I'd like some input into my 24 months old...I think he's advanced - but how advanced is he, really??? We didn't notice all that much in his first year, except perhaps, that he smiled a bit early (4 weeks)and never seemed to need much sleep, but he didn't start walking until past 1 year, pointing with his finger was even "late" if I remember correctly etc. My mother first remarked that he seemed to have an amazing attention span (at a bit over 1 year old, he filled and emptied his shape sorter dozens of times for around 40 mins). Well, at 20 months old, he spent a couple of weeks learning the alphabet in capital letters (he insisted on learning, starting with his alphabet playmat). When we reluctantly introduced the lower case alphabet a bit later, he mastered it in a few days. He still loves spelling (he used to spell every word on signs, in stores etc.), and is starting to read a few words (though not always perfectly or consistently), and loves to observe us writing words (he has also "discovered" letters in the shape of noodles, pieces of bread, the way he spreads his legs into an "A" etc). When we ask him to find the fish on his laptop, he will find the correctly lettered button that, when pressed, will show a fish on the screen.
Also at 18/19 months he was doing his first real puzzles (he finished his second peg puzzle - 9 pieces - we got him a bit earlier, in less than a minute, so we abandoned peg puzzles...), and now at 24 months, he does 100 piece puzzles (boy, are interesting ones difficult to find for young toddlers!). The first time he does a new puzzle, he wants quite a bit of help to keep going (ie. we suggest a new piece every now and then - but don't tell him where it goes, or we ask him to look for the mouth of this animal etc.), but after that, he only needs occasional encouragement to keep going. His 60 and 48 piece puzzles are now completed very quickly and without help (we've also mixed up puzzles, and he knows exactly which piece belongs to which puzzle, even if both puzzles are Thomas engine puzzles). He looooves puzzling.
He has an excellent memory, when he encounters something new in real life (an animal, a plant etc.), he will find a corresponding example in his books (knowing exactly where to find the example, even if it is a tiny picture off-center, say, not the focus of the page - sth we would never have noticed). We recently bought a memory game, and, while not perfect the first time around, he is better than my husband and I.
He is trying to count with his fingers, but his fingers won't comply yet; he knows his numbers up to ten (we haven't tried more than that), and he knows 5 is bigger than 2, say, but he is not quite counting reliably yet (well, he will point to each element one at a time, but he does not always say the corresponding number correctly - except for stuff like stairs which we count with him routinely). He does know, however, that cars have 4 tires, for instance (a couple of months ago, he surprised us by pointing to where the 3rd and 4th tires should be in a two-dimensional picture of a car). He knows the basic colors.
His language development is difficult to judge, as he is being raised trilingually (my husband and I speak to him in our native languages, and he hears us and others speak English). In my husband's and my language, he understands hundreds and hundreds of words (for example, at least 50-75 animals in both languages), but his active vocabulary is still very small (we haven't counted, perhaps 25-50 words?, and he has only very rarely strung 2 words together). Sorry for the long description...
I like the idea of having a smart kid, obviously, but now am worried that he may be more than just smart, and that we may face problems in school; furthermore, he is a few days beyond the state's age cut off, so would be among the oldest in his class, even in the private schools around here. Based on what we can observe now, how advanced (gifted?) is he? Should we expect major issues in school? Or does he just have a good attention span and memory? He is our first-born, so we don't really know what's to be expected of a two year old. Thanks so much!
