Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment possibly gifted 2 year old?

I am brand new to this forum as I have just now started researching more about gifted children and their education, etc. ... I have two little boys one who will be 4 next month and we know he's very smart and has above average knowledge ... just judging from his interaction with his peers and what he does (great in math, science and technical stuff) but we're also looking into the possibility of him having ADHD, PDD or possibly Asperger's ... he has a psychiatrist appointment next month and he has always been the center of attention BUT our 2 year old is shaping up to be an unusual child and that's why I need help from you who have experience with this

first off, I am NOT the type of parent that spends time teaching their baby / toddler things just to get ahead of the curve. I let our boys to pick up knowledge as it comes to them and just explore whatever they like ...

they both were late in physical development ... late walkers (older one at 17 months, younger one at 15 months) ... both speech delayed ... both only 10 words at 24 months, which is why I went to Early Intervention for evaluation to see what they think ... the older one has severe Sensory Processing Disorder plus whatever else they psychiatrist might find when we see them ... and the younger one at the evaluation at 26 months tested at 9-12 months level for comprehension(due to no interest in communication) and 12-15 months level at communication ... and they all agreed he has sensory issues too ... he is now 2 years and 4 months old and getting speech and developmental therapy ... yet everyone on the evaluation team and the therapists agree the numbers are very off for him and that he's proving to be super smart ... and I really believe he is ...

at 15 months he started to be interested in letters and he'd bring them to me and I'd say the name of the letter
at 18 months he knew 20 letters and I started giving him phonetic sounds of them
by 24 months knew and recognized (read) all the letters and their phonetic sounds and would do "what letter comes next" type of activities
at 22 months knew and recognized numbers to 10 (and would use them to count objects)
at 24 months knew and recognized numbers to 20 (I realized that as I watched him count pieces of hot dog on his plate to 19!) ... as I mentioned I did NOT teach him that ... he learned from TV!
at 26 months finally started learning some words other than numbers and letter! YAY!!! and started showing interest in communication (a little) ...at this point I already knew he had this amazing memory as when he was interested in something, I'd only show him / tell him once or twice and he'd remember things
at 26 months learned his first 6 colors in just 5 minutes (if at all!)
at 27 months I told him the basic shapes and he now knows them
at 28 months (as of last weekend) ... I showed him black, brown and white yesterday and he now knows them

and here's the kicker that got me really looking into the whole gifted thing ... over the weekend he started reading simple words that he knows by sounding them out! I wrote a word for his BROTHER and my younger one came by, spelled, it, sounded it out and read it! ... and then another 4 words ... dog, cat, hat, cow and apple! ... I'm sure it wasn't just sight reading and using his memory as he really sounded them out and I got it on a video when he did it again later that day with more words. I don't think that's normal at 2 years 4 months of age? I've heard of kids who learned to read at the age of 2 or 3 but I never thought my child could do this?

... sorry to make it this long but I'm hoping some of you may see your children in my son and will have advice for me as to if he could be gifted or just has a good memory? And what to do with him now?

Our school district doesn't even have a GT program for kids and he's 3 years from entering K and learning to read? What in the world am I going to do with him then?

If he continues to learn with such ease ... should I get him tested? and at what age? He's on the waiting list to be seen by Pediatric Psychiatrist too just like my older one but it's another 6 months before we can get in ... when he started with the whole letter fascination and numbers and no interest in communication, we were again concerned with Asperger's or something similar ... but now I'm thinking maybe he's just one of those smarter kids who are not interested in doing things the "normal" way?

Again, I'm sorry for writing such a novel but it's all so new to me ... I have too many questions and no answers ... when I was a kid (growing up in Central Europe) I was what was considered gifted as well (IQ about 145 back then ... not as smart now! lol) ... and went to regular public elementary school (1-4)... my elementary school teacher later in life told me I scared her! ... so much she'd send her husband to do research in the library on the topics I asked her about so she could give me the answers (talk about having an awesome teacher! lol) and then math/science middle school (5-8) for gifted kids (LOVED being among kids like me!) and regular high school (was ok) ... so I know what it can be like ... but I was nowhere as GOOD as my 2 year old so I don't know what we have awaiting for us this time???

