Is this typical @ 16 months?

amother

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 12:20 am

I KNOW there are developmental milestone charts all over the web but frankly I trust fellow mothers more... or OT's or whatever.

DD is BH a normal, healthy kid, just turned 16 months. She has always been quite advanced for her age as far as I can tell but I don't think she crosses over into the gifted range. But I really have no idea what's expected because she's my first and I've never really had any other experience with kids this age. So I know it's splitting hairs, but I'd really love to know if this is normal or advanced.

Over the last couple of days I saw two major accomplishments that I never saw her do before: She nested all of our nesting cups in the right order - this was after trying and fixing and trying again for a while, she seemed a little frustrated a few times but kept trying again anyway, she'd almost get it and then have one left over and take apart a few and try again... until they all fit. Then today I was not paying so much attention to her for a couple of minutes, and the next time I looked she had all 8 blocks from a shape sorter (like this one but we're missing some blocks http://imremembering.com/post/.....orter) all stacked up in tall tower. It didn't fall down until she decided to take it apart.

So these were the main things I wanted to compare notes on. Is this a typical age to be doing those things? But in other news: She has an obsession with the potty. I had no intention of even introducing it to her but she joins me in the bathroom and was asking to make like mommy. She's not very good at using the potty yet but she certainly does say "make" at appropriate times, we just don't always get there fast enough. Or she says it just because she wants to hang out in the bathroom, she likes it there!

She also knows how to butter people up. If I'm saying "no" to something (e.g. grabbing my glasses) she'll stop what she's doing, give some really sweet, affectionate hugs and kisses, and then just as you're getting all mushy she'll make another grab at what she wanted in the first place.

She uses words like heavy, empty, off, dark, light (the opposite of dark, not opposite of heavy) appropriately, in context.

She can get screw caps off practically anything, from large containers to little ointment tubes. (of course I don't let her get away with that. But she has shown that she can)

She remembers everything.

She knows that three is a counting/quantity word. If she has a bunch of mentchies or something sometimes she'll point to them one at a time and in a counting voice say "fwee, fwee, fwee." Or if you ask her "how many _____?" she'll answer fwee. She knows the same way that green and blue are color words if you ask what color is it, but she doesn't necessarily get it right. Same as three.

When my nieces were over one day a couple of weeks ago they spilled out a whole lot of letter magnets. From the whole scrambled mess DD picked out and made groups of letters that were the same. There were about 2-6 of each - fewer of less common letters, more of the vowels. She made piles of the letters that there were a bunch of. First she picked out the four o's ("Ballies! Ballie Ballie Ballie Ballie!") then she made a group of I's, h's, e's, etc.

Since she was about 11 or maybe 12 months old she has been caring for dolls however we care for her: It started with hugs and feeding (she knew to feed them with an empty spoon from an empty bowl), then she started putting them to sleep in a cribbie (including covering them with a blanket and saying "sh"), putting them in the highchair to eat, walking them all over in a doll stroller. It was very sweet, only now it's graduated to putting them on (in) the potty and throwing them on the floor, saying "booboo!" and giving them a kiss for the booboo. Oh well.

So, are these things normal for this age? Am I just an over-kvelling first time mom for thinking my kid is a genius or is this really advanced? Could she be gifted or is that pushing it too far?

leomom

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 12:27 am

Honestly? In my opinion, based on what you're describing for 16 months old, she sounds very gifted! And very adorable!

I do think the way she plays with dolls is normal for that age, though.

Enjoy her and let her lead the way.

de_goldy

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 12:39 am

Very normal, in my experience.

leomom

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 12:46 am

de_goldy wrote:

Very normal, in my experience.

In your experience, a 16-month-old sorts letters?

Yes, some of the things OP describes are normal range - the potty (for some kids), opening screw tops, using adjectives in appropriate contexts - bright child, but normal range.

I guess what puts her into a gifted category for me is really the letter sorting. I think that's unusual. Not unheard of, but definitely not average for that age.

amother

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 12:53 am

OP here just want to clarify she has no idea what letters are. She calls the o's ballies but that's all. The rest she was just putting together like with like. I was still pretty astonished.

