honest question; if you have a GT child....

[LaBoheme]

what were they like as babies? did they pass all their developmental milestones sooner than expected? Did they show any signs of being "bright" or super aware when tiny..
I am genuinely curious....x

No. DS1 has just been put forward as G&T and he was no different as a baby/toddler than DS2 was, who is struggling. In fact DS1 was a pita who didn't even talk until he was 2.5, just as HV was about to refer him! He didn't show any 'signs' until maybe Yr1 iirc, and it's only been this year (Yr4) when he's been needing to do extension work and Yr5/6 work.

My DD had several medical problems but is now very bright.

no. none of his dev milestones were early, but he was always very alert and did start reading words by his own efforts before he was two.(logos, etc he saw on tv and then in magazines ) and he was a lovely, easy baby.

No ds1 was very average - sat at 6 months, crawled at 9m, walked at 13m.

I suppose language acquisition was slightly early and rapid, but he didn't learn articulation properly, and spent years having speech therapy just to be able to be understood.

No - the first sign we had that dd1 was above average at anything was when she learnt to read before she went to school (almost unaided). Every other developmental milestone she passed at "normal" ages (eg walking, talking etc).

ds was rather scarily alert, in a "give me more information about the world now" way, from about two weeks - people used to remark on it - and when I had a reunion of the pre-natal group (6 week old babies) his intensity of gaze & alertness was quite different from the others. He was reaching out for stuff at 10 weeks (wobblily, obviously, but with real determination).

But that intensity of interest was actually foreshadowing (I think) a bit of a fundamental filtering problem - in that he continues (he's now 8) to be intensely interested in everything, all the time, and can't prioritise - so school, with all its potential distractions, has been pretty difficult.

It's an intriguing problem.

dd1- very quiet , easy baby and spoke early but walked at 13months so not particularly early.

dd2 was the one who did things early (crawled at 6m, walked at 9m ) but she has no interest in education though everyone thinks she is bright when she wants to be.

My eldest 4 have all been in G&T cohort at secondary school. I don't think they were any different developmentally as babies. Somewhat ahead in some areas and behind in others and average with others.

Ds2 who is possibly the brightest - only early indication was that i taught him subtraction at 3 - he was bored and i just idly wondered if a child that age could grasp the concept - he did, within seconds. Was a very needy baby

ds was very needy as a babe, and has been very eloquent and inquisitive but very hard work ever since. physical development average-to-late. no teeth til 15 months! but always held his own head up, from birth.

DS was a late walker (15mths or so).
Spoke at 8mths (bye bye)
Very alert like baby described below.
Read his first book at 3.
Terrible at writing (hardly improved since age 4 - now 7)
Very argumentative.
A consultant we were seeing for severe eczema when he was a tot told us he would be above average intelligence. Apparently the two are linked.
Very obsessive and things always have to be in the right place.

DS rarely spoke until about 3 or 4 - still a man of few words, didn't walk or crawl till relatively late so obvious signs not always there

Ds was a very smiley,happy,undemanding baby.Slept lots and hardly ever cried.As a teenager he is still extremely even tempered.
He was early to sleep through and when we potty trained he was dry at night from day one. But as regards walking and talking and weaning etc then no he wasnt early at all.
He taught himself to tell the time aged three ,thats when we knew he was a bit cleverer than average

Interesting. Ds is only two but has done most stuff early and recognises half the alphabet at least already (not boasting just stating facts) - although I've never taught it to him. Nursery say he is very bright - not a huge surprise as dh is absurdly brainy and I am not bad myself really.

BUT he doesn't talk much and is not at all good at articulating sounds.

All the posts here just go to show the diversity involved in your brainy older kids. Milestones such as walking aren't solely governed by intelligence and presumably rely on muscle tone etc so that would explain why some very bright kids are late walkers. Plus maybe if they are bright they are too into other things.

Ds was very alert and people used to comment on that all the time - and I read once that colic is more common in brighter kids - any one else heard that. At the time I used that to console myself during the hours of screaming!!

no colic and no eczema in DS, and luckily a good sleeper

slow to walk may be because he was quite big as a baby

yes ds1 very early for everything

boo64 - 'dh is absurdly brainy and I'm not that bad either...' I simply don't think that that has anything to do with anything...

Also yes... no i have more time...
DS1 was TERRIBLE sleeper, fed like a a wolly mammoth and slept barely ever until 6 mths old and even then it was grim.

He was exceedingly different from his age group - obv this has narrowed now he is 13 but he is still well above average.
Basic facts

Rolled 9 wks Sat up 4.5 mths, crawled 5 mths only to get to couch to pull himself up, walked at 9 mths, talked in sentences before 1 yr and has never shut up since and often talk total and utter shite
Now he is the laziest teenager on earth (he is 13)

DS2 has not been labelled G&T but is very very bright (just got As in everything in Y9 at selective grammar school, level 8 in Maths, level 7 in English & Science)

I have him on video trying to reach for a toy in his moses basket aged 3 weeks; but otherwise he was average-to-slow in most developmental milestones, esp speech and socialisation.

DD1 was either on time, early or late for varied developmental milestones. (On time sitting, early talking and late walking). Knew phonic alphabet by 18 months (because she was interested in letters btw, not because I drummed it into her!) and reading well before she was three. Will enter reception in Sept but already down as G&T by the school. However, she is incredibly sensitive, e.g. to loud noise; unannounced changes make her very anxious, and also very poor at peer group interaction. She just doesn't seem to "get" social interaction. Bless. Possible mild autism, not sure. HTH.

DS1 has been almost freakishly early with everything. At first we didn't really know any better as I didn't have younger siblings and dh pretty much ignored his younger brother, lol. But everyone commented on it so we started looking into it.

Virgo - we could start a whole new thread on the nature v nurture debate regarding intelligence. In short a. research shows that most (obviously not all e.g. if there are special needs) children are within 10 IQ points of their parents' IQ's - I'm sure there must be some twin studies out there where identical twins have been adopted and split up etc
and b. surely it is generally accepted that at least a good chunk of intellectual ability is genetically determined - I'm not saying all of it is but a good chunk.....

Putting this into context, if a mum and dad have high IQ's and are straight A types, surely it's not going to be a huge surprise if their offspring are brighter than most?

I think personality has a lot to do with it. DS was very slow with all milestones, smiling, sitting, crawling, walking and talking, but he was just waiting untill he could do things properly! He never toddled, just waited untill he could walk etc. At school he is the same, will not even attempt anything unless he can do it perfectly - hence could read fluently when he started reception but teachers were surprised he couldn't spell out words or write. Now at the end of reception he is writing fluently... but it is all or nothing - he would not even attempt to try write phonetically because he knew it might be wrong.

ds1 g&t
early walker, very late talker, fab at jigsaws very early on, useless at sports, good at tantrums - pretty normal really