Seeking some perspective

[LondonGirl83]

Hi all-- my daughter has hit all her milestones (cognitive and physical) early since birth and has just turned 18 months. My husband and I were largely the same and so while we are often told how advanced she is by nursery, health visitor checks, friends and family etc I haven't thought much about it. My husband and I both have reasonably high IQs and so felt she would be like us and we'd generally be able to anticipate her needs (social / emotional / academic).

However, in the last month her development seems to have accelerated. I'm not sure how common the below is- she seems to be ahead of our NCT group and and other kids we know but that's a fairly small sample. If it does seem highly unusual, what if anything do parents whose children had a similar profile wish they'd known? I guess I'm just looking for some perspective and any words of wisdom anyone has to share:

1. She speaks in 3-4 word sentences (this started when she was 16 months old) and has a vocabulary of circa 500 words - her nursery keep track as part of mapping her development. She uses pronouns and the possessive "s", plurals, the gerund and spatial concepts (over, under, on, in, etc)
2. She knows her colours (10 main ones)
3. She can count to 15 reliably and up to 20 occasionally
4. She can enumerate small sets up to 5 though most reliably to 3 accurately
5. She knows some common shapes- circle, triangle, diamond, star etc
6. Can put together a 6 piece jigsaw puzzle
7. Has memorised scores of books
8. Can tell left from right- this is recent but happened out of nowhere
9. Knows the entire alphabet both upper and lower case (has done from around 16 months)

10. Likes to be read 10-15 books a day 11. She picks out her own clothes in the morning and asks me to buy clothes she sees when we go shopping that she likes 12. Knows several songs by heart and sings them regularly to and with us

Physically she is also moderately advanced walked at 9 months, sat up at 4 months, pincer grip at 4 months, could stack high tower blocks at 8 months etc. Loves being very active playground, swimming and Gymboree are favourite activities and she needs lots of exercise everyday. She plays well with other kids and is 'special playmates' with two other toddlers at nursery and one of our friends' kid.

My DD was also advanced in pre school years. Things like reading fluently to her peers, advanced language etc. She is in a bog standard primary and continues to do well. Sats at 115 etc. I'm certainly not hot housing her- I wouldn't know how to. But we go to the library several times per week at her choice and I try to follow and support her interests such as art, music or whatever as they emerge. I have no idea whether this advanced ability will level out as she gets older. I focus also greatly on socialising her as I actually think social skills are so important in navigating through the school years.

I also think children- at least some -can access reading without phonics etc. I read to dd from very early on just tracing my finger under the line of the words. From this alone she became quite a fluent reader by three.

Our eldest (17 in June - going into y13) had her IQ measured at age 12 - it came out as 155. She is most probably on the autistic spectrum and also has a near photographic memory. I digress - allow you daughter to develop at her own rate. Schools in the main don’t like children to work ahead of their yr group but rather expand knowledge in breadth and depth. There’s little advantage to sitting exams early and socially this can be even more isolating - expect her to be isolated by her ability within her peer group until she gets to secondary school and even then you may find she struggles...be prepared for this and hope it doesn’t happen! I’d also add, as the Mum of 8 children iq won’t necessarily mean exceptional academic achievement that is influenced greatly by personality - our second also has an extremely high IQ but has chosen to cruse through school and didn’t revise at all for his GCSE’s that he took this year.