Is early development a predictor of intelligence?

[Tinkjon]

DS is incredibly advanced in many areas (if only sleeping were one of them ) and I was wondering if this is any sort of predictor (is that a word?!) of what he will be like later on. Or do some kids just pick things up very early and it all evens out in the end?

[usual caveat of 'I know it doesn't matter, I'm just curious to know']

All milestones were reached almost by the book in our case if anything on the later part of the scale, e.g walked at 14 months.

Showed no significant promise at infants, juniors. Read fluentley at 8 seemed behind in that area. However at secondary school was assessed on the 95th percentile for intelligence which was a bit of a . Has sailed ahead since then and if kept up the future will be bright.

Also was a very 'good' baby, handful as a toddler and beyond until the start of secondary school when this intelligent, sensible, lovely individual emerged.

Can recall a lady observing DD as a very small baby saying that her mimicking mouth movements was a sign of high intelligence.

Tinkjon, I can understand wanting to see into the future. We all want to know our DC are going to be OK and aren't going to struggle through life.

My 'advanced' baby was my second born too and he seemed to race through babyhood which I found a bit sad too. They are who they are though.

Better to be a bit advanced than not I suppose, regardless of whether or not it turns out to be a long term thing.

Just for the record though, all babies are meant to be able to mimick mouth movements to some extent. I didn't think it was an indication of intelligence.

Who hasn't, after all, tried to get a newborn to stick their tongue out through mimicking? Is this not standard new parent behaviour or is that just me that felt the need to try this one out!!?

The problem is which theory are you referring to wrt IQ? Because if you are talking about educational accessing - possibly because it depends on their ability to access information in regards to their questioning and information incorportation skills. However, there has been a lot of reasearch that this kind of IQ level can be enhanced in all students though targeting with specific methods of teaching and thus increase the ability of the child.
If you look at all sorts of different types of intellegences as described by Gardner (known as the theory of multiple intellegences) then possibly not. Each child is gifted in a specific way and targeting that gift is essential as is the understanding that not all inidividuals are academically capable and are instead more capable in non-academic areas.
The whether or not you are academically successful is not necessarily a judge of your value and contribution to society. I have the greatest respect for the people that keep society working doing the jobs that i would never want to do, eg sewage farm workers, plumbers etc. In some respect it could be argued that these people play a greater role in society then writers and media individuals. but society wouldnt be a rich without them.

In answer to you curiosity - he will be the person who shapes his life according to the morals and values you instill whilst he is growing up. focus on bringing him up to be a good person with justifiable values and he will do the rest.

Oh ment to say ds were very early in all his milestones but his development was balanced out but the narrow mindedness of individual he encountered during his pre-school life. Dont dwell on what you dont have you can't change it. I would have driven myself mad worrying about not having the baby stage. Ds was never really a baby sitting at 3months and walking by six months. It is more important to enjoy what you have.

I imagine it would depend on what area they were developing. in first. It could be a sign of intelligence or it could be a sign of physical ability.

Nope. Ds1 crawled at 6 months and is a klutz. talked at 2.8 and has a huge vocabulary.

Niecie, the mouth minicking was by way of concentrating on people talking and moving the mouth in a similar way at a very young age. I expect all babies do it, DD is an only so I hadn't thought about it before and took her prediction of high intelligence with a pinch of salt. However, it turned out to be correct many years later.

Agree with BewaretheFullMoon. Academic intelligence is not the only indicator of success in life. I believe, though, that we should steer our children to capitalise on their talents and gifts and not waste them, whatever they may be.

Also when I mentioned the mouthing thing it was a bit tongue in cheek really as it was the only time I recall someone said DD was advanced. That includes primary school teachers until she shocked them at around 10. She was a very late developer.

My sister was invariably assessed as entirely average throughout primary school and much of secondary, but ended up on the G&T list for science and maths.

I thought she was bright much earlier on, but since, by her own admission, she isn't so great at English, her talent for the sciences remained buried.

I don't suppose that adds anything particularly useful here, other than that maybe what is generally viewed as G&T needs review, anyway.