Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school 1st child 18 mo. -- Is he gifted?

Thanks for your concerns about my ds. You have opened my eyes to some things I was not aware of. I will talk to my doc at his 18 mo. visit. I tend to think that he is gifted rather than on the spectrum. There's no problem with eye contact, getting hugs and kisses, etc...

Anna,

You know your DS better than anyone and chances are he isn't on the spectrum but I just want to clarify your last statement ... a child is not either gifted OR autistic. There are gifted children that are on the spectrum. Just as there are gifted children with learning disorders. It is called 2E (twice exceptional). Society in general doesn't put that together and take for granted that gifted kids are 'ahead of the game'. It is ammo for why they are not taught in school.

And again ... by the post of your DS there really isn't enough there to jump to any conclusions it is just a possibility for why you see differences as described. And if it is a concern for any parent with a toddler there is a screening test called the M-Chat that guides you through what to look for. I would post the link but it is ridiculously long so the best thing to do is google it as m-chat screen and mass.gov has a good site that you can download the test and the score sheet.

I do caution anyone that does look into the screening that it is not an absolute for anything, b/c a lot of what is looked for on the spectrum can simply be part of the toddler stage.

Hi AnnaC and welcome.

Your DS sounds like a real little treasure! The way I've been trying to look at the gifted/non-gifted question with my DS3 and DD16mos is you basically can't wrong with assuming that your child *is* - if that means you will continue to provide him with stimulating new experiences and help him enjoy discovering the world we live in. There's absolutely no harm to be done in providing that kind of loving environment, although as you've probably discovered already, it can really be exhausting

In relation to the issue of words being 'lost', I have a slightly different take on this, care of my DD. Before she arrived on the scene, for whatever reason, I equated children being 'verbal' to being 'talkative'. I kind of figured that for a child to be talkative, as in using real words in context, then they would naturally require a large vocabulary to do this and display it. The latter part is just not my DD, as she's the more quiet, introverted, "blink and you'll miss it" type. She started talking around 6mos with 'bubble bath' and 'wave bye bye' and quickly had over 100, so we stopped counting. However, by the time she turned 1, she became a lot more selective in what she said out loud. It scared us a little at the time, but I've come to realize that (with her at least) the words aren't 'lost', she just doesn't see the need to arbitrarily repeat the names of objects etc that she already knows. If she can look at DS3's (incomplete) drawing yesterday of the life-cycle of a butterfly and randomly say 'where's the cocoon gone?' and then walk off, I'm not concerned that she wouldn't say 'butterfly' (a previously well-used word) when I asked. Anyway, that's just our experience. Other poster's have made excellent points in terms of keeping a watchful eye on your DS's progress - better to be safe than sorry.

All the best with your little guy!

I can't thank you guys enough. I'll look up the evaluation website. After looking at the posts yesterday I talked to my husband about his loss of words. My ds' take on it is that the words he lost were some early words that perhaps he didn't learn at all, but was just mimicking. He also said that some words I thought were lost weren't. Apparently he said "cow" as plain as day to my dh a few days ago when playing with a cow puzzle. He doen't have a large spoken word vocabulary. He does have a large vocabulary for his age, but not what I would expect to be gifted. He just turned 18 months and speaks around 40 words regularly. He is adding new spoken words daily. He understands almost everything we say. We had to start spelling when speaking about certain things around him at 12 mo. Am I exhausted? Yes. I have him involved in several activites a week outside the house, yet it doesn't seem like enough. He masters and gets bored with his toys quickly.

Anna,

Your above post is the perfect example of why lose of words before age 2 is not a red flag. I really am happy that you and your husband talked about it and I think everything you described above makes perfect sense.

KM,
I must respectfully disagree. Loss of words in a toddler IS a red flag. Early intervention can make a huge difference in an autistic child's life, and I encourage parents with questions to pursue evaluation by a specialist who is qualified to diagnose autism spectrum disorders. I see two flags here- one is the vocabulary loss and the other is possible hypotonia/motor skill delays. This child may not have a problem, but I don't want to discourage others from seeking help by claiming that it is nothing to worry about.

http://www.autismspeaks.org/whatisit/learnsigns.php

best wishes-

I think he sounds gifted.

My son's motor skills were delayed and he couldn't walk until
18 1/2 months and he never crawled but his motor delays did not affect intellectual giftedness.

I thought one of the tests for cognition in my son's developmental assessment at 12 months was not a good test to use on a kid with motor delays. In the test the child has to reach around a barrier to obtain a toy. The testers observed that he wouldn't reach around the barrier to obtain the toy and they put this down in their report as he didn't yet "understand" how to do this. Wouldn't his 6 month old motor skills and muscle weakness make it a just a little more difficult for him to do this than the average 12 month old? Apparently that didn't occur to them. On the test it was listed as a cognitive skill.

My son had difficulty doing jigsaw puzzles and this is listed on a lot of gifted checklists, but kids with motor dyspraxia like my son are not usually good at jigsaw puzzles. I don't think his difficulty has anything to do with what I think of as intellectual giftedness.

I know my son's receptive vocabulary was a lot higher than what he could actually say at 18 months, but I could usually understand him and I knew this was probably not unusual for my son because he had motor delays. Once when he was 14 months old, we were shopping with a relative and she understood him when he ordered some kids to "put that down." They were playing with some things they had taken off the store shelves and he didn't like it. A few months later his words were a little more understandable to other people because he practiced talking so much.

What you said about your son and colors sounds similar to my son at that age. Everything was blue to him for a while too, but when I bribed him with M&Ms if he would say the color words he suddenly started saying the correct color, at least well enough that I could understand him. I think blue or boo was just easier for him to say than the other color words.

My son also had to know what everything was and how it worked and a very young age. We had to get how it works books to read at bedtime. He would take such a long time to do anything because he had to know all about any new thing he encountered on trips to the grocery store, to restaurants, and especially to the restroom if they had different water faucets like the ones that come on automatically without turning a handle. He constantly asked questions and was just a happy inquisitive kid with a great sense of humor and I never cared that he wasn't and will never be physically gifted like his cousins and his sister and just about everyone else in the family.

Lorel,

I believe that early detection is key for helping autistic children and when parents wait for the schools to point out the red flags the window of opportunity can be missed. But even the m-chat I posted makes it clear that children under 18 months should not take the test b/c a lot of what will be seen can be typical toddler things.

Also I have asked doctors about the spoon issue before (and I won't get into the details of why.) Yes it can be a red flag for autism but it also is a sign of our society today. Toddlers are more likely to be given finger foods instead of something that requires a spoon.

As for this particular case with Anna's son... her eyes have been opened up to the possibility of being on the spectrum. She and her husband are talking about it and monitoring it and I have a feeling that she will ask her pediatrician during the next visit. BUT I do agree that her latest post makes sense for the lost words and is why you should not jump to the conclusion of the spectrum when a toddler before age 2 loses words. There can be many a reason for the loss.

Also Anna ... I have no idea if your doctor's office will do this but the offices in our area provided a survey at the 18 mth appointment that is looking to screen for autism. If I remember correctly, the lose of words were not on that survey but the spoon and climbing upstairs as well as loud noises were.