And it wouldn't have surprised me if she just noticed the different sizes of the nesting cups and put them in order. But what amazed me was watching the lengthy process of trial, error, and adjustment... if I had that kind of patience and logic I would probably be accomplishing a lot more in life than midnight imamother postings!

leomom

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 12:55 am

One of my children started, at about age two or two-and-a-half, to group letters into her own categories. She would make lists of letters - one group would be letters that have all straight lines, another group would be letters with round parts, or letters with closed-in shapes... that was pretty impressive! She was also constantly classifying things in general, always thinking in terms of categorizing. She ended up being my earliest reader (before age four) and extremely advanced with writing (using accurate capitalization and punctuation - including quotation marks for dialogue- at age six), etc., and is also gifted in math and science.

Many kids have areas of giftedness, and in other ways they are average. It's wonderful when you realize the ways in which your child is gifted so you can encourage and support that as she grows.

The OP's child seems to me to be gifted in at least one way - as demonstrated by the letter sorting. It will be interesting to see where that leads as the child grows. Maybe she'll be a very early reader, or maybe she has a very scientific mind (classifying). She sounds emotionally aware (maybe a bit manipulative!). She seems curious and active and loving.

OP, enjoy all the aspects of your child. Labels aren't really necessary, but where you notice giftedness (or possible giftedness), just allow her to enjoy what she's doing. (And take pictures! Smile

)

leomom

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 12:58 am

amother wrote:

Her perseverance is definitely a great quality! I do think babies that age do the nesting cups, which are geared for that age (and beyond). But it definitely takes intelligence and logic to successfully put them all in order.

smoms

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 1:05 am

I think she's very advanced. See this:

http://www.ehow.com/how_496425......html

leomom

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 1:13 am

amother wrote:

OP here just want to clarify she has no idea what letters are. She calls the o's ballies but that's all. The rest she was just putting together like with like.

Yep, I understood that. I still think it's impressive. O's often come first (balls, circles) but even just grouping the same letters together requires visual differentiation, which is an early pre-reading step.

For some perspective, check out some Pre-K or kindergarten curriculum workbooks (or search online for kindergarten worksheets)... you might be surprised how basic the skills are that kids are expected to do at that age when you think about what your daughter is already capable of. Those workbooks are geared toward average kids. They have activities like drawing lines to match pictures that are the same. I have a feeling your daughter could do that now (by pointing rather than drawing lines, most likely).

bamamama

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 1:31 am

My dd was similar at 18 months but my boys were no where close. Kids mature at different rates but all end up where they are supposed to be. My dd is older now and is leveling off compared to her peers. Enjoy your precocious little one but don't feel pressured to do anything - let her be her own kid.

leomom

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 2:20 am

I do think some of it is more common in girls - especially the early fine-motor skills. OP, I would guess that your daughter can hold a crayon (or pencil) the right way (as opposed to in her fist)?

amother

Fri, Mar 30 2012, 2:41 pm

yy wrote:

I do think some of it is more common in girls - especially the early fine-motor skills. OP, I would guess that your daughter can hold a crayon (or pencil) the right way (as opposed to in her fist)?

She doesn't hold them in her fist but she doesn't hold them like an adult would either. Hard to describe. She doesn't do anything special in coloring/drawing, just back-and-forth lines.

curiousgeorge1

Thu, Apr 19 2012, 10:21 pm

my 16 month old son doesn't do any of these things and though I know he is behind verbally, I think he's average in most other ways. He can only stack 2 blocks and I was impressed with that!

mommyof2boys

Tue, Apr 24 2012, 6:02 am

she does sound bright, but very very few children are actually considered "gifted"

my son knew all the abc's and 1-10 numbers at 18 months. and I mean we would hold up a letter (not in any specific order) and he would say what it was. he would walk through a parking lot and literally "read" the license plates. he could tell you the time from any digital clock. (I dont mean seven-twenty-two, mean he would say seven-two-two)

anyway we think our child is down right bright too, enjoy it! its fun to watch other people in awe and it is definitly nachas!

once your child is in school, the teachers are trained to really pick out the gifted ones. if by then you still see some crazy things you can get evaluated for real. in the meantime just enjoy and give lots of encouragement like you would to any other child!