Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Advanced Baby? - Intro

We had this too, and I see it now with my twins. My daughter was literally smiling from birth, and starting talking at 7 months, mama, dada, baby, my older DS's name. She is almost 13 months and barely cruising. These asynchronous kids will throw you for a loop!

Yes! My two 'favourites' were

Someone commenting on a mobile we were given saying "Oh you get an hour out of that" (WHAT?!?)

or If you are sick, stay in bed and rest with the baby. (yeah, while he screams at me with boredom?)

One bit of advice I always scratched my head at was: "sleep when your child sleeps". Ummmm...when is that?

RE: "sick in bed"

EYES BUG OUT, mama turns green. Faints. I had immune issues when DS was small. I was sick a *lot.* in bed, my A#$.

RE: "sleep when child sleeps"

Actually, DS seems suddenly to be sleeping an almost average ammount. Just in the last two weeks. It's wierd.

...And mine "Doesn't he just fall asleep when you sing a song/put her in the stroller/play watersounds on a cd/etc."

Short answer: No.

But he did cry a lot when the shapes and colours and stars mobile I made him (because I couldn't find a nice complex one like the ones I had as a kid in the stores) broke. We didn't really realize he'd noticed it 'till then.

-Mich

Thanks. We got a signing DVD that we've been watching with DD (I watch it to learn myself, honestly.) We left DD with a baby sitter the other day and I told the baby sitter that DD used to say Mama for me and sign milk, but won't anymore. Well, DD said Mama a bunch after I left and after pulling on the sitter's shirt and getting no milk, DD signed "milk" to let the sitter know what she wanted!

I am actually a little worried about DD. She was saying Mama for me and me only since 7.5 months, but now she barely says it. She was saying "mabwa" for awhile for water and getting angry if we wouldn't share our glass, but she won't say that either anymore. She's gone back to yelling / singing "Ah" a lot and barely babbles. If I leave her upstairs to get something downstairs, she sits at the top of the stair (behind the gate) going "Ahh!" and waiting for me to reply with "Ahh." She could do it all day.

I feel like I should be worried about her hearing or something, but she goes nuts if I say "milk" or she sees it on the signing DVD, even if she just nursed. And she seems to have a decent receptive vocabulary.

She is walking about 50% of the time now. I counted 19 steps in a row the other day (yay!) She just turned 9 months. Is that thing they say about concentrating on one thing at a time true?
DH thinks maybe we are too quick about taking care of her needs. She only says mama now if she is fussing long enough and I don't come and get her.

As long as it hasn't disappeared all together and she is still developing normally and not regressing, then I would not worry about it. Is she adding vocabulary on top of what she already knows?

Unfortunately I do have one of those kids who lost all of their words by 15 months and the change in him was incredibly drastic (can't stress that enough!).

If it really is weighing on you, don't be afraid to ask your pediatrician if they think an early intervention evaluation is necessary. From what you mentioned, she sounds fine but I just wanted you to know that option is there!

Nope, no more words. Her receptive vocabulary seems to be pretty big, though, and she can follow directions like "Put that here" and "Go get the ball". She has been accurately choosing correct color objects, too, lately, but it isn't consistent, so I don't know if she really gets colors.

My DD(20months) never took to signing either but could sign one sign (milk) very very early - the girl knew what she wanted! From there I let her watch baby signing time occasionally but instead of doing the sign she learned to say the words. She would sign while saying the word sometimes but she just wasn't into the signing. We took a baby signing class and by the end she was saying twice as many words as signs taught. So, in short, I DO suggest doing it with her even if she is not signing. She may surprise you and start speaking the signs you teach (say the word while signing it). It is a great way to spend time with your baby. By 12 months my DD was saying 25 words and over 25 animal sounds and combining words together. I know this isn't extreme compared to some of the very gifted kids here, but the Ped. was pretty darn shocked and impressed nonetheless. I am sure the exposure to signing helped because she was saying (and using correctly) THOSE and other words. Hope that helps!

DS lost a lot of words between 7 mos and about 20 mos. Like all of them. Clear regression etc. we got sent to an SLP despite our protestations. It turned out, as far as can be worked out, that his language skills were just so far ahead of his articulation that he was getting frustrated enough to give up completely.

When he had his 6 mo followup with the SLP, they went from wanting to treat him for SELD to wanting to treat him _as though he were twice his age_ for articulation problems. We declined. Damned asynchrony.

It seems that good receptive language is a very important marker for persistent problems. If yours has good receptive language, don't worry till she's over 2.

-Mich