Unless you have a need to test now I would wait until he's a bit older. Testing at this age can be unreliable. You already know he's gifted. You don't need a test to tell you that. I would test before he's set to enter K (or Pre-K if you're contemplating early K entry) so you know exactly what you're dealing with and then present the results to the school so appropriate accomodations can be made. Without a GT program in place be prepared to fight for what your son needs. In the meantime just keep doing what you're doing. Follow his lead and keep providing him with new opportunities to learn. He sounds like an amazing little boy!

I'm also just starting this "gifted" journey. I have three kids- 6, 3, 20months. My oldest son was tested this past fall because he was what they described as "the good, old-fashioned, hyperactive kind". (A low dose of ritalin was being tossed around.) He seemed to have trouble listening, couldn't sit still, etc. He also learned everything very young and hit all his milestones at a very early age. All of his teachers have recognized that he's very bright. In preschool it was recommended we wait a couple of years for testing, which we did. He bypassed kindergarten because his academics were so strong, and attended first grade last year. His teacher said the information from testing couldn't hurt at that point, so we finally did it. It turned out that all of his behaviors could be attributed to the fact that he was profoundly gifted, and the psychologist (a specialist in GATE testing) didn't see any signs of any other exceptional behaviors. He's starting third grade in the fall. We also never "coached" in regards to learning. Our oldest just read a book one day.

Our second child (3-years) also seems to be very bright, but has no interest in anything academic-like. Our oldest was already reading simple chapter books by his age. If I try to read him a book about anything but cars or trains I get, "Mama, I like trains. Not this." LOL

My daughter (20months) seems to be similar in personality to my oldest son. She's very young, but we'll see what happens as she gets a little older.

They all have such different personalities, but my opinion is that they're all very bright. I've read in several places that siblings tend to be pretty close in IQ. I guess I'll find that out in the next few years. It sounds like you will, too!

Good luck with your boys! :-)

I suspected my oldest dd now 11 was bright, but didn't think that she would end up having DYS qualifying scores (she was tested in January). She attended a small private Montessori from age 3, until 5th grade when we moved in March. I had her tested to qualify for the gifted pull-out at the local public school not for the academics, but because I wanted to get her used to big public school stuff like eating lunch in the cafeteria. She just barely made the cut-off as a 6 yr. old on the WPPSI.

At that time, the tester was inexperienced with gifted kids (we actually used a tester at the Down Syndrome clinic, so her expertise was with the other side of the curve), and I think perfectionism played a huge role in that score being an underestimate. She is the kind of kid who does not want to answer unless she is positive she knows the correct answer. I would guess she probably overthought some of the questions as well.

I can say looking back, that esp. now knowing her level of giftedness, that we made the sacrifices to keep her at Montessori. It was not perfect, and I see now that I should have advocated for more of a challenge in some areas, but it was a far better fit for her than the public school would have been, even if we had known to ask for a grade skip. Montessori is not the best fit for every gifted kid, but for my dd it was wonderful. Just one option to consider for the future. If I were you I would also start looking into homeschooling as an option.

As far as testing, I also have a younger dd5, who presents totally differently than dd11. She is the definition of psychomotor intensity and it was driving me insane until I started to understand that she needed stimulation because she is so darn smart. I knew that it might not yield accurate results, but chose to have her tested anyway because the price was right and I thought it might be useful. She was 4 at the time, and we did it again at the Down syndrome center (dumb!) but the price was right. She was not very cooperative but her FSIQ was 124 at the time I think. So it wasn't a total waste, it showed me that I am not completely crazy to think she is gifted (and I suspect highly) but it isn't really useful for much.

If you have a kid who would cooperate, and a tester who is experienced with gifted kids, and you decide you might want to ask for early entrance to K for example, it could be worth testing. Also as morgans-mommy said, even if you don't ask for early entrance to K it could hopefully help the teacher know how to differentiate the work for your kid.

