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.

I really don't like the term "gifted" but my younger son would probably be put in this category. He had repeated ear infections, finally had grommets inserted at two and a half and his speech came at once. He ended up having speech therapy for a stutter as he was so desperate to talk.

He picked up reading far more quickly than my elder son but, sadly, neither of them have a love of reading. His teacher gave him a (foundation) GCSE maths exam to do in year 2. If something interests him, he has excellent concentration, particularly for sports, and played three county sports by aged 11. He loves making things. He scores highly in school exams and sometimes gets 100%.

But... bluntly he's so much harder work than my eldest son. His determination and will is so strong that we find it hard as a parents. He can be disorganised at school. He's very hard working where there's glory to be had but can be slapdash elsewhere. He struggles to enjoy family games where he doesn't win (this is getting better!).

Certainly he didn't have any signs before he was three or four. I think he's probably benefitted from being number 2 and trying to keep up with his older brother. We've played a lot of games with him, he likes to do jobs with us and try to do a bit of extra work with him in the holidays but I can't really take any credit. I also think my elder son has a more rounded personality which will be of more use in the workplace than getting high marks at school.

@ODFOx

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

This really resonates with me. Such a similar experience to mine. Like you my dd struggled so badly socially she was homeschooled and is now doing her degree as a distance course. For every intellectual huge leap ahead I felt socially and just with day to say coping with life she was taking many steps back. It’s so so hard. I think children will seek out anything if they are gifted. We didn’t buy board books but she would find things to read. Something drives them if they are inclined to develop early/differently

My son is an incredibly gifted and successful artist. No idea at all where he gets it from as non of us can draw a line.
He lagged behind every milestone as a baby and then all the way through school.
His only interest from age 2 was putting pencil to paper and it was impossible to get him to do anything else.
He did go to university and scraped through with a 2:2 and then at around 30 his career as an artist really took off with profitable sidelines doing cartoons in magazines but mainly fine art. Hes 40 now.
He never showed and particularly gifted dexterity as a baby and was incredibly laid back and sleepy. Didnt wake in the night really at all.
I did worry a lot that he wasn't meeting his milestones but he just prefers to do things in his own time in his own way.

I hated the term gifted but my ds1 is. He took his GCSEs at 11/12, and is attended university groups at 13.
As a baby he was sick, very premature, he was miles behind all his milestones but at age 4 it quickly became apparent that he had caught up and more.
By 5 it was apparent that school was not appropriate for him. He has no addition needs and in every other way is neuro typical.

This can’t be real.

DS and his little friend developed their own language when they were 1.5 - 2 years old.

They both were exposed to 2-3 languages at home but they didn’t share any between them to start with so they developed their own... and kept using it between them until they were 6. Both of them attended English speaking nurseries so it was very soon after they met that they could communicate in English with each other but they preferred to keep using their secret one.

I agree @hesneverfaraway. Children just find their way in what interest them.
Dc1 developed some interest I history and geography, something neither me or DH are good at. He was also very keen on physics when he was younger (think been able to understand A Level concepts in Y5). We never taught him any of that. Just provided support that could interest him/them and got him stuff he was asking for.

There is one thing we did though. And seeing some posts on this thread, I’m very happy we did. We encouraged him to do other activities, in this case, outdoor type of stuff that he wasnt/isn’t the best at. I think having that experience of struggling more at something and having to work for it is essential.
Because, imo, that is just as important as ‘being smart’.
(See also the importance of social and emotional skills)

From what I read over the years on Gifted board, it really seems to vary. Some started to talk early, some late. Some started to walk early, some late. I don't think there are standard form.

I know my son is gifted, very much so in non-verbal reasoning because he had an IQ test in his Ed Psych assessment when he was approved for an EHCP. He was slow to talk and has a major physical disability so it was actually useful to know about beyond something to feel smug about in our case, because I think people in the past (especially when I think back to his his nursery staff) have wrongly assumed he was 'slow' and set levels of expectation/challenge accordingly.

There actually were signs when he was a baby, to answer your question, because he could solve puzzles and jigsaws meant for older babies/children.

But as I say, he definitely didn't jump through all the hoops 'tiger parents' tend to speak about of jabbering away in sentences as a baby and reading as a toddler. I think language makes people jump to assumptions because as adults, it's something we can make sense of and quantify. I think people who didn't know DS well would have thought I was deluded if I had said I thought my DS was gifted because his speech sometimes seemed immature, but he can solve visual puzzles some adults would find tricky. There are famous scientists who talked/read late so it's a big mistake to put young children into categories of intelligence based on their language/literacy acquisition as people often do IMO.

I guess this is a long winded navel gazy way for me to say all 'gifted' children will be different.

Also being gifted won't do anyone any good without a good attitude to learning, work ethic, resilience etc etc so people are so right when they talk about growth mindset. Many gifted people underachieve or struggle in other ways.

@Frodont

Annoying and hard work

Mine's gifted then.

