now uses a laptop.

Is a lovely lad but bloody exhausting. Hard to keep up with mentally and never sleeps!

Reading with interest. DS is 18m and has excellent fine motor skills. Where can you get the block type puzzles from?