What early gifted signs did you blow off?

[LittleIzumi]

The "first time you knew they were gifted" thread got me thinking--what were some of the early gifted signs that you blew off at the time? Some of the things in the thread were things that my dc did but I didn't think anything of them at the time.

 

 

For The Sponge I didn't think twice about her learning to read totally on her own at 3. I read at 3 so I didn't think it was unusual at all.

 

For The Drama, she went from zero communication to hundreds of signs in about two or three months. I didn't think anything of it, lol.

 

The baby has possible signs but I don't want to blow little things out of proportion already. :p Plenty of time for that later, eh?

 

What are your missed signs?

 

ETA: More & more of the answers on the other thread are now about things they missed that showed giftedness in hindsight, so now this thread is a bit superfluous. Oops.

Edited August 1, 2011 by LittleIzumi

[Dmmetler]

The focus and attention from an early age, and the fact that she needed what seemed to be constant stimulation to settle and be content. I had the one baby who was happiest out in public, in restaurants, on airplanes and the like-and most miserable at home. I got a lot of comments on that-but didn't think it as odd.

 

Early talking, and more importantly early talking in complete sentences and able to carry on conversations well before 1 year of age.

 

Picking up ASL signs with little exposure, and picking up words very quickly

 

Reading books to herself by about 8-9 months (I assumed she had them memorized, never considering that this is something you see in preschoolers, not infants)

 

Arranging her baby primo blocks into color groups and patterns before 1 year of age

 

Complaining when her music class teacher did something out of order as an infant. I assumed she knew the class sequence. It wasn't until later that I realized that the sequence changes enough from week to week that the only way she'd know that something was wrong is if she were able to at LEAST recognize the little pictures her teacher drew of the instruments used on the chart, if not actually read the titles.

 

An obsession with letters, numbers and symbols-to the point of trying to read the Greek letters on fraternity houses

 

All this was before 15 or so months of age. By about 18 months, when it was painfully obvious to me, and just about everyone around her, that she was reading, I'd realized something was up-and only then did I go back and think about it and realize that I'd never seen a baby sort blocks into colors and then carefully "make rainbows" or "Make mcdonalds", creating towers with color patterns before!

[Dmmetler]

The focus and attention from an early age, and the fact that she needed what seemed to be constant stimulation to settle and be content. I had the one baby who was happiest out in public, in restaurants, on airplanes and the like-and most miserable at home. I got a lot of comments on that-but didn't think it as odd.

 

Early talking, and more importantly early talking in complete sentences and able to carry on conversations well before 1 year of age.

 

Picking up ASL signs with little exposure, and picking up words very quickly

 

Reading books to herself by about 8-9 months (I assumed she had them memorized, never considering that this is something you see in preschoolers, not infants)

 

Arranging her baby primo blocks into color groups and patterns before 1 year of age

 

Complaining when her music class teacher did something out of order as an infant. I assumed she knew the class sequence. It wasn't until later that I realized that the sequence changes enough from week to week that the only way she'd know that something was wrong is if she were able to at LEAST recognize the little pictures her teacher drew of the instruments used on the chart, if not actually read the titles.

 

An obsession with letters, numbers and symbols-to the point of trying to read the Greek letters on fraternity houses

 

All this was before 15 or so months of age. By about 18 months, when it was painfully obvious to me, and just about everyone around her, that she was reading, I'd realized something was up-and only then did I go back and think about it and realize that she'd done some stuff before then that made reading look pretty normal!

[Crimson Wife]

The day my older DD turned 6 months, she crawled for the first time and made a bee-line for my exercise videos. She then proceeded to take all the ones with a picture of a blonde female instructor off the shelf, while leaving those featuring brunettes or men on the shelf. I thought this was hilarious but didn't realize this type of categorization ability was unusual for a 6 mos. old.

[Guest]

Early talking, no mangled pronunciation or "baby talk" whatever.

 

Elaborate conversations at around 14-16 months. I talked early myself -- my mom had to bring my birth certificate to the airlines to prove I qualified for an under 2 free seat -- so I thought nothing of it.

 

Going through her picture books and choosing which ones to bring to me to be read to, as soon as she could crawl.

