At what age did your verbally gifted child decide they were never going to stop talking?

[ellemenope]

In the last 3 months, DD(27 months) has started to talk nonstop when she pretend plays. It is amazing to listen to. She voices all characters and goes from one to the other without skipping a beat. She is also pretty random, and her pretend play is very fluid. So, one minute her toys are talking about what they can do, and the next minute she is giving a summary of a book to them because the cover just caught her eye, all in complete sentences and with the cutest little intonations.

It just hit me today, when I was sitting here in the family room and could here her go on and on in her playroom for about 15 minutes straight without pausing for a moment.

She just came into the family room with her car and a monkey so I decided transcribe this conversation since I was in the middle of this OP:

You have to stay in the car, because that is where you live. We are going to the toy store. But we cant spin. We will go back, back, back, home. We are going to go get some pizza for you. If you go back in the car we can get pizza. We have to pay the cashier first before we can eat. I am not hungry. I am full. zoom zoom. Monkey has a stick he can do like this. You want to come on the floor and play with me on the floor? A little girl has to keep her shoes on, but you can take your sandals off. A little girl has to go upside-down. That's okay. What is under the couch? Is Luke Skywalker under the couch? This is a paper towell. This is a washcloth for me. Do you want to use this wascloth in the bath?*

*all said with no pauses.

I missed some because she talks so darn fast. I could not keep up. She found a paper towell under the couch lol, and she ran out of the room. This is hilarious. I never really listened to the suff she was saying. What nonsense!

She never stops talking. She frequently talks in her sleep, and she has woken up from her nap mid sentence! I don't think she has fallen asleep in the car since she was 21 months. How could she? She doesn't stop talking. Is there anything like being trapped in a car with a chatty toddler? Thank God she is much easier to tune out at home, because if she is playing she is talking! But, at least she is not talking to me, and at least when she is playing I am not reading to her!

Here are some of my favorites she has said in the car lately:

I just saw a turkey dressed up for Halloween. Isn't that silly?
Why is there a robot standing on the side of the road? (newspaper machine)
Can we drive to New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, California, Texas, etc?
There are a lot of American flags out today.
Is this a highway or a road?
Mommy! Why are you driving on a sidewalk! (it was a gravel road.)
We just passed a grocery store because I saw shopping carts! Can you believe it, Mommy?

I hope this brings a smile to someone's face. Can you remember if your LOs were like this? I would say this might be a sign she needs more interaction, but she talks way more by herself than with another child. Is that normal?

And, probably most importantly, for those of you well informed on the subject--Would this type of pretend play rule out any form of ASD? Wishful thinking?

TIA

[KCMichigan]

I dont know if DDs are verbally gifted, but they have always scored extremely high or topped out the developmental screeners in language.


Both DDs talk like that. One DD never babbled as a baby- she made few sounds and then talked. constantly.

Toddlers often talk as a way of internalizing things they are doing/seeing/hearing (the same reason some adults still talk to themselves!).


As for ASDs---one DD had a PDD_NOS dx from age 2- 5 (she had no speech/language delays or she would have been dx autism. Only last week did they 'drop' the dx since she has made so many improvements (she is still quirky though) and does not show a strong delay any more. She can be socially awkward. She is actually my 'talk less' (in sheer volume) but uses higher language skills (vocabulary ,reasoning, etc). Her language skills are through the rough in terms of sentence structure,vocab, and use of language....but still struggles with using it appropriately at times (as in conversational talking). She does do pretend play now, but did not at age 3. She now build elaborate fantasy worlds with her toys.


My other DD has never had any signs of ASD and talk in sheer volume way more than her twin. Non. stop. all. day. long.

* so not helpful for your ? on ASDs is it...we are 50/50 here and both were extremely verbal toddlers*

I would tape record your DD. It is so MUCH fun to relisten to old videos of our DDs grand speeches.

My are still constant talkers at age 5!!

[whatsnextmom]

The big joke in our family is that DS's doctor reccomended speech therapy for DS at 18 months because he wasn't uttering a word. About a month later he decided to talk and as we were trying to figure something out he said "Mommy, this is such a quandary." He has been a chatter box ever since. It was most difficult when he was a preschooler but he started having more restraint after that. At 9, he still can go off on these overwhelming tangents but a gentle reminder that we are supposed to be having a "conversation" as opposed to a "lecture" and he starts actually interacting instead of thinking out loud.

