What was your gifted child like at 18 months? - Page 2

[mambera]

Oh well, who knows. I'm a 'former giftie' with an 18 mo who seems pretty bright.  A lot of the elements mentioned by others in this thread look familiar.

- She's been correctly counting small integral numbers of things since maybe 15 mo?

- Recognizes lots of letters (she has some letter blocks and fridge magnet letters)

- intends representational art (really it looks like a scribble to me but she will point out 'ears,' 'trunk,' 'legs' - she has a little elephant obsession)

- lots of words in 4 languages, uses word combinations and short sentences, translates to a different language if she doesn't get what she asked for the first time

- total comprehension of adult conversations, we have to spell key words if we don't want her to understand (and she picked up her English entirely from adult conversations as nobody in the house addresses her in that language)

- long memory (eg remembered the dr's office was an awful place though she hadn't been there in 6 months)

- good gross and fine motor coordination (peels an orange, slices a banana with a plastic knife, inserts pennies in a slot, removes and correctly replaces safety items like socket plugs, excellent aim when kicking a ball)

- pretend play (puts her doll to sleep, feeds it, etc)

[bec]

My PG kid knew all her colors, could count to ~20 (not just the sequence of numbers, but counting objects), talking in full sentences, understood EVERYTHING, kept up with her not quite 3 years older than her sister with no problem, was strong willed, and SUPER clingy (separation anxiety through the roof).  It wasn't until she was about 3, though, that we really thought she was gifted.  I think it was the reading.  Going from nothing to BOB books, to chapter books in the course of 2 months.  That was when it started to feel like we were riding on the back of a runaway horse.

[physmom]

We're dealing with the super-super-clinginess here still... just curious when did that go away for you?
 

Originally Posted by bec 

My PG kid knew all her colors, could count to ~20 (not just the sequence of numbers, but counting objects), talking in full sentences, understood EVERYTHING, kept up with her not quite 3 years older than her sister with no problem, was strong willed, and SUPER clingy (separation anxiety through the roof).  It wasn't until she was about 3, though, that we really thought she was gifted.  I think it was the reading.  Going from nothing to BOB books, to chapter books in the course of 2 months.  That was when it started to feel like we were riding on the back of a runaway horse.

[bec]

Around 2.  Her younger sister was born, and I had a mother's helper that came and took her and her older sister to her house (her mom was there to supervise) a couple of times a week.  I found a phrase that must have hit upon the core of her anxiety and helped her to be ok leaving.  I told her that she was going to have a good time for a little bit, and then she would come back and be with me again.  She would cry for literally the time it took for her to walk to the sidewalk, and then would be fine.  At that point, I was ok with her crying till she got to the sidewalk!  We had been dealing with this EXTREME anxiety since she was 5 months old!    Once she got over it, she was 100% confident going off by herself. 

[Aufilia]

My DD is nearly 5 and has tested as gifted.  She also has sensory integration issues and gross motor delays, and isn't terribly socially adept. 

At 18 months, she could probably speak 500 words (we stopped counting at about 15 months, when she had 250 or so), and they were always very clear -- perfect strangers could almost always understand her. Her total language, tested at 19 months, was equivalent to 30ish months. She could create short phrases and use plurals and so on, but hadn't quite gotten pronouns down right. She knew all the basic colors and was beginning to understand concepts like "light blue" vs "dark blue". She knew most of the lowercase letters. (She knew all lower and upper by the time she turned 2.)  She could enumerate 2 objects, maybe 3.  Don't remember how high she could count.  She understood and expressed concepts like in, out, over, under, above, outside, inside, etc.  She loved books -- couldn't get enough of them -- and would sit still for a long time listening to fairly complex stories, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and so on. 

My DS, who is 14 months, is quite, quite different. I feel like he's probably just as bright as DD, but his language (expressive and receptive) is probably just average, but his gross motor skills seem on track and he's constantly surprising me with his social skills (if I'd had him first, I'd've had a better understanding just how poor hers are much earlier in her life).

[musicoholic]

At around 13 months, DS was identifying the alphabet in upper and lower cases, as well as in different (weird) fonts...  and could recite it backwards by this time also.  He had memorised and could recite his favourite stories, and had begun teaching himself to read at about 15 months, so by 18 was reading most short words (LOVED to read Dr Seuss by himself).  He was speaking in grammatically correct full sentences by this time (though still sometimes referred to himself in the third person).  He was also counting to 100+ (as well counting/itemising objects)....  Knew all the colours as well as "weird" shades (like the difference between tan and beige; yellow and gold; light blue, green and aqua)

Socially, he was very "old" for his age, and was affected by things that infants/toddlers don't understand (death, pollution, crime)...  Emotionally, he was like any other 18 month old.  :)