 

Fascination with the letters on license plates at 18 months. I thought, well, there they are right at toddler height, all bright colors; why wouldn't any child be interested? I apparently didn't notice that no one else's child shared that interest.

 

Also at 18 months, as we drove on the freeway: "Giraffe store!" as she saw the Toys-R-Us sign; I didn't even know she could see out from her car seat, it put her down so low in the car.

 

And as several others have mentioned, sorting, particularly by color, before a year.

[Guest]

The day my older DD turned 6 months, she crawled for the first time and made a bee-line for my exercise videos. She then proceeded to take all the ones with a picture of a blonde female instructor off the shelf, while leaving those featuring brunettes or men on the shelf. I thought this was hilarious but didn't realize this type of categorization ability was unusual for a 6 mos. old.

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[Guest]

More & more of the answers on the other thread are now about things they missed that showed giftedness in hindsight, so now this thread is a bit superfluous. Oops.

 

No, I like this one too!

[jenbrdsly]

The day my older DD turned 6 months, she crawled for the first time and made a bee-line for my exercise videos. She then proceeded to take all the ones with a picture of a blonde female instructor off the shelf, while leaving those featuring brunettes or men on the shelf. I thought this was hilarious but didn't realize this type of categorization ability was unusual for a 6 mos. old.

 

 

:tongue_smilie::tongue_smilie::tongue_smilie:

[LittleIzumi]

And as several others have mentioned, sorting, particularly by color, before a year.

 

So that's not a baby thing? Is that the same thing as picking only one color of a treat, or is it a more advanced sorting skill? I'm naughty & give the 9-month-old little pieces of Mamba (a fairly natural candy) when I have them, and he only wants orange. He will choose the wrapped orange one every time, no matter where I position the the wrapped candies. He looks over all of them carefully & places his finger on the orange one, and then giggles madly when I pick it up and open it. He is much less amused if I try to offer him a bit of pink or yellow. :lol: It's a fun game. But that's not really sorting. He doesn't care one bit which colors of crayons he puts in and takes out of the box, lol.

Edited August 1, 2011 by LittleIzumi

[Guest]

So that's not a baby thing? Is that the same thing as picking only one color of a treat, or is it a more advanced sorting skill?

 

I still have no idea how typical it is (I only have one child), but I've heard others mention it here as something out of the norm. Dd would sit and pick pens out of my old jar of pens, saying "Blue" and putting those on one side, putting other colors in different piles -- AND she'd do this by the ink color, which was not necessarily the color of the body of the pen. I don't have a clue how she figured that one out, except that she seemed to spend an awful lot of time with the pen jar.

[RahRah]

Amazing control of his neck from birth, rolling over at 2 months, sitting unassisted around 4 months, able to go from tummy to sitting on own about 5 months - he then skipped crawling and started walking around 8 months.

 

Mastery of pincer grasp around 5 months...I had no clue how significant this milestone was at the time. This led to use of tools to take apart his toys well before age 2, probably around 18 months or so. Oh the joy!

 

Arranging toys by color, size and other features before age 1, using blocks to build and do math concepts around the same age, explaining the math he was doing along the way by age 2....ie, "Mommy if I take four blocks and put three more on the stack, I have seven blocks stacked because four and three is seven!"

 

Talking in complete sentences before age 1 with good articulation with well over 100 words in use. Well over 300 words in use, correctly, before age 2 (I stopped adding to the list when it hit 300 words and he wasn't yet 2).

 

Very intent focus, very early, when read to or others were talking around him, would track back and forth in conversations, watching one person then the other as the conversation progressed - it is only in hindsight I now understand he was soaking it all in and understanding way more than we knew. Older members of our family would remark about his focus and seeming to know as an infant - we had no comparison to 'get' he was way ahead of some things.

 

Along with taking apart his toys at an early age with tools, he also would remove all the tires off his cars and then line them up according to size, create patterns out of them, and use them to create new things that needed wheels.

 

Our second, now six months old, is also using his pincer grasp routinely and well for very small items, has been sitting unassisted for well over a month, is crawling already and can pull himself up to standing. Maybe our babies are just physically ahead? I dunno?

