Our oldest is confirmed gifted, so he's the one I'd talk about. He was not all that early a talker (and definitely not an early walker) but it was his rate of language acquisition and the kinds of things he talked about that were amazing.

We also did sign language--took a class when he was 7 months. He picked up on it right away. Even the instructor would always comment on how attentive he was during class. He learned many, many signs and loved to show us things. He was so pleased to communicate. He only spoke a couple of words at his first birthday, and I even asked the pediatrician if it was unusual. He knew a ton of signs though. Then right after his first birthday his language exploded. He was speaking in complete sentences by 15 months. He also spoke very clearly and talked about unusual things early on. At 15 months my grandma was dying and we went back to see her. At that time my son was really into sounds but he didn't call them sounds, he called them "sound/noises," like he was so fascinated that there were two words for the same thing. Everywhere we went while we were visiting he would ask, "What's that sound/noise?," to the point that we start finding things that made funny noises just to entertain him. My sister could make funny noises with a blade of grass and he called that "Aunt Kay's sound/noise." Anyway, I have two younger sons and neither one has been quite as verbal or curious at that early age.

My oldest did not walk until 15 months, my second child walked at 19 months!!, and my youngest at 9 months!, so my children have been all over the map. My oldest was definitely the most verbal, though. I have no idea whether the other two are gifted--they don't show the same level of intensity as their brother but they are also still young (3 and 1). They have different personalities while my oldest was demanding and communicative from an early age.

Both kids had apparent receptive language understanding by 4-5 months. My son spoke early and often while my daughter started conversing late, at 2 ½, when her 6 month old brother started speaking. Although she was quiet, as an only child for her first 2 years with me as her full-time caregiver, she was able to direct us through gestures, eye contact and facial expression. I didn’t keep track of new words. When my son started part-time day care at 14 months, the teachers were astonished by how well spoke and his conversation topics. The director commented that he spoke as well as their most advanced Kers, which was as high as the program went. There was no denying his behavioral differences as compared to age peers when he was a toddler. At the same time, our daughter spoke better, but less, than her age peers so she stayed under the radar more, but her teacher and program director did mention that she was highly mature socially.

They each walked at 9 months and ran by 11 months. We didn’t have stairs when our daughter was a baby, but our son climbed stairs at 11 months.

DD began talking well under a year (like maybe 6mos. or so) and toddled at 11 mos for about two days before running. She hasn't stopped since.

Both of my kids were more noted for their climbing than their walking (stairs and jungle gyms--DD climbed jungle gym all the way to the top at 1 year). Both took first steps before a year, but found crawling much faster and more effective in getting to what they wanted ahead of us DS stuck with walking once he got going, but DD, even after she could run a bit, preferred crawling until close to 14 months.

Clear words for both kids were around a year, but when I looked back at journals I saw that both children sang back at us by six months. If animal sounds count, then DD's first words were probably around 10 months when she would make sounds in anticipation of the next page in Moo, Baa, La,La,La. DS was using Maaaa Maaa along with the sign (one of the few I knew) by ten months to request "more". What we noticed most about language was how rapid the acquisition was once they started. DD was quicker to use phrases (16 months)but both acquired adjectives before their peers and DD's enunciation was always crystal clear. Very few of those cute words most toddlers create by mixing syllables or missing blends.

DS said his first word around 5 to 6 months.

He didn't walk until he was around 16 months.

I have 3 DD's all spoke their first word(s) at 6 months oldest walked before 9 months 2nd(my DYS) walked at 10months and 3rd walked just after 9 months. So all of them were in a hurry

The most amazing thing about my daughter is that I can't say when she did her first social smile, cause I think she may have come out that way! Everyone told us it was impossible, so I kept doubting it, but when we visited her ped just before three weeks, the doctor was surprised as she had never seen a baby smile at her at such a young age. She also didn't cry much at all, but instead orated non-words within a few hours of birth. It always irritated me when I read that crying is a baby's only way of communicating.

Anyway, walking was 9 months 9 days (dancing and running by 12 months), not sure about crawling. She sang (no decipherable words) when she was maybe 6 months. She was very shy about talking, so I can't say when she started, but she used many other communication techniques to tell stories about the day when a caretaker would come home. I will not be surprised when she becomes a performer. She didn't switch to speaking until almost 18 months, but was almost instantly talking in sentences. (She is a bilingual child who likes to learn things "secretly.") At 20 months she used to play with language (i.e. restate phrases using different tenses and sentence structures) , and was cracking jokes by this time as well.

BWAHAHAHHA!!

When Mr W was about a year old, a friend was talking about cars, and said, "I'm thinking about getting a Mercedes-Benz."

Mr W, clear as a bell, says, "What is a Mercedes?"

I responded, "It is a type of car."

My friend could have been knocked over with a feather!!

I don't remember! I think DD started using simple words about 6 - 7 months and walking independently at 13 months. With DS its hard to remember a time when he wasn't talking. He started walking at about 11 months. One of the most memorable things for me about DS was his love of spelling words backwards when he was 3. His favourite word was hippopotamus.

with my DD3, she said words like tweezers, water, kicking, at 9 or ten months, and started walking at 13 months. Her language and understanding really took off and she knew letter sounds, upper and lower case letters, difficult shapes etc. by a little over 1 and a half. My other DD1, who I am not so sure about in terms of giftedness,lifted her head the day she was born, rolled over at three weeks, had her first social smile at three weeks old and walked early (awful I don't remember when) but she didn't talk as much and as early as the first. Her tongue muscles weren't strong even though she understood everything. Once her tongue got more coordinated, she just surprises me every day with how much she can say. My first is very advanced verbally and conitively and even with fine motor, but has never been strong in gross motor ways. My second is much more athletic and coordinated so it will be interested to see how they develop over time.