Is My Infant Gifted?
Gifted Behaviors in Infants Can Predict Giftedness as Children
Gifted infants are as uncommon as highly-advanced children. However, a gifted infant is often harder to find, because most children who are gifted do not show their giftedness in infancy; it normally emerges in toddlerhood. In general, infants do not have expressive language skills-the ability to speak, or let their needs me known through language-and so most parents do not notice giftedness in small babies as a result.
There is a literature in the field of psychology for studying giftedness in infants, however. It is a small literature; gifted infant studies are rare. In 1926 L.S. Hollingsworth studied the infancy of five adults with IQ scores exceeding 180, and found that there were clear signs of giftedness in these people, even as infants. Responding to verbal cues, meeting physical and developmental milestones early, and showing tremendous concern for ethical and moral issues in toddlerhood are markers for highly-advanced infants.
More recently, in 1985 and 1986, researchers administered the Stanford-Binet IQ test to children as young as thirty-six months of age and found that their scores were connected to their giftedness three years later. In other words, it is possible to connect infant behaviors to future behaviors that show the testing in infancy is correct: a gifted infant goes on to be a highly advanced child.
How can you know whether your infant is highly advanced? In most cases, reading carefully on child development, and understanding what the range of "normal" is, can help parents the most. By understanding what babies and children should be doing and certain points, and comparing your infant to those benchmarks, parents can determine whether their child is advanced. If so, the next step is to seek out a developmental pediatrician for confirmation, and then to challenge the child intellectually and physically.
A gifted infant or toddler has many of the same needs as a non-gifted infant: love, affection, play, safety, attachment, etc. At the same time, though, a gifted infant needs lots of intellectual stimulation-so much, in many cases, that the same amount of stimulation would tire out a non-gifted peer. Balancing gifted infant needs with traditional development is the gifted infant's parents' greatest challenge.
Published by Lea Barton
Published in newspapers, magazines, newsletters, on websites, and in academic reference guides since 1986, I have more than 2,000 articles, reviews, and columns as part of my portfolio. View profile
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11 Comments
Post a CommentActually, Dr. Lori Matt, from the research I've done, it seems most parents are pretty acurate at identifying their child as gifted. So there's little need to worry that you're just being one of "those" parents. Actually, trying to brush off your instincts so as to not "brag" is feeding into one of gifted educations oldest myths: that gifted education is elitist.
I'm an educator who is pretty familiar with what is normal in terms of child development. Remembering back to when my daughter was born, it was a sign of giftedness that immediately at birth she looked me directly in the eyes, would turn her head to see who just walked in the room, and smiled socially at 8 days old. Now that she's 18 months old, can identify all the letters of the alphabet, almost all numbers 1-10, colors, shapes, and has a vocabulary of 150+ words... I'm really starting to think she might be gifted...
... this is not bragging. This is a description of her abilities.
i hv a baby when is is 2 months she strted to laugh,then 3 months she can called her dady and when she is 4 months old shes strting to crawl,then walk..she really love watchng dora.is this a sign of a gifted child??
Good article! It'd be wonderful if we would start to recognize the very brightest minds earlier, help them hone themselves into greatness, instead of pushing them down and ignoring the gifts they have to offer. Wish there was more information out there about gifted young children...whether that gift is physical or mental, all of our children deserve to be nurtured to achieve their highest level.
Correction: Decrease the deficit of weaknesses to equal or come as close as possible to the strengths.
Every parent at sometime feels his/her child is "gifted". You wouldn't be a parent if you didn't feel this way. My son did the same thing as you described in your infant, almost toddler, son. Don't get too excited; do not feel the need to pressure; mostly, do not "brag" about your so-called son's brainiacs. Allow your child to take over his strengths, guiding your child and allowing exposure to his educational and social needs is a parents responsibility. When it comes time for formal education, the educator is there to fine tune a child's strengths and especially decrease the deficit in weaknesses. Remember, not every child "knows all".
Your son is your son. Much too young to label the baby as "gifted". Let him be a toddler, learn, get into trouble, and be a child.
Every parent at sometime feels his/her child is "gifted". You wouldn't be a parent if you didn't feel this way. My son did the same thing as you described in your infant, almost toddler, son. Don't get too excited; do not feel the need to pressure; mostly, do not "brag" about your so-called son's brainiacs. Allow your child to take over his strengths, guiding your child and allowing exposure to his educational and social needs is a parents responsibility. When it comes time for formal education, the educator is there to fine tune a child's strengths and especially increase the deficit in weakness.
Your son is your son. Much too young to label the baby as "gifted". Let him be a toddler, learn, get into trouble, and be a child.
my daughter is less than 3 months old and she says hi and hello clear as day its not babbling sounds she is my 3rd kid my fiances frist i thought she was crazy but she keeps saying it and does things my other two kids didnt
My daughter can lift her head, try to reach objects and people, and move around her crib at 1 week; started imitating sounds at 1 month; spoke 3 different words at 2 months; and at 3 months can hold a pen or crayon like older children and adults do.
I have three gifted kids and always wondered if the fact that my kids never had object permanence issues (i.e., they did not think something had disappeared if you removed it from their sight; they would relentlessly seek it) was an early indication of giftedness.
Is is unusual for a 13 month old baby to be able to buckle themselves in a highchair? The 1st time she did this, she practiced at it for at least 30 minutes. Each time she buckled herself in, I would release the buckle and she would start over again, lining up the prongs & then taking the palm of her hand to push it in, then go on the the other side, all without any input from me. Anyone else see one this young do this.