Can they be gifed but not verbal?

[Strong Mama]

I think my 2 yo is quite gifted, but in non verbal ways. he doesnt hardly speak at all. but he can count to 20, he knows all his colours, and he can manipulate ANYTHING to open, close, work, etc. He can even draw smily faces on paint on the pc. Can they be gifted without actually being able to even say 3 word sentences?

[oldcrunchymom]

Yes, neither of my kids talked in sentences (much) until 2.5 or so.

[alegna]

Yep. My dd is not very verbal most of the time. She was reading some words before she'd say them (she could read "play" when she had never said the word- she signed it instead)

-Angela

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by FEDUP

Can they be gifted without actually being able to even say 3 word sentences?

My niece didn't speak at all until she was 3, and then it was all echolalic; she's definately gifted.

This struck me as a funny question, though, because you can sometimes tell that an infant is gifted long before they can string words together. ChibiChibi could only say five words when she first demonstrated a sense of humor at 4 months.

[catgirl]

Certainly can! Often the visual-spatial types talk very late.

[LeftField]

My oldest didn't talk until he was 22 months old. He only said, "dada" and "dissie" (nursie). He grunted and pointed a lot. He never really got into signing. We believe he is gifted; he is a visual-spatial learner. Within 3 months of starting to talk (i.e. at 22 months), he was saying words like "nostrils" and "pentagon". I'm not sure he really spoke in full sentences for a while, however. Aside from some odd vocabulary words, he sounded like any other kid his age.

Early talking gets a lot of attention so that many people seem to assume that: 1. any kind of early talking is a sign of higher intelligence and 2. late talking is a sign of, well, not so high intelligence. That used to irk me, yk, the patronizing and sympathetic remarks about my poor boy who was still not speaking yet.:

Linda Silverman is very controversial because she espouses Indigo Child beliefs, but she does have a great deal of info on visual-spatial learners. She has a website somewhere. I enjoyed her book, "Upside Down Brilliance", which was about visual-spatial learners. It might help you.

[Strong Mama]

Thanks for these great replies! Yes, when ds first started talking,(about 22 months) he was saying words like destination, chiropracter, and experience. But no sentences or anything. I will look into that book!

[mamabeca]

Not sure I have a gifted learner in #2, but my #1 is, and she wasn't especially verbal early on. She was about normal, but now scores off the vocab charts and (if she'd sit still long enough) can read high school material at age 8. She doesn't understand all of it, but her understanding is contextual. She is a very tactile learner though, so reading isn't her strong suit. Anyway, the whole thing about GIFTED itself is that there is no right wrong or even typical way of BEING gifted. Some are uneven learners, some are very equal about their strengths (across the board smart). If you have a child with learning advances in certain areas it's actually easier to see their giftedness than one who is smart across the board, because they often can feel dumb ('cause they have trouble with numbers or writing or whatever) while being exceptional at something that people don't value (especially at young ages - like building things at 7 yo or astronomy at 5 yo). Hard hard hard.

[boongirl]

There has been a lot of research done showing that gifted people often talk late. I think Einstein was a famous late talker. There is also research showing gifted people as often early talkers. There is a lot of conflicting research when it comes to gifted kids.

Here is a great website I found that has lots of articles on early giftedness.

http://www.gt-cybersource.org/ Click on articles to search

As for different kinds of giftedness, this forum is specifically about intellectual giftedness since that is what most school programs offer and it is what most schools test for. Most organizations and associations for the gifted recognize that giftedness can come in many contexts but that intellectual giftedness is the most often used definition of gifted. There are also multiple intelligences, which is different from giftedness (even Howard Gardner says this) and there are also talents, like musical giftedness or athletic giftedness. In terms of school, these are both considered talents in that schools are generally not offering programs for these kinds of gifts. There are a few schools nationwide that teach children with these kinds of gifts, but most focus on intellectual giftedness.

As giftedness usually refers to intellectual giftedness, 2 is a bit early to be concerned about it. He definitely sounds very bright. Most parents don't worry about this until kids get closer to school age but there are some interesting articles on gifted infants and gifted preschoolers at the above site.