What was your gifted child like as a baby?

[Peridotty]

Hi! What could your gifted children do when they were a baby? I read that a sign of gifted ness is a first word before 9months. Is that the best sign?
My baby is 8 months old. Pretty advanced in her motor skills I would say compared to others that I know (rolling from 3 months, sitting independently at 5 months, crawling and pulling to stand at 6/7 months, standing independently at 7 months). However she has no interest in books, she just gets grumpy when I put a book in front of her, all she wants to do is crawl and pull up to stand!!! She doesn’t make many speech sounds although she makes lots of vowel sounds in general. Only just started making ‘ge ge ge’ sounds at 8 months when she is whining. No Ms or Bs yet. She doesn’t look like she pays attention when we are speaking. Doesn’t try to imitate our speech or mouths.
So i was wondering what did your babies do? And is my baby basically not gifted haha.

Being a gifted child is a curse, being the parent of a gifted child is a curse.
Enjoy your baby she sounds gorgeous

Your baby sounds absolutely normal and gorgeous. Sitting, crawling, standing, walking early, etc, are not indications of being gifted which is more of a cerebral thing.

I was a gifted child. It hasn't helped me in life whatsoever. If anything it (or maybe the way it was handled by the adults around me) has just turned me into an anxious adult with various hang ups that have actually held me back in many ways.

My daughter would say (mostly) the same.Though I hope we handled things reasonably. She said recently that she wished she'd not been good at everything. That she wished she'd failed at something when she was a child, so that she could have learned how to deal with that.
Instead, as an adult, she's an anxious perfectionist, who finds it really hard to cope with even positive criticism, and blames herself for not being doing whatever it was, perfectly.

Ds1 didn't talk until he was 2, then talked in complete complex sentences, learned to read before he was 3. Mostly though he was obsessed with Lego and trains, like most little boys. He loved geometric patterns, and was very into puzzles. He was later diagnosed with autism, and as part of appealing against the LA for his EHCP (statement of SEN, as it was then) he was assessed by an educational psychologist as being gifted but with a very spiky profile.

He is very bright, but there are other children in his school who are just as bright, I have no idea whether they have been "assessed"
No hothousing with books etc will bring out any qualities of being "gifted". Just let your baby play, explore and develop at his natural pace.

Poor baby

You cannot make a baby gifted and talented with 75 board books at 9 months

Pfb?!

My eldest was saying mama, dada, no, ta at 9 months. My youngest didn't really speak until 19 months and then had speech therapy as she was so unclear at 2.5. My youngest did walk before my eldest though. They have had the same upbringing, nothing different. At the current moment I would say youngest is showing signs of being a bit smarter than older one, but I just go with the flow.

You sound like you want to hot house your child, and that path will bring you both misery. Just enjoy your baby for who they are. It doesn't matter when they talk, walk, look at books, do puzzles. They will do it when they are ready and want to. Just relax.

My profoundly gifted child was threading beads at 6 months, walking at 7.5 months, making sentences by 14 months and pretty much conversant by 19 months. Fully toilet trained night and day by 25 months. Reading books independently by 36 months and writing sentences and making up simple poems and prose by 4.

Struggling socially by 11. Diagnosed autistic at 19. At 21 with 5 A levels at A grade can't face leaving home. Life on hold.

OP: your baby is who they were meant to be. 'Gifted ' is a label for a special set of circumstances: some are great, some not so much. Chat to her, read her to sleep, play games and sing rhymes and songs. The most successful and happy people are neither the most 'gifted 'nor the wealthiest, but the most contented and well rounded.
Don't compare her to other babies or subjective milestones: there are professionals to do that: she's perfect just the way she is. x

[quote Peridotty]@Throughabushbackwards yes I did there was a book sale on and I couldn’t resist. My husband said ‘please don’t buy any more board books this year!’
@caringcarer wow that’s amazing. I don’t have a jigsaw puzzle toy and don’t think my baby would be interested at all.

So how do babies speak before 1? Just talk to them loads? What’s loads? I run out of things to say. I’m a quiet person. Do you talk loudly and slowly?[/quote]
Not read the full thread. But I love "the babytalk program" for talking to your baby (birth to four years). I used it with mine and they were all proficient talkers from a young age. The book is great fun and will help with bonding too. Being able to have conversations with your toddlers makes life easier and much more interesting, You should be able to find a copy on Amazon. Mind you, only one of mine turned out gifted..

My gifted teen was behind on all baby and preschool milestones. Late talker who needed speech therapy.

Mine were all labelled as gifted. All got a minimum of 4As at A level. All had at least one A level in year 11. Grade 8 on musical instruments. Quite bright by anyone’s measure.

They were all very different. They did things at different ages. The youngest was a very late walker; she bottom shuffled and pointed. Bright enough to get others to do everything for her.

Our son was placid/lazy in extremis. He was never bothered about doing anything. He stayed in his cot until he was three. He bottom shuffled and eventually walked at about 20 months. He could walk confidently within two days of walking his first steps. He couldn’t swim until he was five and could then swim 25 metres as soon as he decided he wanted to. He couldn’t read at all until he went into the pre-school class at nursery - then could read quite well within days.