We addressed it by putting him in an foriegn language immersion school. At 9 he's fluent in Spanish and doing well in Mandarin. It's good for him to be in a place that encourages talking lol.

[Holiztic]

It got really crazy around 24 months for DS too, I just could not believe how much he talked. And I am an introvert so it was especially hard for me to have to listen and respond all day. It has calmed down a little since 3 but not much.

No ASD signs here, really he's about the opposite of most of the signs.

[quaz]

My daughter is a non-stop talker. I don't know that she is verbally gifted.
Starting at 3 months, we noticed she would jabber NON-STOP.

It started then and never let up.

Tammy

[Tigerle]

Not sure about verbally gifted, but he has been talking NonStop since the summer before he turned two. At that time it was still two- and three-word sentences, and third person. I remember that summer so vividly because we went to the seaside for a week and it was a ten-hour train journey. What's worse than being stuck with a nonstop-talking toddler in a car, you're asking? Being stuck for ten hours on a train, that's what! Fortunately, we had to change trains two or three times. People were exhausted getting off after no more than an hour in our compartment, asking out of the side of their mouths "will he ever stop?!". Uh-huh, he goes down for the night around 8.30, we murmured.
Shortly after that vacation, he got up one day from the bench we were sitting on and said "I want to go look at a helicopter now." he took it from there with more or less correct grammar, and hasn't stopped talking since.

[St. Margaret]

These are so sweet. I know it's exasperating at times, too (but I can laugh b/c I'm having a blissfully silent day on my own today).

DD does this kind of playing-- I love hearing her do character voices back and forth rapid-fire as she acts out some game, but luckily she'll also play silently, sometimes, too. Then I'll get to look up and see what crazy thing she's built or put together and wonder about it, and she'll tell me all about it. But she also is full of questions and comments all day long. The worst is when DH and I try to have a conversation anymore. If she's asking and trying to be part of it, we think it's great and take the time to include her, but often she just wants to talk over us. We're working on it! My mom likes to say I talked sort of late and haven't stopped since, so this is all payback. although DD started early so how is that fair, mom?

[MusicianDad]

From the first moment DD opened her mouth and said her first word, she has held the belief that for her to stop talking would be horribly detrimental to the rest of the world.

[Cujobunny]

Originally Posted by MusicianDad

From the first moment DD opened her mouth and said her first word, she has held the belief that for her to stop talking would be horribly detrimental to the rest of the world.

Same here- for us it was when they started speaking in sentences at about a year old! Ds said his first word at 9mo, dd at 6mo. Dada both times

[kate42]

Originally Posted by MusicianDad

From the first moment DD opened her mouth and said her first word, she has held the belief that for her to stop talking would be horribly detrimental to the rest of the world.

My DD is the exact.same.way. The girl talks non-stop. When she was four and a half, we took a six-hour long car trip that was sheer and utter hell.

[Roar]

Our son was just like that. He's a teenager now and recently we were watching some videos of him at age two and three. After a few minutes of watching he asked if he was ever quiet and commented that it was really irritating. Now that I'm so many years away from it, I love it on video. (and for what it is worth, he's still verbally gifted but is now actually quite quiet!)

[Holiztic]

What my DS does (and has since shortly after 2) is talk INSTEAD OF playing. For example he'll spend 10 minutes standing in front of me, looking me in the eye (or not if I'm cooking, though he wants me to look) and says "Mommy, I am driving a boat; the play table is my boat and I am the driverman and whenever I turn the boat real fast it makes a big splash in the air. My boat is big and lots of people can ride on it. Mommy, Mommy (this is when I've turned to do something, then I turn back) The boat is shiny and blue and it has a stripe on it, it's the kind of boat that people ride to go really fast and it feels like a roller coaster..." On and on. At this point, he hasn't even PLAYED boat yet. When I encourage him to go DO it, he might play it for an hour, but he might not play it at all--like the telling WAS the playing.

He's definitely a story-teller, started telling stories with simple plots around 2.5 and now (3.5) can tell a pretty solid original story. I think that's more fun to him than playing out the story (though he does play out the story sometimes also).

[confustication]

Originally Posted by MusicianDad

From the first moment DD opened her mouth and said her first word, she has held the belief that for her to stop talking would be horribly detrimental to the rest of the world.