 

Like our first, he's also very intently focused, tracks back and forth when people are speaking, will play with a toy that has his attention for way more than I'd expect an infant to remain engaged, and has started playing with toys I have out, but didn't think we'd be really playing with yet, like blocks....which he's stacking at this point, then knocking down to stack again.

[zaichiki]

Things I thought were normal/cute -- (I hesitate to add some of these b/c they don't really seem all that advanced, but who knows.)

 

1. hitting all of the monthly milestones in "What to Expect The First Year" book for months ahead of where he was (I thought the authors wanted their readers to feel confident. Ha!)

 

2. constant comments from strangers about alertness (thought this was akin to the typical "oh look a little baby" comments)

 

3. consuming interest in books, sitting with stacks of them on his own for long periods of time, and turning pages before crawling/walking

 

4. being able to build block towers out of various toys (not all blocks) at a year to a year and a half

 

5. having a lightsaber fight with older siblings at a year old

 

6. consuming interest in using the potty at 15 months and, another dd, training self "instantly" at around 20 months

 

If I dig out the baby books I'll probably find more...

[catz]

Things I thought were normal/cute -- (I hesitate to add some of these b/c they don't really seem all that advanced, but who knows.)

 

1. hitting all of the monthly milestones in "What to Expect The First Year" book for months ahead of where he was (I thought the authors wanted their readers to feel confident. Ha!)

 

2. constant comments from strangers about alertness (thought this was akin to the typical "oh look a little baby" comments)

 

3. consuming interest in books, sitting with stacks of them on his own for long periods of time, and turning pages before crawling/walking

 

4. being able to build block towers out of various toys (not all blocks) at a year to a year and a half

 

 

 

We had all that too. The What to Expect books I just thought were hilarious with the milestones. I was just sure every other kid was hitting them way ahead.

 

My youngest was slower on the large motor, but could stack a dozen square blocks at 10 months. I remember another family being over with a baby the same age who was absolutely shocked at that. I just said her big brother taught her. :tongue_smilie:

 

My daughter said her own name at 3 months. My son would lay in his crib at 4 months yelling ma ma mooom ma ma .... Needless to say he didn't spend much time in his crib!

 

But honestly, I thought this was all normal and all kids were as intense as mine. Neither my DH or I were IDed GT, but fit into the honors crowd in high school in college. My son hit the ceiling of a brief IQ test in kindergarten and then things started to make sense.

[Element]

I should have been more impressed by the "planning" my son did. I always just though, "Well, that's odd that he's able to do that" when he would create really neat buildings, contraptions, or artwork from odds and ends. As he got a little older, I was able to see that he wasn't just randomly lucky but genuinely able to see the pieces he would use take another form than the one in front of him at the time. For example, when he was 4, he was making a series of cuts in an index card and I asked him what he was doing. He finished, then folded it several times to reveal an 8 paged mini book. I still have no idea how he did that, and I still have the book!

 

(Brag alert!) When we eventually did have him tested last year, his Perceptual Reasoning Index was 99.7%. He had been displaying signs of enhanced perceptional ability for years and I had never thought anything of it, other than "Hmm. That's odd."

[LittleIzumi]

Oh, I remembered a couple more, thanks to other posts, lol. Ds (9 mo) has always been fascinated with books and has been looking at books/turning pages for long periods of time since before 5 months. I don't remember when exactly it started.

 

He also is much, much calmer when I tell him what I'm going to do. I walk down the hallway, he freaks out. I tell him I'm going down the hallway to get a diaper and I'll be right back, he's much calmer & often waits for me. I started when he was 5 months when I reread about telling your baby what you're doing as a learning tool to teach them language. He was so much calmer instantly when I told him what I was doing that I couldn't stop, lol.

 

The Drama hated being wet. I showed her how to use the potty twice. She PLed herself at 19 months. She reverted for about two weeks and then completely PLed.

[RahRah]

 

6. consuming interest in using the potty at 15 months and, another dd, training self "instantly" at around 20 months

 

 

I totally forgot about that one!

