showing signs of advanced language possibly gifted?

[Hannahclarko11]

Hiya all im new to this community and this is my first post and with other posts ive read of this kind think the parent is bagging or they are showing off so i just want to say Im not bagging about what my soon can say and his ability Im here for some advice if he is possibly gifted. 

Ok my little tike is 18 months old now and he started saying little words at 12 months such as no, yes and cat meow etc since he turned one his language took off with new words nearly every other day at 13 months words such as mummy , nanny , bird were in his vocab his first three word sentence was One two three at 13 months and ready steady go at around 14 months and learning new words all the time.

At 17 months I wrote down all the words he could use and this calculated to 70 in total with nouns and questions being asked" whats that"? im hungry mummy? and also he counted to ten at 17 months and has been able to do animals sounds since 16 months Quack quack(Duck) , Moo (Cow ) , Baa ( Sheep) , Oink oink (Pig). He loves puzzles and masters them very quick and can pay attention to films such as toy story and watches the whole film without moving which makes me happy get the house work done :).

Recently say since last week he has been able to sing Twinkle twinkle little star, And Head, shoulders knees and toes And points to all the right parts and eyes ears mouth and nose i was wondering if this is advanced for his age and his word count today is 105 in total . many thanks HANNAH xx

[hergrace]

The PBS child development tracker is often recommended on this board for seeing what is "normal".  Here is the link to their language page for 1-year-olds.

http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/one/language.html

[Hannahclarko11]

thankyou this v helpful :D 

[whatsnextmom]

I think only the extreme cases really tell you anything. What they say and difficulty of vocabulary can be more of an indicator than straight word count. That said, plenty of average and late speakers end up gifted too.

My DD started using words at 7 months, full sentances by 12 months. My DS didn't say anything until closer to 2 but he moved straight into sentances and using really unusual and expressive words.

[Hannahclarko11]

i know what your saying about the word count as i did say in my ds can say nursery rhymes in full , he counts to ten and what i forgot to include was he can also say the alphabet up to m' he loves books and flashcards and he says colours Red, yellow , green , blue and purple .. tells me when hes hungry? mummy I want to brush me teeth ??etc however i know alot of 18 month olds from my family who are of a similar age and none of them can speak like him also he walked early, smiled at 12 days old and started vocalizing at 7 weeks so he was early with everything over than just language..x :0

[whatsnextmom]

I wasn't criticizing. I was just passing along general information.

[Hannahclarko11]

i know you weren't :)sorry you have taken it that way  :)

[Monkey Keeper]

I tend to agree with whatsnextmom in that a child can be verbally precocious without being globally gifted. Yes, early advanced language acquisition is often an indicator of intelligence--but not always. Giftedness presents differently depending upon the child, and some kids are just precocious at an early age with that evening out as they get older and everyone starts to catch up.

What you are describing of your son, while out of the ordinary for your family, is rather the norm in mine. My 5yo was fully conversational at 18m with more words than I could count. She talked in paragraphs rather than sentences and spoke so clearly that complete strangers could carry on full conversations with her. People were freaked out by the bald little girl chattering away like a much older child. My 3yo had over 20 words by her first birthday. While she was difficult to understand and still has some pronunciation issues, she was using many word sentences early on as well. My nieces and nephews have been much the same, though my eldest DD is by far the most "advanced" of any of them. 

Neither of my kids are identified as "gifted" as of yet. And the gap between them and their peers has narrowed considerably. 

Who knows if your son is "gifted" or not. He may be learning quickly because of an environment rich in books, attention, interaction with caring adults. Which is AWESOME! Mothering a verbally precocious toddler is so fun because they are often hysterically funny--and it's easier because they can communicate much better than their peers leading to less frustration.  My point? ENJOY it. Embrace the fun and wonder of this time and don't worry about whether he is advanced or gifted or how many words or phrases he can say. 

[Hannahclarko11]

I know what your saying about enjoying this time Im enjoying it, but i would like to ask all mums who have advanced children when they were toddlers did they miss out or fight the sleep in the day my DS has been fighting his sleep since just after his first birthday he has energy but he has the attention to play with toys and watch the tele for long amounts of time which is a bit of a rest for me with a tot on the go all day long.

The reason why i note all the words down is im a lingustic psychologists in training so im really interested in advanced language in children or whats normal its strange using my boy as part of my research though:) even though he seems to be more advanced than both of his cousins that are 18 months same age and 2 1/2 year old my family all have good job clever however i have an IQ of 132 which is average but nothing special so suppose its just normal'  for his age and he will have an iq similar to me .

[MJB]

Sounds like he has more words than average for his age, but I wouldn't say it's outside of the normal range. That doesn't mean he is or is not gifted, of course. 

