DYS PG-DS10 didn't talk for real until some time into Speech Therapy . His first sentence was "I love to jump" as he sprang off a couch. He was over 2 at the time. I didn't keep notes of every milestone but i took lots of video with commentary.
But, DS DID say this one word as a baby. We thought he was trying to say Mama but it turned out it was the name of this other baby girl that he was kind of obsessed with. We figured it out when her Christmas photo came and he flipped out over the photo! He was 8 months at the time and had known her since he was only weeks old. All those months I thought he was trying to same mama but he was definitely trying to say her name, not mama.
After that he would only lay still for a diaper change if i gave him the photo.
Also, he liked numbers before he could really talk. I didn't catch it all at the time but I have the videos and I have since realized some of what I missed. There is video of him pointing out letters & numbers on a playset at the park and I just thought he wanted to climb again. Pointing at a "3" excitedly, exclaiming over and over, "fee! fee! fee!" as I took him the other way by the hand
and also climbing the steps as a little one and counting "unn, ooohhh, feeeee" I was expecting little kid babble. He was probably not talking to me because he thought I didn't understand him! lol poor kid!
So, while at 18 months he wasn't really talking, wasn't communicating with us, he had been grunting, pointing & biting out of frustration! Also made up some of his own signs. But the speech therapist, using a writing board, figured out the kid new all his letters, could read words, new all the shapes you could think of (trapezoid, etc) he started to count up and down as his language skills emerged. his countdown was so cute too, from 10 down to 3, 2, 1, zeeeewooooooh. lol Then, more frustration for him, he couldn't express what was in his mind and he was shouting what I called "catch phrases" at us! We worried about echolalia but it wasn't. By 2.5 he was expressing himself well and was freaking people out in public all the time. In the park there would be skip counting and negotiating: "i want to go on the slide 80 more times...counting on 10s!" lol I'd get funny looks! It all worked out and he's a wonderful public speaker, has a great voice, amazing vocabulary and corrects my grammar constantly.
Walking - well, on his 1st birthday I said "that's it bub, walk" and I stood him up, moved a few feet back and he walked to me. After that he pretty much RAN 24/7. lol
MG/HG DD8 had some a few words at age 1 (mama, thanks, 1,2,3) then stopped abruptly which had us all worried. She had speech therapy at 18m until gr K. She had major articulation probs. She's perfectly fine now
She was cruising and starting to walk at 1.
So, does this fit the mold for gifted kids? Seems like so many have the super-early milestones.
