My kids are great examples of "milestones theory" not being quite right! If you went by milestones, my kids would be in the "dumb as a rock" category
... DS4 wouldn't sit unassisted till 11 months (he was cruising before sitting), didn't walk till almost 18 months, at 2 years only had 10 words, didn't actually start talking till 2.5 years old ... yet, he was making clear eye contact from day 1, he would show you where and when batteries needed to be changed on his toys since he was a little infant, he knew names of shapes and colors before any other words, he's great with math (I posted last week about him answering my question of 6+2 equals what with the answer of "equals to 4+4) ... so, he's clearly pretty sharp, especially with anything technical and scientific.
... DS2 was a very late sitter and walker too, though he's a lot better with anything physical than DS4 was. On the other hand, you look at him and he just has this "dumb" "absent minded" look on his face ... has since he was a baby. You really have to engage him to get him out of his shell and then he's a giggling ball of energy. He was even MORE speech delayed than our older one (if that's even possible?) ... yet he knew most letters by 18 months, recognized them all (upper and lower case) including phonics sounds by 24 months, learned shapes and colors right after he turned two within minutes ... all while not being able to communicate at all (being assessed at 9-12 months comprehension level at 25 months) ... here we are some 3-4 months later and while his vocab is still limited (maybe 150 words) ... he prefers to learn to talk in whole phrases and can pretty much READ and or recognize almost all the words he knows. And he certainly "comprehends" and lets me know what he wants but ONLY when he chooses to. Not when other tell him to.
So, truly ... this whole milestones thing just isn't right for all the kids as according to the early rolling, sitting, walking, talking theory both my boys would be severely delayed!
neither one follow commands but if they find something they like, they can sit at it for hours. DS4 will be probably at some point diagnosed with ADHD / Asperger's / learning disability of some sort ... just can't figure out what it is as he's giving a lot of mixed signals. DS2 is a huge puzzle to all. But he's clearly not autistic (which we feared for a long time) ... he's just not interested in the ordinary life around him and doesn't bother pleasing others to conform to the standards but he's got the memory of an elephant!!!