My DS was classed as 'gifted' at school. He was also premature (9 weeks). Slow to all physical milestones (even accounting for his prematurity) e.g. did not walk until 15 months, did not talk until around 2. I remember the paediatrician saying he was 'hopeful' that DS would do OK when he discharged him.
He's now an Oxford scholar!
Really - it's very difficult to tell with such a young baby and will depend so much on their personality. My niece was very precocious as a baby/toddler - walked at 8 months, talking (a lot!) at 13 months. She was very average academically but has the most perfect social skills which have taken her far in life.

' She definitely can’t pick out shapes or colours! I have been playing the shape sorter with her and the stacker and she literally just puts them in her mouth!! '

It's too soon for her to see colours, never mind match the right name to them!

Sounds like she may be teething if the shapes end up in her mouth.

I think play with her as you are, but drop the expectations. She will do it all so soon, talk, name colours and shapes and much much more in a blink of an eye.
All this anxiety will be replaced by more as she tries to climb up/walk/then run up the stairs, or if runs after a bird into the road...

Honesty, it's never-ending and exhausting, so do yourself a favour.

Look at her, and admire what she does do now. (Stop reading the 'what to expect at each month milestones')
When she smashes her gcses with A*(or cures the world of poverty) , then chat about your gifted/genius child to all.

Currently at this age, stage you have the right to call her gifted for everything she does (even burping! ). It's just the way with your own baby!! X

There is no one "best sign" because all babies are very different. There is literally no way of telling at such a young age. Some gifted kids are late bloomers; some kids are precocious but level out later on.

FWIW, my dd was decidedly average as far as physical skills like sitting and walking were concerned. She was very early on social stuff like smiling, pointing, clapping, waving etc. She did have a few words at 9 months, and her language had really exploded by her first birthday. She was also obsessed with books from around 3 months or so. So that's what it looked like for us, and she did turn out to be highly intelligent (I hate the label "gifted") but I'm sure that there are as many different manifestations of this as there are highly intelligent children.

Mine said her first word, ‘ducks,’ at 9 months and is highly gifted

How funny, my dd's first word was ducks too!

My daughter who is 5 has brilliant speech and language skills from a very early age also.

In terms of intelligence I would say she is just above average although is good at maths.

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?

I think some children are just wired to speak early. I probably did talk to dd quite a lot, typically just giving her a running commentary on what I was doing, where we were going etc. It wasn't really intentional, I just did it! Didn't intentionally speak loudly or slowly, but I probably did automatically slip into the weird "motherese" that people naturally do when they're around babies, and apparently that does help them learn.

Just as some kids are wired to walk early as well...which wasn't the case at all for dd!

You'll probably find this advice sheet from Potential Plus UK useful.
potentialplusuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PA104-Early-Years-and-High-Learning-Potential-170201a.pdf

@lifeover40. That list is an eye opener. DS has dyslexia, he had an hours long dyslexia assessment that let us know he was gifted (98 percentile IQ for his age). They also told us his intelligence will hide the dyslexia but the dyslexia wouldn’t let him shine. So we have always been very cautious about not over estimating his capabilities or letting the dyslexia bring him down.

I confess I didn’t realise the extent of how “gifted” he is until I read the list. He ticks every item in it.

6 hours long dyslexia assessment not the one hour one.

DS (12) is academically and musically 'gifted' and he had very average speech until he was 2.5-3 and then his vocabulary rocketed.
However, at 18 months his letter and number recognition was solid and he could do jigsaw puzzles for age 5+, made patterns with colours and shapes, etc.
DD (10) also gifted and had earlier (but not early) speech but same puzzle skills and letter recognition etc, and was reading (actually decoding new words and books, not just reading familiar books) and writing well before she was 3.
And the children I have known who have had early language skills have all turned to be reasonably/ averagely intelligent, so I don't think it's a reliable indicator.

Mine insisted on walking upright at 7 months, but couldn't, needed us to hold her arms up, bloody killed our backs. Didn't walk unaided until 18 months!
Totally non dexterous.
Spoke fluently from 2-4 then was mute from 4-7 years. But was obsessed with all things Asian, Asian dictionaries, culture, fashion, art...
Was coded as gifted and talented and went to Cambridge to read Chinese.
Still atrociously non dexterous. But still has a huge thirst for knowledge.
She's lovely though formidable

Mine had very good early speech. Hundreds of words and sentences before 2.
At 8 she is bright (reading age of over 11). But not as good at maths. Hard to know if that is a lack of interest. She seems to have adhd so that probably impacts the maths concentration. If you make it more interesting like a puzzle then she will do it.
Memory is still good so that helps with science and history etc..

75 books?!

You only need one or two.

My "gifted" child walked at ten months, spoke his first words before eight months. He had a vocabulary of over a hundred words by his first birthday. Toilet trained himself before he was two, day and night. He could ride a two wheeler bike without stabilisers at two and a half. He could read his six year old sister's books at two and a half, BUT he was really lazy and put in no effort at school because it was too easy. He dropped out of university and was a SATF for a few years. Eventually got a job filing and making tea. Now he has a really good job, working his way up from the bottom. Being gifted is not something to aspire to. Being hardworking at school reaps more rewards.