Able Baby

[FrogPool]

DD is 17m, born 5w early so corrected 16m. Her vocabulary is too big to record and she understands pretty much everything we say to her. She can recognise and say 15 phonic sounds and can recognise numbers 1-10 written down and say these. She can look at two items and know there are 2. She can recognise and name some shapes (circle, square, heart, egg, star) and can recognise and name the colours white, black, green, blue, pink, yellow and sometimes red. She is putting words together to make short sentences. She can tell you her first name if you ask her and she said "yes" before she said "no". She understands where, who, what questions (but not why yet) and answers them. She can recognise her own name when written down. I've read lots of threads on here and don't think she is the cleverest child on the planet or anything but think that she may be doing some things a bit earlier than the average and hoped that here might be an acceptable place to ask whether she does seem to be a bit ahead of the curve, as I'm not sure what is usual. Asking out of interest more than after advice.

This resonates with me so much. DS, not an early talker, but extremely intelligent, very mathematical / scientific - coasted all through school, bored, everything came so easy to him. Couldn't hack it at uni where the content was much tougher and he needed to actually work at it... he has since dropped out. Being a little less gifted / a little more challenged would have done him a huge favour. We brought him to programs for gifted kids but he wasn't too interested - maybe because he'd got too used to the easy wins, and being at the top of his class.

Your dd sounds amazing, OP. Enjoy every minute. If she keeps achieving at a high level, make sure she's challenged and doesn't spend all her days sitting back and coasting. It's very easy to enjoy the successes without thinking about the difficulties they might inadvertently cause later on.

@Leftcoilingsnail

Can confirm this. My deaf child was 'reading' hundreds of words at this age. But as I understand it, it's not reading in the sense that children at school learn to read. More recognising something they've been shown. He was far above his peers in language, but that was because we were actively teaching him sign language, while most people passively teach spoken languages.

He's five now and certainly bright, but well within the normal range.

Enjoy your daughter OP.

I had one like this. She remained very "verbal" and still as a adult loves acting and writing. It's huge fun having a baby who talks- the double takes from people on public transport are great.

No clue why some people in Mumsnet have such issue with bright children but lots of people have commented on the fact she is very advanced

Yes, on MN, people can't stand to hear that anyone's child is clever - they think they are in a position to tell you that you are wrong.

I have a very bright pre schooler too and I was talked down to on here and told I was 'doing her no favours' by 'deciding' she's bright. 🤔 I didn't decide anything - nursery pointed it out.

On Mumsnet people can't stand to hear that a child is very intelligent. This child is my 4th and I can see how different she is from the other three.

@FrogPool for a while my dd, when at about 10 months said "Nine" very clearly in response to any question involving numbers. We used to wait for a quiet moment in public and ask a complicated question with a 9 answer and watch the secret amazement....

@CurlewKate haha that's brilliant 😁

OP, you might find this essay interesting: https://larrysanger.org/2010/12/baby-reading/

My dd was doing all this and more by 14 months. She is severely autistic but incredibly intelligent although it’s hard to realise her potential as her issues due to ASD make utilising her intelligence really difficult

Definitely very much ahead I'd have said and I think your attitude is v refreshingly, clearly v proud and interested in it all, it is very interesting I think, but not pushing. My ds came put as performing at 4yo level at his 2y check and the doctor who did it (she was there instead of nurse as there was concern about his still tender fontana!) was genuinely interested at putting him through his paces. Point to the person without a hat, where is the person who is not sitting etc. She continued on out of genuine enthusiasm and concluded there was no concern about fontana! He was incredibly good at jigsaws at that stage and never once looked at the picture on the box, just seemed to know what would go together and we did jigsaws side by side, without me saying or doing anything to help, that were 80-100 piece for 4-8yos. I genuinely enjoyed it but didn't teach a thing (I'm a teacher!), just went v much child led and enriched his vocabulary by using well rounded vocabulary myself. I never used baby talk. He's 8 now and a delight, flying in school but I would say just high achieving now rather than genius so it remains to be seen whether the early advancement will mean anything long term. Like you, I don't care a jot and just enjoy him and let him follow his own interests- football, football and more football these days! Enjoy her and these special years.

Mine is 17 months and I thought she was pretty clever for understanding everything, recognising and identifying animals, copying sounds, performing tasks when asked etc but she's nowhere near yours vocabulary wise. Are you a SAHM?

My DD was like this, could say several hundred words by 12m, sentences by 5-16 months and started spontaneously reading numbers and letters around that age. However, she's performing about average or just above average at school. She's still bright but has dyslexia and reading whole words and sentences was a struggle.