Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Is my 15-month-old gifted?

UPDATE:

My son is now 19 months old.

- Can identify all upper and lowercase letters (I ask "where is __?" and he points). Can name at least 17. Does NOT confuse E/F, W/M, K/X, etc. Knows a few of the letter sounds.

- Knows shapes. Not just 2D (circle, square, triangle) but also some 3D (cone, cube, cylinder). Can identify rhombus (diamond) vs. square vs. rectangle even when they are all set side by side and have similar dimensions.

- Watches full-length (children's) movies.

Just like with knowing all his colors at the time of my initial post, we were blown away by how well he already knew a handful of letters at 16 mos. Just recently my Dad reminded me that they'd always said my brother was able to recite the alphabet backwards at 2 years old. I actually believe him now.

There is little doubt in my mind that my son is gifted at this point. To what degree, only time will tell. Currently, I'm already feeling simultaneous pride and embarrassment at his abilities, and I'm having difficulty sometimes identifying with mothers of children in the same age range. They talk about how their sons are super into trains ... while I'm sitting there thinking of how to explain how mine likes to smell cooking spices while I name each one or request that I write specific letters of the alphabet for him.

He still doesn't talk as much or as well as his peers, so that's the biggest thing that makes him look possibly behind others his age. But some day soon I expect he's going to catch up on that front ... and in a big way...

[quote=HowlerKarma:
Looking back at that point, we realized that she has always been that way, developmentally-- nothing-nothing-nothing, BANG-- mastery. Like, real "mastery." Adult-level mastery. Nothing tentative or mistake-prone or fumbling about it. I can probably count on one hand the number of spills she took when "learning" to walk. I use quotes there because she has always seemed to be a kid that thought it over for a bit, then let things "gel" and then demonstrated complete mastery of the skill/activity. We call this "quantum learning" because it isn't really a process so much as a binary state-- ground state (not mastery) and the next energy state (mastery).
[/quote]

this is my dd in a nutshell. we gave her a bike a while ago, she practised for 5 minutes before packing a sad and putting it away for a few months, woke up one day and asked to ride her bike, 5 minutes later she was on her own.

at 15 months people would comment on how intense DD was - she didn't speak at all and wasn't walking - in fact she was slow developing across the board so we were taking note. But one thing everyone noticed was how she didn't need to talk - weird but she really didn't need to.

I think it best to treat any child as gifted ie: extend them, get them toys that are just above their ability and also a little below for confidence building. Give them room to play and show them lots of things.

I didn't read the early pages of this thread. But based on your update, it definitely sounds like you have a gifted child on your hands! He sounds like a sweetie!

If I may-- I just want to throw out one caution for you: please avoid making his development a competition. It doesn't matter whether your son is a bigger talker now or not, or whether he will catch up to age-peers in a big way. He's on his own development curve. Your job is to provide him with the love, stimulation and encouragement to help him be happy and fulfilled. He'll probably enjoy museums, chapter books, documentaries and many other things earlier than most children. But please don't bother with what other kids are doing and just feed him what he needs.

Also, in regards to your son's interests-- whether it's trains or smells-- those aren't an indication of his giftedness, but instead of his interests. I don't see why you need to feel embarrassed to add that to your mom discussions! It's fun and quirky! My friends and I would have gotten a good chuckle out of a child who loved smells, and pondered where it would lead. (Also, FYI, my son is well above the DYS cutoff (and is a DYS) and he loved trains and cars as a toddler, so it's not an indication of intelligence to "not" like them.)

So glad you're having so much fun with your little guy. Those are very special years!

I agree with syoblrig and all those points.

When with the playgroup, it is perfectly acceptable to talk about how your child enjoys cooking with you and love the smells of cooking and the names of the spices. I bet many of the other kids do too.

I kind of feel jealous of those of you who - including the OP - who have kept a record of milestones etc. My son is an only child, and I still haven't managed to be as organised - and my memory is fading fast ! When he was really young, we never really thought about what he was doing when - he was just him. What I do remember distinctly is that he was also a later talker. When he was 15 months, we had family visiting from England, and my 16 year old niece taught him signs (many made up) for many many animals. We could also negotiate/reason with him - talking to him as if he knew what we were saying, rather than assuming he didn't, as he was just a baby. I never really thought about it - but as I run a daycare, I have come to realise that doesn't work with most kids that age. He is now 11 - the only testing he has done is to get into the pull-out gifted program in Elementary school when he was 6, so I'm not entirely sure exactly how gifted he is - though he is now in a full time gifted 6th grade program, and is in 8th grade accelerated math. To the OP - keep documenting - it might come in useful in the future. Oh - and enjoy your son, he sounds wonderful !

These are all good points, and I only got into the habit of constantly comparing him to his peers because I really thought at times that I was crazy (I'm a WAHM, so his interaction with peers is limited). I was very back-and-forth about whether he was really ahead in some things or it was just natural/normal variation of development. I want to clarify that I don't have high expectations of him (RE: the "big way" comment). I failed to add context to the point about his catching up talking--my brother's son at a very young age was EXTREMELY talkative and had an advanced vocabulary. (My nephew used words like "aerodynamic" at age 5.) His cousin's precocity in that area causes me to suspect I will also have a big talker on my hands soon enough.


Phew! This makes a lot of sense. Taking this into account, I only mentioned the spice-smelling here because I had already gotten some weird looks from moms when I told them that story. So I tend not to relate it to new acquaintances anymore. I guess we'll chalk that one up to quirk (something no kid is without).

UPDATE: My son is now 6. He tested in the 99th percentile for the school district on his assessments (automatic testing for all students every year). He will be going to the gifted academy for first grade starting in the fall. (He does. INDEED. Talk a tremendous LOT!) I now also have a 2yo who exhibits almost all of the same sharpness that his brother did at his age.

Nice to hear from you again, Magenta, and to hear that your kiddos are doing well.