 

We went on vacation and were staying in a cute little cabin, DS was 18 months old and we'd started some potty training, but nothing intense. Anyway, we walked in - he walked around, inspected the bathroom and declared he liked the bathroom and was going to go....he proceeded to and then came out, took off his pull-ups and wanted to know where his underwear was - said he was a big boy now, he needed underwear, not diapers! LOL - they were pull-ups, but in his mind they were diapers.....so that first day of vacation, we headed out to buy big-boy underwear for him.....he never looked back and since then, he's just used the toilet and stayed dry overnight.

 

Interestingly, baby-DS has had dry overnight diapers now for about two months - I was a little freaked out by that since older DS did not have dry diapers overnight that early. Doc said some kids just have really good bladder control early - if he's doing everything normal during the day, not to worry. Now I have to wonder if he'll potty train early too!

[boscopup]

5. having a lightsaber fight with older siblings at a year old

 

I was shocked at how early my youngest did this! We have pool noodle light sabers, and he will have light saber fights complete with the noises! It's hilarious!

 

He also can sing a bunch of Star Wars theme music, and one day he was singing the Imperial March with the words "ow ow ow ow". Not sure why. :lol:

[La Condessa]

Mastery of pincer grasp around 5 months...I had no clue how significant this milestone was at the time.

 

Oh' date=' I remembered a couple more, thanks to other posts, lol. Ds (9 mo) has always been fascinated with books and has been looking at books/turning pages for long periods of time since before 5 months. [/quote']

 

These things aren't normal?

 

My older daughter did these. I have a picture of her at about five months, just after she started sitting up on her own, holding The Tale of Benjamin Bunny and turning the pages while examining each picture.

 

I've been kind of worried about my baby's fine motor skills, because she didn't do the pincer grasp until 7 1/2 months, and though she loves books and she desperately wants to take them down and turn through the pages herself, she doesn't have the manual control yet to do this without crinkling up the pages.

[Scuff]

The pincher grasp begins around 10 mos, according to sites I've read recently. Baby N just started crawling yesterday. (She turns 9 mos old today) This is SO late compared to my others! They were all 6 mos old when they started crawling. But she started pinching 2 1/2 months ago. It's funny how different they are. He gross motor skills seem way behind compared to the others, but other things she's doing early.

[La Condessa]

The pincher grasp begins around 10 mos, according to sites I've read recently. Baby N just started crawling yesterday. (She turns 9 mos old today)

 

Okay, that's good to know. And all this time, I've been wondering why my brother- and sister-in-law weren't more concerned about their daughter's fine motor skills. (She is an obviously gifted child, but didn't do the pincer grasp until over a year.)

 

My nine month old only recently started crawling, too!

 

Does anyone know, are these things unusual or pretty expected for a kid who's good with her hands: Drawing recognizable pictures at 2, and doing pattern block patterns perfectly before 2 1/2?

[Crimson Wife]

Does anyone know, are these things unusual or pretty expected for a kid who's good with her hands: Drawing recognizable pictures at 2, and doing pattern block patterns perfectly before 2 1/2?

 

Not sure about the pattern blocks, but I do know that the developmental milestone for drawing is a circle by age 3 and a cross by age 4.

[LittleIzumi]

Not sure about the pattern blocks, but I do know that the developmental milestone for drawing is a circle by age 3 and a cross by age 4.

 

:001_huh: Seriously?

 

So, writing all the capital letters and numbers through 10 and doing copywork at 3 is not normal? I always thought the little "draw this line" on the 3-year-old developmental questionnaire was just the docs being ridiculous, lol.

[Guest]

I always thought the little "draw this line" on the 3-year-old developmental questionnaire was just the docs being ridiculous, lol.

 

I think "draw this line" serves several purposes: for kids who have not been exposed to written language or kids who may be learning to write first in a different non-alphabetical system (perhaps kids of recent immigrants whose parents are illiterate and/or write in something like Arabic, Hindi, or Khmer), it gives a basic fine motor/visual perception gauge. And for kids who have processing issues, as dd did/does, it can pick that up. At age three, many kids make wavery or not-quite-correct letters; but you can see more readily whether they have the control or visual processing to draw a fairly straight line. And some kids are just not yet ready to write or interested in doing so. Again, "draw a line" would serve the same function of allowing evaluation, on a very basic level, of visual processing and fine motor control.

