Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources For babies?

Can anyone suggest resources or activities for a gifted four month old who is fascinated by words and letters?

Rachel, I don't know if this will apply to your gifted 4-month old, but we read to our daughter a lot when she was a baby, pointing out the words as we read. I don't know if this had anything to do with it, but she began sight reading at 3 years old, and has been an avid reader ever since, much to our delight.

Celia

Thanks Celia

We read to him a lot - I can read an adult type book with no pictures and he will follow along as I point to the words.

He is already saying some of the alphabet - not stringing it all together yet, but saying parts together like f,g,h and attempting some of the more difficult sounds like x and z.

Yes, reading is a wonderful thing! I hope my son enjoys it too as he gets older.

We bought a set of alphabet blocks that were actually shaped like the alphabet. My kids loved those. I think we found number blocks too.

Other than that and reading - I can't think of too many things that were infant safe.... Especially once teething starts and the drool starts flowing freely.

Mary

Thank you Mary - I will keep a look out for some of those.
Yes, the drool thing is a problem - and wanting to put everything in his mouth! Has already had a paper cut on his lip from trying to eat books!
Can I ask about your experience with gifted infants?

Leap frog makes a number of toys that have letters, numbers, shapes, and color games. I don't know if they still make it but we had a "keyboard" type thing that you pressed the letter and it could be set to say the letter, the sound, or a word (if memory serves...). We also had a stuffed frog with the letters on his chest. It had similar games. After that we played with a wood puzzle that had upper and lower case letters and a picture of something that began with that letter. He now uses those letters to make words.... Good Luck!

Nancy

Magnetic Letters or letters that stick to the bathtub wall?
My aunt made a plush toy in the shape of my son's favorite letter (W.)
I also think that k'nex can be made into some letter shapes - then you can use them as a building toy later.

Magnetic poetry for the frige?

Smiles -
Trin

My DS is PG. We had great luck with board books that had photos in them rather than cartoon drawings. Because it was real, we could sit and talk about the pictures in great detail.

Eventually, we started a game with the books - find a picture of a tractor progressing to find a picture of a red tractor in a book that also has a watermelon on a blue tablecloth.... LOL He had a whole pile of books and he had them memorized. Loved finding the right book. That kept us going until he was old enough (11 mo) to give the picture dictionary with photos in it.

He also loved counting - couldn't say the words right, but loved counting nonetheless. I would throw these plastic kid-safe fish on the floor and count them as he picked them up and put them in the bucket. Eventually, he started throwing them over his left shoulder as he counted himself - uh doo dee doh dye di dede... you get the idea. It was quite cute.

As for the bathtub letters - DS tried to eat them and we had to take those away. By 12 months, he stopped putting books in his mouth - but everything else went in his mouth and we had to be very careful about what we gave him.

Keep in mind that no matter how smart - he is still a baby and needs to learn all the same things as normal babies (except the things he has already mastered). That includes things like how to focus on a picture to see it and how to move and grab and such. Motor skills are easy to ignore.

Mostly, we stuck with regular age appropriate toys - just found more creative and interesting ways to play with them.

Mary

hi rachael,
my son is 29 months old. when he was starting to crawl, i lined the floor with colorful alphabet (they have them in numbers too, i got mine from wal-mart but i think toys r us have them too) foam puzzle tiles to protect him from hitting his head if he slips and fall. he would constantly take the letters off and show them to me one by one while i tell him the letter names. by 18 months old, (he was delayed in his speech), he will pick out whatever letter (including the color of the letter like blue V, purple T, blue T, etc.) i would ask. at 24 months, we were driving down the freeway and he just started reading the letters and numbers on the freeway sign and cigarette prices in the gas station. today he is reading a few words, most of which he just taught himself, he can read and count up to 40, can recognize all colors and shapes including pentagon, hexagon and octagon, he knows how to write a couple of letters. while i think that those foam letters helped him learn his alphabet, i think that constantly talking and reading and nurturing them can stimulate their natural hunger for kmowledge. these kids are self-propelled. it seems like you are on the right path, keep teaching him whatever he wants to learn.