Let them be a baby. Let them enjoy the world. Time enough for Tiger mother and thumb screws later on.

Mine rolled over from10 days

Was rolling by 3 months

Crawling at 5 months walking by 9months

Didnt speak until 2.5 years. First world turtle

Did say no or speak in sentence s until 3.5 years

Just that she has no interest in books and I just spent a fortune in board books (I bought 75 books). And I thought babies could say baba and mama from around 7 months

Nope. I think you may need to adjust your expectations.

DD1 was speaking a couple of words at 8 months and was speaking in quite complicated sentences at 15 months. She’s now a completely normal 8 year old. Not gifted at all. Still talks lots though.

Was born at 28 weeks, is partially deaf and severely dyslexic. He didn't speak until he was about 24 months, never really rolled over and had rather challenging behavior. Completed 13 GCSE's at 13/14 and is on track to get 4 A*s at A-level now he is 16 (or I should say he was before the new exam debacle kicked off). Is a sweet boy, but doesn't really read, isn't interested in anything other than painting his Warhammer figures!

No idea how gifted is defined but DD was early with her motor skills, rolled at 12 weeks, crawled at 5 months, walked at 9 months. Her speech came later though, wasn't meeting milestones at 2 but by 2.5 was at an expected level. She really hasn't stopped talking since though so has definitely made up for the delay! I don't think she's gifted exactly but at nearly 6, she is very clever and ahead of her peers in reading, maths etc so will be interesting to see how she develops. No pressure from us though to be gifted, she just is what she is.

My friend's son is 23 and super bright (not sure if gifted specifically) he was a placid, smiley baby who was sick a lot. Talked and walked late because he was laid back and happy for others to do things for him. They only realised how bright he was partway through secondary because up until then he'd been content to fly under the radar having an easy life.

I walked at 9 months, talked in sentences by 18 months, and apparently taught myself to read. I definitely remember being able to read, write, etc before nursery and had a teacher separate from other children right through nursery and primary.
But I'm an ordinary human now, nothing gifted about me.

Thanks for all the replies. It was just a silly question after reading an article about signs of a gifted child. And my baby is none of those things.
So I just wanted to ask parents of gifted kids what their baby was like!
I feel like some posters are reading too much into my OP.
Am I hoping my baby is gifted? No
Do I think my baby is gifted? Most likely not
Do I love her all the same? YES it doesn’t matter to me whether she is gifted or not!
Am I a tiger mum? Not in the slightest. I haven’t read the books to her, my husband does the books. I probably spend too much time on my phone tbh. I play with her everyday and watch her and that’s it. I’m quiet though and I worry I’m not talking to her enough. I know 75 books sounds like a lot but it wasn’t really to make her all intelligent and smart. When I shop I tend to shop a lot all in one go and they were quite a good price! I just mentioned them because my baby doesn’t pay any attention to them whereas my friends baby can sit and ‘read’ and turn pages. Mine just wants to crawl!

You sound like a good mum and your baby sounds gorgeous and exactly where they should be! Don’t let other competitive mums make you feel like their baby is more advanced than yours. They all reach different stages in their own time and there will always be parents who tell you their child is potty trained at 15 months or is reading chapter books at nursery. I just smile and ask where the parent thinks they’ve got their super intelligence from.

Just that she has no interest in books and I just spent a fortune in board books (I bought 75 books)

Donate 70 of them to a refuge or similar charity and forget the others until she brings them out. Babies learn by exploring, they don't all aquire skills in the same order. If you and DH are enthusiastic readers your children will pick up the habit from you.

My 4 year old can read- his reading age is close to that of a 7 year old. He can write full sentences. He can add, subtract, divide and multiply. He also has mild cerebral palsy and speech difficulties. He’s also happy, charming, very funny and utterly adored.

You should read to her btw. There is a huge correlation between children being read to and their eventual outcomes in life although obviously there are other factors involved.
DH and I are both academics- we have quite literally thousands of books (I think we once did a basic count and it’s more than 5000...!) but that’s of no use unless we read to our children. And find other ways to get them to be motivated readers. Having access to books is a great start but it isn’t everything.

I was classed as a gifted child and I was pretty average on most things as a baby. So was my DB and he had a huge motor delay due to problems with his legs, and wasn't early to talk either.
I'm now in a job that uses my numerical skills and my written skills and pretty happy with it but I'm not a high flyer. My DB is semi employed and has had some quite bad mental health problems. It's not all it's cracked up to be.

When babies and toddlers play, it’s all repetitive and generally dull for adults........ if you’re looking to be stimulated yourself when playing with your daughter, think again - sorry!

Why do you want to know whether or not your 8 month old baby is gifted? Will it change anything. As long as you are interested in their development and allow them to experience a wide range of opportunities you are doing the right thing. Take the pressure off yourself and your baby as it's not healthy.

All babies grow at different rates and in different environments.