 

That's just a guess, by the way, from what I've come to understand through dd's set of 2E issues.

[La Condessa]

My daughter's been drawing circles with lines coming down from them since quite some time before she turned two--but she was obsessed with balloons then, and didn't draw anything else until later.

 

It seems like every time I've decided that she's just a normal, bright little girl, something happens to make me wonder again.

[YourFidgetyFriend]

I blew off her reading at 2 because I taught her all her letter sounds and how to blend them. I thought that if everyone taught their children those two things, they would all read fluently at 2. I didn't think much of her potty training at 19 mos because although she day trained early, she continued to wet the bed at night until last year. I thought her ability to have a full conversation before she turned one was God's penance for her being nearly a mute until 7-8 mos old lol.

 

The things I didn't teach her like spelling and multiplication seemed like a fluke and sometimes still do. Usually when I frequent boards like this I start thinking she is average and then I jar myself back into the reality that yes, she is average on a board full of gifted kids.

[zaichiki]

I was shocked at how early my youngest did this! We have pool noodle light sabers, and he will have light saber fights complete with the noises! It's hilarious!

 

He also can sing a bunch of Star Wars theme music, and one day he was singing the Imperial March with the words "ow ow ow ow". Not sure why. :lol:

 

I *know* my youngest engages in light saber fights ONLY b/c she has older siblings who do it, but I didn't realize she'd be interested enough to copy them. I have a video of her on her 1st birthday. She went and got a lightsaber and then brought it over to her big brother, grinning. She sat down in front of him, held it up, and he attacked with a second light saber. She laughed and laughed and held that saber up and moved it back and forth... He was really sweet and even faked her getting in a kill shot, fell over very dramatically, and played "dead." She was shrieking with laughter.

 

I ran for my camera and told them to do it again. They did. Of course I sent it to the grandparents right away.

[Maus]

What signs did I miss for DS8? ... When he already had a favorite story at 3 months and could be comforted in the car when DH recited it from memory for him. When, at 18 months, he'd point to a letter or a number on a sign to get me to name it for him, and then when I asked him, "Where are more "n's", he'd find all the others on the sign.

 

For DD6, .... When she tried to make a cake on her own at about 20 months (several months before she was two). She'd gotten the mix and the vegetable oil from the pantry, a bowl and measuring cup from the cupboard, and the eggs from the fridge (I didn't even know she could open that), and was sitting on the floor trying to get the mix open when we found her. She'd gotten three eggs in the bowl (just like the picture on the box) and a whole bunch on the floor, and had neatly put all the shells back in the carton just like she'd seen me do. :lol: (It wasn't nearly as funny at the time, facing the mess to be cleaned up.)

 

Now that we know what we are looking for, it is quite amazing to have another little one in the house to watch.

[boscopup]

Not sure about the pattern blocks, but I do know that the developmental milestone for drawing is a circle by age 3 and a cross by age 4.

 

Cool... DS3 (26 months) can draw a circle-ish shape. He has always seemed really good with the fine motor skills. He could untie his double knotted shoes by 18 months. :glare: He has a great pencil grip already, and he's a lefty. :)

[La Condessa]

Cool... DS3 (26 months) can draw a circle-ish shape. He has always seemed really good with the fine motor skills. He could untie his double knotted shoes by 18 months. :glare: He has a great pencil grip already, and he's a lefty. :)

 

Oh yeah, that was another thing. I remember several people commenting on her perfect pencil grip really young, from the time she first started trying to feed herself with a spoon-I think maybe about a year-but I just thought, well, when I give her a spoon or a crayon, I always put it into her hand the right way, so of course she knows how to hold it. But I guess it's not so normal to pick up on it so fast, since with my second baby, if I'm giving her a spoon to play with and I try to put it into her hand, she jerks away and grabs it in her fist instead.

[zaichiki]

Oh yeah, that was another thing. I remember several people commenting on her perfect pencil grip really young, from the time she first started trying to feed herself with a spoon-I think maybe about a year-but I just thought, well, when I give her a spoon or a crayon, I always put it into her hand the right way, so of course she knows how to hold it. But I guess it's not so normal to pick up on it so fast, since with my second baby, if I'm giving her a spoon to play with and I try to put it into her hand, she jerks away and grabs it in her fist instead.

