22b I loved your response that input is easier - but I'm not sure it's true for my kids!!! My eldest categorically has a 50 percentile plus gap between receptive language and expressive (expressive higher).

And I have vivid memories of my youngest as a one yr old, walking around the first hour or two every morning practicing the words for things or asking for new words and generally repeating everything she heard (bordering on echolalia). For her speaking seemed to be a necessary part of her storage/filing system (like taking written notes at an exam I guess). She she still speaks-to-process, and is NEVER quiet....

Conversely decoding text doesn't come easily to them, their reading is highly dependent on context and meaning. My second child for example would test years lower on reading tests like the schonnel test which are based on pure decoding of random words, compared to what she could read in meaningful text...as early readers my kids really could not read beyond their comprehension level.

Still fascinated by the differences in the way people's brains work.