[moonbeam7627]

From what I have learned about using language as a tool for determining(sp?) giftedness has more to do with how they use the words they know more than just knowing the words. For example the use of "I", "me", "mine" especially allong with "yours", "you", ect. Being able to properly use these words (without training) interchangably with their own and other peoples names shows that there is advancement in the part of the brain that causes "giftedness". For example a typical 2 year old would say "Tommy go outside play?" where a child showing giftedness through their language might say "I go outside?" Now, I do not have a degree, and I am not saying that children that still communicat in a typical mannor are not gifted, but I did do some resarch on it because I was baffled by the fact that my dd2 could interchange peoples names like that and understood titles (knowing that her grandma was my mother and I was her mother and her sister's mother, ect.) by the age of 2. I know this may sound really strange to say, but if you are going to be sending your child to school, I do hope they are typical. In most schools those are the children who are lifted up and actually many times the ones who are in the "gifted" programs, because they are successful in the areas that the school focuses on. "Giftedness" is not nessicarily a gift, it comes with its own whole set of difficulties and problems. A gifted child is harder to assess for learning disablities ( these children are called twice exceptional) and therefore may go all the way through school struggling because when they are tested their "low" scores are still higher than what they have determined show a disability. So, if you find that your dds language is typical, go have a celebration!

Happy searching for an answer:)

[SweetSilver]

My girls (not gifted, I've just been lurking!) really enjoy when I tell them stories about what they said and when.  So keeping track of these things can be fun in and of itself.  My youngest spoke her first word at 7mo ("boo-bay!" blueberry) and held on to cute words like "ogurt" and "olk" and "yunion" for a long time.  My oldest used signs a lot but hardly spoke 6 words at 18mo and that included "mama" and "dada".  But very soon she started learning every day until she caught up and surpassed kids her age.  Unfortunately for mama those cute words only lasted a day or two before she'd fix them, but I'd write them down and now they make fun stories.

So, maybe it's too early to make a definitive assessment of giftedness.  You have your intuition, you are his mama and know him best.  Don't make a judgement yet but learn about giftedness.  Lurk on the forums and learn everything you can.  The day will come when you can be sure that he fits into the category or is just an amazing, bright little boy.  

And keep track of all this stuff because kids love hearing stories about themselves!

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

And keep track of all this stuff because kids love hearing stories about themselves!

Better yet, rather than word counts, do audio clips of them talking. Almost every computer these days has a mic and the ability to create .wav or .mp3 files. 

Yesterday my kids listened to a radio show we'd made as a family 6+ years ago. We all laughed ourselves silly over their voices and vocabulary and interests and enthusiasms. I wish we had done more recording over the years.

Miranda

[insidevoice]

My oldest is profoundly gifted.  (She's actually 2E, but we had to fight to have the disability recognized because she compensates SO well.)

She was speaking one-syllable words by 6 months, sentence fragments at age 1.  By 18 months, you could have a full conversation with her as you would an older preschooler.  By 2 she was reading basic sight words, by 2.5 she was helping me do the grocery shopping and wanted the aisles alphabetized.. OBVIOUSLY 'jelly' should be near 'jello' not 'peanut butter'! It made life interesting.  She also used a huge vocabulary or rich and complex words from a very early age. 

She's now almost 10, and is, at the moment, ensconced on the couch with my Kindle reading Homer's Iliad- not for any reason other than that she's seen references to it and was intrigued.  I asked what she thought of it and her comment is, so far, "I don't get the hype."  I don't really limit her reading material because even when content is complex for her, she thrives on being allowed to explore language and books as she chooses- my suggesting that something has content that isn't right for her is an affront. "Mom, if it's inappropriate I'll stop reading, but I know what I can deal with better than you do."  It was hard for me to accept that- but she really does. If she's upset by something, she'll talk about it instead of simply not being exposed to it. Once we talk about it, she's Miss Logic and the emotional impact is really not a huge issue. 

It makes life interesting. 

For now, I wouldn't worry about whether she is gifted or not, just have fun exploring the world.  

[whatsnextmom]

Originally Posted by moominmamma 

Better yet, rather than word counts, do audio clips of them talking. Almost every computer these days has a mic and the ability to create .wav or .mp3 files. 

Yesterday my kids listened to a radio show we'd made as a family 6+ years ago. We all laughed ourselves silly over their voices and vocabulary and interests and enthusiasms. I wish we had done more recording over the years.

Miranda

I recently found a bunch of audio cassette's my brother and I had made when we were little. We did a whole series of radio talk shows where we interviewed various family members, did our own sound effects, made our own commercials and such. It was so much fun to listen to ourselves all these years later! I am pretty lucky in that my father has recordings of me as early as 3 with songs I'd made up, stories I liked to tell, ect. I try to make sure to do the same for mine.