Developmental Q

[psophia17]

DS said "where's my daddy?" this afternoon, when DH went upstairs. Shortly after that, he was looking for his ball, and he clearly said "where's the ball?" at least four times. He's 18 months old tomorrow...am I wrong in thinking that this is way, way advanced for his age?

What do you do when your child seems really advanced - I'm clueless, but I feel like I should be doing something...

TIA!

[mharling]

Sounds advanced to me!! Lane just started asking questions in the last few days.

Mary - Some days work. Some days don't.
Lane - April 2003
Faye - March 2005

[barbarhow]

Yup. It's advanced. Jack was the same way-very, very verbal. I have had speech therapists comment on it. It is pretty fun to watch their little minds develop, isn't it?
ETA-I didn't do anything differently. I just continue to read to him, talk to him and explain to him all the things he wants to know.
Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03, a Red Sox fan
and Anna 5/12/05, my little Yankee fan!

[himom]

>
>What do you do when your child seems really advanced - I'm
>clueless, but I feel like I should be doing something...

Easy! Tell everyone you know about how intelligent and amazing your child is (and make sure he knows it too!).

Seriously, I think at this age you just talk to them a lot, read, play games, show them stuff, and spend time with them. They'll absorb it all like little sponges and put it all to good use down the line.

Congratulations on your smart boy!

Jodi

[zuzu]

I'm not sure if it's advanced or not (I haven't kept up with what Sarah *should* be doing because I don't want to have anything else to potentially worry about ;)) but Sarah was asking simple questions like "where (daddy/kitty/birdy) go?" "what's sat (that)?" and "what/how doing, mommy?" at Nathan's age. I just tried to answer her questions so she would be enouraged to keep asking them. We did got through a particularly trying "why? why? why?" phase a few months ago, but I'm just so glad she's interested enough about her world to want to learn more. Isn't it great when you start to have real conversations with them? :)

Melissa, mom to Sarah (5/03)

[amp]

Advanced! My DS, who is really just a genius, started asking questions right around when he turned 2 recently, so I'd say in the last month or two. He asks where things are all the time now, but not before that.

[eb1]

I don't know what is considered the "typical" age that toddlers ask questions. But according to this site, it's not unusual for 18-month-olds to be asking "where's X?" http://www.parents.com/articles/ages_and_stages/5353.jsp

From my experience, the developmental milestones charts provide a wide time range for what is normal, and I think even when a child falls outside that range--either early or late--that doesn't mean a child is advanced or delayed, except perhaps in isolated areas or skills, and maybe not even then. Even when a child is advanced in multiple areas, it's hard to predict whether he/she will remain so.

That said, my impression from your post is that your DS likely is doing other things that seem advanced besides asking questions. You're also probably doing everything to nurture his abilities and fulfill his needs already, just through good parenting. (One of the reasons formal testing for giftedness is not advocated for toddlers is because there's nothing "extra" you need to be doing for them, or nothing really to do with such test results other than continue parenting the best you can: providing loving quality attention, reading and playing and talking with your child, exposing your child to a variety of experiences, and so forth. Also, it can be harmful to the child to label him/her early and set up a bunch of expectations and pressure, or to start treating the child as older because he/she often acts so in certain areas...but this is not to suggest you ignore the child's abilities.)

Otherwise, my two cents is pretty basic: I think you help your DS pursue his interests as they arise, providing support and slight but attainable challenges in those areas. For instance, if a child shows an interest in early reading or mathematics, I think you should follow your child's lead, and neither push the issue nor discourage it, but facilitate it. But I imagine you would do this sort of parenting whether your child is "advanced" or not!

HTH.

[psophia17]

Thank you so much for this!

It's so hard to guage what I'm doing or not doing, I just want DS to have a happy, healthy, normal childhood, and to not have him labeled as anything by anyone. I went through that for my entire school career, and it sucked, and I wasn't anywhere near as far ahead on things as DS appears to be. It's not just the verbal stuff, it's problem-solving and physical skills, too. Sometimes it's as though you can see the cogs in his head turning as he figures things out.

Hopefully I can keep up - I'm still suffering from frequent bouts of Mama brain so it's not easy :)