DS5 talked early (more than baby talk) at around 6 months.
Walked 10 days before his 1st birthday.

My Ds was a month early and was supposed to be "behind" for a year to three years while he caught up. We didn't pay much attention to traditional milestones because the docs always gave us the ones that were a month to two months earlier. They laughed at me when I asked if it was normal for a 3 mo old to turn pages in a book. I think they thought I was genuinely nuts.

DS walked his first steps at 10 mo and walked well by 10 mo 2 weeks. He had maybe 5 words on his 1st birthday but a huge receptive vocabulary and was understanding close to 100 signs and using probably 15-20 regularly on his own. By 14 mo, he was speaking in complex paragraphs that were at least 75% intelligible by strangers. People constantly snapped their heads around to see who was talking in the baby voice with adult words.

He has what we call "light bulb" moments where things just turn on- they don't build up, they just switch.

Hi guys, very interesting discussion. I was reading an article earlier this week and I thought some of you might be interested in reading it.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16138...Pubmed_RVDocSum

Dd#1 said her first word at 6 months (cat) and started adding a lot of single words shortly thereafter. However, she was not walking until 15.5 months.

Dd#2 said her first two words at 5.5 months and combined them into a two word phrase of sorts [mama, a bat (bath) -- while pointing at the tub] within days of begining to speak. She was walking at 12.5 months.

All in all, both of my girls were early speakers, but not early with their gross motor skills. Dd#1 did have crazy small motor skills, though. She could spend 20 minutes taking the caps off of ballpoint pens and putting them back on by 9 months of age. We used to joke that she'd be our neurosurgeon.

Our experience was quite different. We saw very significant delays in development of motor milestones. And, I look back at the kids who were earliest in motor development among kids we know and none of them are gifted. I would consider attention span, level of attentiveness and ability to follow commands, etc. to all be stronger signs.

My DD4 did that with reading early this year. She went from sounding out many words and reading slowly to BOOM! reading on sight quickly. She also started sight reading words she's never seen. Example: the other day she sight read "register" in a flyer for some day camps and then had to ask what it meant.


Val

I thought I would be a cool Mom and teach baby sign language. (I started this right when the book suggested.) But my son keep learning the words so I didn't get to; do it. I figured I'm cool anyway.

Sorry I don't remember the age but I thought I'd share. I love when I read other peoples comments and it brings back memories. My son's first word was Duck.

It's a wonderful time enjoy it.

That is funny!
I tried the baby sign language too. I have a VERY independent child that never asked for anything so, although he knew the signs and what they meant he never used them to ask me for milk or more or anything.


To the OP, my Ds walked at 9 mos. as did I and he was speech delayed. He had his first words around the regular time for boys (I am thinking around 10-11 mos?) but, didn't really start talking until about 2 1/2-3 yo. He could read before he could talk I think.

I first read this as 'cursing at 5 1/2 mo.' I thought 'wow that is advanced!' You have to cut me some slack it is 2:30 AM right now. Dh is working late and I can't sleep 8(

Both Wolf and Bear said their first word around 7 months and were walking/running by around-a-bout 10 months. However Wolf didn't say another word till around 11 months and at 18 months was evaluated for delays because he didn't have 10 words (had TONS of signs though). Bear on the other hand flat out refused to learn sign and had over 75 words at 18 months as well as using 2-3 word sentences. Now at 2 1/2 he is talking in full sentences with proper grammar and has a vocabulary almost as good as Wolf (2 1/2 years older), his pronunciation leaves a bit to be desired though...