Katelyn'sMom -- For your friend with the little one, it's still pretty early to worry about speech. DS6, who is HG+, was a laaate talker, hardly stringing any words together until he was about 27 months. He started out with longer sentences at that point, but he was *really* hard to understand until he was about 3.5yo. But then he was very clear by the time he was 4.5, and now has crystal clear speech and is very particular in his word choices -- he'll actually go back and verbally edit a sentence to replace a word with something more precise.
I don't get worked up over pronunciations; if he's trying to use a new word he read somewhere and mispronounces it, I just say, "Oh, you mean *blank*?" and let it go at that.
As for math, I quite honestly have no idea what is normal and what is not. Not counting to 10 until 5yo seems crazy to me ... by the time ds was 3, he was adding and subtracting small quantities, recognised numbers up to 100, counting at least to 100, understood basic time concepts, etc. At 4yo he was counting piles of change and had basic fractions down. I didn't even recognise that he might be pretty advanced in math until he was almost 5, doing mental double-digit math and skip counting with odd numbers -- his reading was what popped first!
It's frustrating not to know what is developing normally and what is GT stuff ... with a first/only child, it's rough. Personally, I'd take the same route again, ignorant bliss. I didn't know he was that ahead, and I'm glad I didn't -- it kept me from worrying too much! Keep on introducing concepts as they come up, and when she seems ready, go for it. If she gets it, great, and if not, no harm done.
ETA: Really, unless your child is so crazy out there (which, I don't know, she could be!), I'd try not to worry too much yet. It doesn't matter too much at almost-3yo if she's a math guru, does it? I'd take stock as she gets closer to K age. And for GT denial ... I still have it often, even with numerous proofs to the contrary. I think, "This really can't be all *that* unusual, can it?" Well, apparently it is, and I'm still wrapping my mind around that. It happens to all of us, I think!
Last edited by Mia; 12/28/08 03:30 PM.