 

I always assumed the pencil/spoon grip was fairly instinctive for all kids. Do parents/teachers usually teach this?

[8filltheheart]

Cool... DS3 (26 months) can draw a circle-ish shape. He has always seemed really good with the fine motor skills. He could untie his double knotted shoes by 18 months. :glare: He has a great pencil grip already, and he's a lefty. :)

 

Our experience with pencil grip and writing perfect circles do not correlate to giftedness or early learning. Our just turned 6 yod has been coloring (extremely well w/in lines and multiple colors) and writing circles since she was about 2. She would sit and "do school" with older siblings. She has had her own "spelling notebook" (full of pages of circles) since she was 2-ish.

 

She is the most delayed of all my kids, and ironically, she has horrible handwriting!!

[NittanyJen]

My SN son was a very late talker-- very late development in pretty much every category, in fact (he was dx'd with a genetic disorder at age 4 1/2). However, he was cracking jokes in his own, made-up sign language by 15 months, long before he could talk!

 

What does the choo choo say?

Baby, having diaper changed, giggles hysterically, plants fists in armpits, flaps arms wildly like a chicken.

Didn't really seem like early genius, though we loved his sense of humor!

 

;)

[SunD]

I always assumed the pencil/spoon grip was fairly instinctive for all kids. Do parents/teachers usually teach this?

 

I guess so. I don't remember whether DD3 ever attempted to hold a spoon or crayon incorrectly. Littler DD, 19m, holds it *close* but not exactly right. Last time my niece ate with us, I noticed that she (at 3) does the fist thing. The toddler noticed too, and tried holding hers that way, but she rejected it and switched back after struggling to get it in her mouth. If you hold it in a fist, you can scoop the food but then you have to twist your wrist to get it in your mouth, and somehow avoid dumping it out when it turns.

[Guest]

I always assumed the pencil/spoon grip was fairly instinctive for all kids. Do parents/teachers usually teach this?

 

I have no idea what is typical, but dd, who has fine motor difficulties stemming from finger agnosia, STILL cannot hold hers properly at age 15. She experiments with a variety of different holds and all of them look incredibly convoluted and awkward. The "correct" grip doesn't give her enough or strong enough signals from fingers to brain and back. We have similar problems with pencils, toothbrushes, musical instruments, anything and everything.

 

(Finger agnosia is a problem with sensory information -- pressure, strength, position -- getting from fingers to brain and back. When dd was young she basically had no idea in what position and/or place her fingers were at any given moment. It is only somewhat better now.)

[boscopup]

Our experience with pencil grip and writing perfect circles do not correlate to giftedness or early learning. Our just turned 6 yod has been coloring (extremely well w/in lines and multiple colors) and writing circles since she was about 2. She would sit and "do school" with older siblings. She has had her own "spelling notebook" (full of pages of circles) since she was 2-ish.

 

She is the most delayed of all my kids, and ironically, she has horrible handwriting!!

 

:lol: Hopefully DS3 will have better handwriting than DS1 (who has fine motor issues). I certainly wouldn't call DS3 gifted yet, even if he did draw a circle and say what it was yesterday. :D He's just too young to tell at this point. None of my kids have been "obviously gifted" at 2, no PG kids here. ;) It was most obvious with DS1 at 5. I'm still not sure about DS2 at close to 5. I don't expect to be able to tell with DS3 until closer to 5 as well (he doesn't have the speech delay issues that DS2 has, so I think if he is gifted, it will probably be obvious by 5 like it was with DS1). I think DS2 is actually a better problem solver and has a better imagination than DS1, who is more academically gifted. I look forward to seeing how these kiddos turn out, however it may be! :) But don't worry, I don't label my kids gifted based on drawing circles at a young age or anything like that. In fact, my kids usually hit some of the motor skill type milestones on the later side of normal (crawling, walking, etc.), and they all talked on the later side of normal (age 2 for the first and third kid, age 3 for the second kid... he just hit the "why" stage this month at 4.75, which I believe is pretty late).