I have a profoundly gifted brother, my mom says there were no signs at all before he was school age. With the exception that at birth he looked around the delivery room, calm and alert, taking it all in. He was also always careful, for example he refused to fingerpaint due to it getting paint on the hands. He didn't talk early, didn't read early, pretty clumsy as a kid, not needy or high energy, etc. The only other thing my mom has said is that it was relatively easy to have him at the same time as a son 18 months older, because from fairly early on they were interested in the same level of toys.
My own DS 2 is too young to know how gifted he is or isn't, but I think he's definitely bright and especially with regard to memory and interest in symbols. I don't have a good sense yet about creativity or ability to figure things out.
From about 6 weeks very high needs as far as stimulation went, beginning about 3 months he groaned as if in physical pain if not completely continuously shown novel and interesting things, this lasted until he could walk, a very long time as he walked at an average time. It wasn't just direct attention he needed, but to learn about things in long sittings, reading, pointing out things, singing past being hoarse, etc. Pretty unpleasant for everyone (him included because he was only temporarily sated).
Sense of humor has been a big one, he enjoys verbal humor and inventing words. One of the earliest was making silly contractions, like "Boo Mommy" turned into Bommy which was hilarious to him. When we tell other two year olds his jokes they just stare with no response, so I assume they don't do that type of humor yet.
His memory has been surprisingly good, compared to other kids and especially compared to the adults in his family. Around 22 months he started to ask for his various songs on CD by the number of the CD and then the song number on the CD, rather than the name or by words from the song. "play song 10, CD number 2" And then next ask to listen to another combination and it would end up being the same song on a different CD. "Song 21, CD number 4". I think most other kids his age either sing the songs or just listen, not request each version in a row via their numbers.
Another memory example, today I said a riddle, "what's a blue bird but not a bluebird" (he's been asking for "bird games" lately and that was what I came up with) and he replied "indigo bunting, we were in the car and mommy saw one in the wheat field, but it flew away" (I was thinking of blue jay which we see all the time, but instead he remembered an unusual event 4 months prior where he didn't actually see the bird, just heard about it and saw me look it up later).
Also I find he is specific in his answers than other kids, and cares a lot about being exact. He links things he's read in books to real life. For example, the other day someone asked, "what made those holes in the ground?" and he answered, "could have been megazostrodon" (perfectly reasonable answer as that is a small rat like mammal, except that it died off about 200 million years ago). I am pretty sure megazostrodon appears in some book of his, though no picture and no mention of digging.
At 2 and 3 mo he loves numbers and counting. He loves rearranging his fridge numbers and saying one hundred twenty three, a hundred thirty two. He gets the thousands wrong sometimes. I don't even know what most 2 year olds do regarding numbers, not much. He makes snail collections in order to count them. The highlight of any trip to town is the house numbers. With the numbers its more the love for it than the accomplishment part that seems unusual.
Polly
