Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Gifted and Speech Delayed?

We're going to the pediatrician tomorrow for DD 22 months. We haven't been since she was 15 months. DD has me totally confused... I can't decide if she is just a bright toddler experiencing asynchronous development, or if I should be watching for something. Everyone keeps saying it is good to catch problems early...

She has hit many 36 month milestones, but won't even attempt two syllable words. She mainly uses vowels, with an occasional m, b, or d sound. She will sign sentences "mommy. milk. points to my chest. please." While saying "eee" for please or "mii?" for milk.

She also freaks out a lot when we are in new surroundings and is terrified of men - even ones she knows, except her dad (and some women, too.) We took her to the mall in a stroller once and she ended up hyperventilating for 20 minutes because too many people smiled at her. And I *do* take my kid out of the house, too! Every new situation usually leads to her clinging to me and crying if anyone makes eye contact. It takes 30-40 minutes for her to relax, and then sometimes she is OK. ;-\

Before 18 months, she knew all her upper and lower case letters and the ASL signs for each. She began trying to write letters at 18 months, now draws squiqqles and circles and sometimes tells me they are things - like "shoe" or "dog".

Recognizes three sight words that I know of: hi, baby, and dog. We taught her them. Recognizes most numbers up to 10 - counts to 2, sometimes 3.

Always pointing out letters and numbers everywhere, even shapes of other objects that look like them (like noticing a tiny cut on her leg looked like an "A".)

Over 350 ASL signs (including letters) by 18 or 19 months. Lost track. I stopped teaching her signs, but she just makes up her own or improvises instead of talking. Won't copy anything I say unless we "sing" with her. Then she mimics what we sing - like "bababa". She sings all day long and that's the only "babbling" she does. She signs a word - like "kite" and will say "ie!" She knows the sounds of a few letters - like says "Sssssss" for s, but doesn't try to say "sss" with any words.

Figured out jigsaw puzzles at 20 months. Now she can do 9-12 pc by herself and helps us put together 24-48 big floor puzzles with a little guidance - even new ones she's never seen. I am amazed at how she sees a tiny part of something and correctly names (signs) it.. like she knows the bottom of an owl is an owl, or that a piece of a dress is a princess.
I'd say she's had a bit of an obsession with letters and puzzles.

Lots of pretend play. Very social - not a lot of "side by side" toddler play. Once she gets comfortable in homeschool group, she watches all the kids and then always tries to recruit them to do what she wants to do (a tea party, a puzzle, ring around the rosie, swing her on the swing, etc.) But she signs to them and they don't know sign language. I've never had to ask her to share and she doesn't get upset when another child steals her toys.

Can match up colors perfectly but I don't know if she has the names down right. 95% potty trained. Goes on her own to the small potty.

Has started calling all writing and words "M" and will turn over toys and objects looking for the writing on the bottom (like Made in China).

Follows new and unique directions.. ask her to put away plastic blocks and building pieces she's only seen once and played with once in the preschool room, and she goes around the room searching only for the plastic pieces (which are mixed in with other junk) that go in the bin, fills it up, and puts the lid on, carefully avoiding things that don't go, like a toy car.


Does any of this raise any red flags for you? I don't want the NP to think I'm being totally ridiculous, but I also don't want to miss anything. And everyone in my family is a little concerned by her lack of trying to say whole words.

As always, with speech delay, you have to worry about hearing loss. I would get an audiology exam in the soundproof since the doctor's quick screen is not accurate. Unfortunately, you really can't get a great hearing test until age 5-6, so you may need to keep get audiology exams.

We took her for a hearing test back around 15 months. We didn't get a full one, but they thought her hearing was fine anyway.. She was giggling because she could hear my stomach growling. She also sings on pitch and can match my pitch or the note on a piano. So I feel like her hearing might be fine.

She sounds as if age gets overstimulated easily, beyond a typical young child - though you have seen her approach and want to interact with others. Because her speech does sound delayed both phonetically and expressively, I think it would be prudent to have her evaluated by a specialist to rule out autism, sensory processing disorders, and other types of speech delays. Someone with great expertise in this area (developmental pediatrician perhaps) will help sort out the subtle markers tor high-functioning autism vs speech.

First thing I would though, is get her an excellent hearing eval - since it seems she is not replicating the beginning /ending consonant sounds (can be a marker for hearing loss) .