This, absolutely.

[earthmama369]

At 3 months old. She's almost 6 years old now, and she doesn't. stop. Ever. She even talks in her sleep.

[loraxc]

My oldest talked nonstop till she learned to read silently. Now we get long periods of silence. It was quite weird at first, because I used to always know where she was in the house (just follow the sound of her voice), and at first I kept either forgetting she was home or momentarily panicking.

Her brother doesn't talk quite as much, but still, it's a lot. He also trips over his words when very excited, in a cute, nonconcerning way. "Dada, do you...do you know...do you that when we...that when we saw the snake outside it was...it was...it was...moving around all slithery!"

My favorite story concerning DD's volubility: when she was about 2, I took her to a playground and she was playing alone and chattering to herself. Another mom who was there who I had spoken with a bit watched her for a while, then turned to me and in tones of astonishment/confusion, said, "Do you and your husband TALK a LOT??" (Like, "Is this bizarre condition genetic?")

[mommariffic]

Yes! I love this post and can relate

Sometimes in the car I'm like PLEASE, QUIET TIME OK? Music time? And DD [who's 3 now] is like "who's singing this song, is he old or young? He sounds kind of old, do you like this song mommy, can you sing it in an alien voice? It sounds like an alien is singing it doesn't it mommy? It's a SILLY SONG.." and I'm like AHHHH SERENITY NOW.

But it's adorable 99% of the time

[robinia]

Thank you for making me laugh so much! DS definitely thinks the world will stop rotating if he stops talking. DD, after a pause due to glue ear, is right on his heels. Our fondest hope is that one day they will begin talking to each other instead of to us, and then we can switch our ears off for a minute and take a few deep breaths.

[joensally]

Originally Posted by robinia

Thank you for making me laugh so much! DS definitely thinks the world will stop rotating if he stops talking. DD, after a pause due to glue ear, is right on his heels. Our fondest hope is that one day they will begin talking to each other instead of to us, and then we can switch our ears off for a minute and take a few deep breaths.

That's still not a safe bet. DH and I have unwittingly committed to some pretty hare brained ideas because we weren't paying attention to the running dialogue.

[Tigerle]

Originally Posted by loraxc

My oldest talked nonstop till she learned to read silently. Now we get long periods of silence. It was quite weird at first, because I used to always know where she was in the house (just follow the sound of her voice), and at first I kept either forgetting she was home or momentarily panicking.

DS these days actually occasionally goes to play in his room! by himself! and then actually goes quiet! but I'm just not used at all to not being able to locate him by sound. So I start yelling "everything's allright?" which drives DH nuts: "he's supposed to learn to occupy himself quietly! Don't disturb him doing it!""

Originally Posted by loraxc

Her brother doesn't talk quite as much, but still, it's a lot. He also trips over his words when very excited, in a cute, nonconcerning way. "Dada, do you...do you know...do you that when we...that when we saw the snake outside it was...it was...it was...moving around all slithery!"

DS still does that, and also fills up pauses by going, "yehes, buhut thehen Ihi wouhould nohot..." all the while thinking about the objection. He's more or less completely deleted yes from his vocab: it's "yehes buhut" or yesbut - (pause)" and he never fails to come up with the objection eventually...
I really found the book "the active alert child helpful in that respect because it reminded me that you need not discuss everything to death, that children like this can talk a family into paralysis and yes, its's allowed to just put your foot down once in a while! I needed that...

Originally Posted by loraxc

My favorite story concerning DD's volubility: when she was about 2, I took her to a playground and she was playing alone and chattering to herself. Another mom who was there who I had spoken with a bit watched her for a while, then turned to me and in tones of astonishment/confusion, said, "Do you and your husband TALK a LOT??" (Like, "Is this bizarre condition genetic?")

That's better than your friends turning to you with that malicious little grin saying "At least you know where it's coming from!"

[loraxc]

Our fondest hope is that one day they will begin talking to each other instead of to us, and then we can switch our ears off for a minute and take a few deep breaths.

Ooo, be careful what you wish for.

Mine talk to each other, all right. They argue. And argue. And argue. Over NOTHING. (Like, it's not about who gets to play with a toy--it's about the precise specifics of song lyrics, or the color of the pick-up truck we passed 15 minutes ago.) ALL.DAY.LONG. They have never had a physical fight, but it's like living with two opposing attorneys.