I think there is a window with the WPPSI where it is most useful before you might run into ceiling issues. Otherwise you have to wait for them to be 6ish to do the WISC (we are waiting to have dd5 tested on the WISC in the spring, with a tester very experienced with gifted kids and who I suspect will be able to get her cooperation).

All of this to say--I think it is great to start learning and considering these issues now--we sort of lucked out with dd11's school sitaution. I believe that if she had been in the public school (this was a perfectly fine public school for the average kid) she would not have the same love of learning.

Good luck! And check out the SENG website. I bet you will find a lot of helpful info. in the articles there.

Yep, possibly gifted. Testing now would be a waste, though.

Sounds like a delightful child! As the others have said, unless there is a specific program that needs test scores, you should wait (there are indeed some preschool GT programs that require test scores). When you get close to school-age, scores can be useful. Most places will want recent scores (within the last two years), so testing too early will do you no good, even if you ignore the unreliability factor of testing too early.

Document the milestones and unique talents as they appear. One day you'll be asked all those questions and will wish you had. But for now, I'd just enjoy, nurture and let 'em learn at their own pace.

Speaking of milestones, Dr. Ruf has a free milestone tracker on her site: Milestone Tracker I haven't used it, since my kiddo is beyong those early milestones, but it sounds like an easy way to track things.

thank you all for the tips and opinions! I couldn't find this thread after I originally posted it until just now! lol ... as for the testing, I wouldn't be doing anything about that until later just as you all suggested. Right now there's no need. Both my boys are home with me and we're not looking at school until a few years from now. Plus with Illinois not having mandatory K, we might skip K and go straight to 1st grade. I am more so trying to see what we may be dealing with in a few years. I did some reading after I first posted and realized the state of Illinois puts ZERO $ towards education for gifted children ... we live just 4 miles south of the Wisconsin border, so we might eventually consider moving up there even if "just" for our kids education. The WI schools not too far from us all have gifted programs and a lot of them with great results! Plus there seem to be a lot more options for online public schooling with options to skip grades, etc.

Sometimes I feel like my 2-year old is just playing with me! He's in speech therapy for not wanting to communicate ... yet now, just a month later (and obviously not thanks to the therapy) instead of learning words, he's starting with 3-4 word phrases! lol He puts this "game face" on where you think he's completely checked out of the situation and then he repeats what you said our goes and does what you asked 5 minutes prior! He's a very funny little guy to say the least!

I don't think I mentioned in my original post ... he seems to have this natural talent for music too. He likes to rhythmically hum the songs he knows and likes with real precision ... sometimes it's more of a rap style (I love when he started doing the ABC song that way! lol) ... but most times it's with a great pitch ... though very quietly so you really have to pay attention to realize what he's doing. ... reminds me of when I was a kid and played accordion for 7 years. I was never great at it but my problem was I didn't want to play from sheet music ... I wanted to play by ear what I had heard and liked. But I was able to learn a bunch of other instruments just by having fun with them ... just by heart. It seems both our boys take the little talents I used to have and take them numerous steps further and I am absolutely enjoying it!!!

Sounds like you have an adorable little guy there! I can relate to that "jokester" personality and I am sure he can speak a lot more than he is letting on. Seems to be one of those little kids who don't talk and then one day speak in full sentences.

DS2.5 has a similar personality except he is very verbal. He messes with me too though...When we read he will point to 2 words and say what they are but switch them up! He thinks it is hilarious and cracks himself up...lol! If I ever ask him a color, number etc., most of the time he refuses to answer me OR he jokes around and says the wrong thing all the while laughing hysterically.

This is very different from DS4.5 PG. He was always very serious and would never think to joke around about "serious" things like that...:-)

Pretty sure you have a gifted child there but wait with testing. We got DS4.5 early entrance to K this fall just by showing his work. We since had him tested and especially the achievement test will come in real handy once he starts K. There will for sure me some subject acceleration needed.

I suggest you DO have him tested eventually just because it hold so much more weight to present a professional evaluation rather than the school just taking the parents "word" for it..

Enjoy the ride!