My dd is 28 months and really loves to sort things - it's like her zen and has loved puzzles since she was little. But she will also play imagination dress-up, babydolls, and pretend with animals and cars. Is your dd doing this type of
play?

With a baby who's nursing well, I'm less likely to suspect tongue issues, but assuming it's not a hearing issue, my next guess would be a physical obstacle to producing certain sound.

My DD was not a talker or a signer, so got flagged for possible expressive language delay. She drew some amazing-for-a-22-month-old stuff at your DD's age, and then drew nothing identifiable for the next two years. And she's turned out fine, if perfectionistic. So there's not necessarily anything to worry about.

Oops..reread your post which described pretend play.

I agree that a(nother) good audiology exam sounds like a good idea, but I wouldn't worry unduly. There does seem to be a personality type that combines a tendency not to do things until really good and ready and then learn them very fast, with being highly strung and easily overwhelmed in new situations; I have the feeling that we see it a lot around here, though maybe it's not correlated with being here!

FWIW my DS wasn't really talking at all at 22 months (nor signing like your DD) but his speech took off dramatically after that - I've told the story before of being unable to tick the "uses 5 words regularly" box at his 22 month check, and yet he was using 5 word sentences by 26 months. Seems there are quite a few stories like that. He's the kind of child that makes you see why people describe the autistic spectrum as one that goes all the way to normality - he's a geek from a family of geeks with plenty of oversensitivities, and when he was younger I did sometimes wonder whether he might be diagnosable - more in a "might someone misdiagnose him with an ASD" way than a "does he have an ASD" way - but now that he is 8, that seems a bit silly.

Both my sons were speech delayed. DS2.5 still is but DS4 didn't start speaking till he was about 2 years 9 months so still waiting to hit that milestone with DS2.5. DS4 had 10 words total at 24 months ... 9 months later he suddenly started talking in full sentences. He just turned 4 and won't keep his mouth shut! lol ... DS2.5 was even slower, had maybe 6 words at 24 months (including mommy and daddy) ... but aside from the 6 words could count and recognize the numbers to 20 and backwards from 10-0, recognized the whole upper and lower case alphabet, and his first words he learned from then on were all the basic colors and shapes ... but not many useful words for a daily life. He's just not interested. He doesn't talk really unless he's pointing to animals or things naming them (now at 2.5) ... yet we went to the doctor's office and suddenly he stands up in his stroller and says with perfect pronunciation "Let me out!!!" ... I was floored! lol ... and things like that that happened before. He won't do single words or two words but suddenly blurs out a whole phrase. ... so very asynchronous.

Both have speech therapy but DS4 doesn't really need it. We just keep him there to have our foot in the door for Special ed in the school district. DS2.5 get speech therapy through early intervention but we're not really worried about the speech. His brain clearly works fine, he's just not interested in speaking for the moment.

I'd have your DD evaluated by Early Intervention if you're concerned, and most likely you'll get their services (sounds like she might have some sensory sensibilities too?) ... but yes, it's possible to have a gifted child who's speech delayed.

Oh, and I almost forgot ... DS2.5 now has a vocabulary of probably 100-150 words he says ... and has been able to READ about 2/3 of those words the last 2 months! (words like octopus, tiger, zebra ... not just cat, hat, etc. simple sight words) When I tell someone he's speech delayed and reading, they usually laugh into my face!

Look at this from your DD's perspective: Talking is hard. Why talk when there's signing?

The primary motivation for kids to work on their linguistics is the need to be understood. She doesn't have that need, and so, she's not working on it. It's not a priority.

One way you might try to make it a priority for her again is to pretend you forgot sign language.

Otherwise, the only thing that seemed like any kind of real "red flag" is her fear of strangers. Apart from that, it sounds like she's doing awesome.

Colinsmum...my ds was the same. He was a late-talker and progressed rapidly (though it was hard to understand what he said because his speech was terrible...TERRIBLE. ) He also seemed like he could "go either way" before about 3ish with ASD. He was fascinated with numbers, letters, symbols, moving parts, maps - and did very little pretend play. He also seemed immature compared to his friends. But at 6... those quirks have evened out with his sociability, silly imagination, and other more "typical" kid things. His brain just developed differently.