Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums When did your gifted child talk/walk as baby???

I never did add mine:

My daughter (now 12) was talking at 6 months. I think sentences by 12 months -- maybe a bit earlier - it's all a blur. She always had perfect enunciation and sang children's songs by the time she was 18 months old. Cruised at 7 months, took a first step at 9 months, but didn't actually walk until 13 months. She was a very efficient crawler.

She didn't read until kindergarten -- I think because she was stubborn and didn't want anyone to teach her until she was around other kids that were reading. As soon as she learned, she sped up and surpassed the others very quickly.

My son (17 months) is still figuring out the age he wants to do things at. I've heard him say about 4 sentences -- his first one was 7 or 8 months old -- but only when he really needs something. He's probably said a good 20-30 words. Maybe more. But almost all of them (including "daddy" and "mommy") he's only said a handful of times and then never repeats them.

We've been playing with blocks to see if he would stack them. He keeps knocking them down -- won't stack anything. The other day, out of nowhere, he started stacking and kept going - probably got to 6 before they fell down on their own.

We can't get him to repeat it (or anything else for that matter). It's almost like he knows we're trying to "test" him to see what he can do. Usually we're patient and don't push or anything, but every now and then it would be nice to know what he understands and is capable of. I guess we'll know when he's ready to show us.

He likes to turn on the TV in the livingroom when he's out there. Earlier, the noggin matching game was up and he patted the TV screen where the right card was. Because of this crazy development patterns, we have no idea if that was intentional or not. Anybody have any ideas? Is it "normal" for a gifted 17 month old to play a matching game correctly? It doesn't seem out of bounds for him based on what I have seen, but I've seen so little from him. My husband thinks it's a coincidence.

Oh - and he keeps near pefect time to a beat and has been doing so for months - this seems impossible to me for his age. Not sure what to make of this.

My son suddenly began to say "Hey!" when someone came into the house when he was about seven months. He never crawled, but started walking when he was barely nine months, and kept running pretty much constantly from then on. My daughter started crawling at about 5 1/2 months, so she took a little longer to walk. About 11 months. Her first word was later than her brother as well - around eight months. But the odd thing is that even though he hit many milestones earlier than he did, she learns academic type things far faster than he does.

I cannot remember exactly when, without looking at the notes but DH was first struck at DD's sense of humor at a few months.

She walked a day after she turned 11 months. When DD started something she just did it and continued. I don't remember early talking but by 18 months, she was articulate and using 3 word sentences and knew 50 different animals -- we were going to the zoo a lot.

And I remember going to a mom's group when she was 4 months and when I positioned myself on the floor with my baby on a blanket in front of me, she looked around and then rolled across the floor to another baby to check him out. Even the group leader was surprised that she would leave me to check another baby out in a strange place.

The most striking and at the time annoying, was that by 2 months she had to look at the world. Couldn't put her in the baby borne with her looking in. And also --- you know how you put the baby seat in the stroller, till they outgrow the baby seat and then you have the stroller?---, she was looking at me, not the world. Unacceptable. I remember trying to shop for some groceries and I had to roll her on her belly so her face was then looking forward and hold her with my hand, because I couldn't strap her in and pull the stupid stroller like that while I tried to stop. If she wasn't looking at the world, she would just scream. Looking at the world, she just stoppped.

Ren

How funny that our son's first word was "No" at 8 months. It hasn't stopped since, lol! He walked at 11 months but then almost immediately ran. He was talking in full sentences just over a year. The really striking thing for us was his use of language and his memory. He remembers EVERYTHING you say and will pull it out years later. Never tell this child "When you are 8, we are going to ...." because he will call you on it. He also heard a vocab word, would ask us what it meant, and then weeks later use it correctly in a sentence. He is a sponge period. He was lining up cars methodically by 8 months and had excellent hand/eye coordination and fine motor grasp.

Squeaky wheel, that sounds a lot like my son, but like adhoc said the stages kind of seem all like a blur. My girl has been more verbal than my boy from the start. Her first word was a sentence "get out of here" at 6 months old (her brother was interrupting her nursing and I said it a few times that week for the same reason). She doesn't have real words, just "hoo"s at the train, "Rawrs" at her brother, baby babbles a lot. But she sometimes makes sentences. She has said "I did it", which her brother says. Right now she's trying to walk. She's been insisting I hold her standing up frequently for what seems like an hour at a time. She took her first supported steps today. It was an accident. She was standing there and decided to throw a fit and stomped her feet standing up and ended up moving forward a few steps. Later today she did it again intentionally. She's got the strength and now the knowledge, we'll see how long it takes from here.
Eta: I told my grandmother what espy's doing and she said our women always skip crawling. My aunt apparently taught herself to walk by grabbing the ear of their indoor pet Labrador. Mom says I also skipped crawling and went from army crawling to walking. Cool.

My son talked extremely early, as in he had more words than I can count at 6 months. My daughter talked fairly early too. She is very intelligent, but not considered gifted.

My son didn't take his first steps until he was 15 months old. He could crawl for quite a while, but preferred to be held and carried. He was a very big baby and very attached to me.

I don't remember exactly when DS started talking, but I remember at 8 months old he woke up in the morning and said Daddy. The next morning he woke up and said Mommy. The next morning he said Daddy and then he called both of us Daddy for the next 3-4 months. But he would smirk every time he called me Daddy. We tried signs, but he only learned a couple by the time he could speak the actual words. I think he was speaking in sentences about 13 months.

He crawled a perfect 4 point crawl at about 4.5 months (after which he stopped crying in the afternoon). Then he refused to walk until about 14 months. I think it slowed him down.

Watching my now 9 yearold learning to crawl was amazing and life changing!She had just learned to sit on her own. She could crawl well, backwards. She was soooo mad that she could get where she wanted. She even learned to go backwards to get there. BUT what was amazing is that she practiced SOOOO hard! When she did it, she looked up...and waited for us to clap. She was 4.5 months. She spent the rest of her months holding my hand and walking to get around. She woul push a small chair. She could stand and bend over and stand up by 8 months, but didn't walk until 10.

By her first b-day, she was running to get a kite in the air!

Before she was born, she said hello to daddy when he came home from work.

He called her booper...because would boop my tummy.

He would call to her..."Booper!"
And 100% of the time, she would kick back!

She was so verbal and tall, that a woman once asked her what grade she was in..

She said "I'm 2."

The woman laughed.

"How old are you really?"

My daughter laughed...two."

The woman actually came over and said how funny it was that my daughter was pretending to be two.

I told her ...she IS two.

the woman got mad and took her child away.

Sydness,

Your story reminds me of my unidentified, but suspected gifted DS7. He was talking so well at the age of 2 and having so many adult conversations, no one would ever believe me when I told them he was only 2.

My identified MG/HG DS9 did not talk or walk early. Milestones were right on target.

I just noticed this thread.

My son walked on his own at 10 months.

He said his first intelligible word,("UP") other than "mama" and "dada", at 14 months.

I have an email my dad sent me that VERY same day!! Read it and know why I was a bit surprised by it's timing.

Here it is:

Did You Think English Is Easy?