First a little background: My 2 year old son (DOB Feb 2, 2007) was early with a lot of things in the first year. He had excellent head and neck control pretty much from birth. I have a video of him at three weeks old lifting his head and chest off the floor with his forearms. He started sitting at 4 months; was saying "mama", "dada", and "nana" at 5 months; army crawling at 5 months; pulled himself up to stand a week before turning 7 months; had a handful of words at 9 months and hit a word explosion at 11 months old. He was turning pages of a book well before one year and could throw a ball overhand and kick a ball like a soccer ball at 15 months. He was putting 2-3 words together just after his first birthday. He was also pointing at specific things in a book that I would ask him to identify well before 1 year. Knew all his colours and many shapes before 18 months.

So that's the gist of it. Fast forward to now and his speech is not too unusual for a 2 year old. He has a large vocabulary and is speaking in sentences now. He also uses some bigger words - like delicious, finished, and knows his last name and most people's first name (including mine and my husband's). He remembers things that happened more than 6 months ago and will bring it up saying remember such-and-such? He will talk about fun activities we've done for weeks afterwards. He's like our little elephant who never forgets.

He knows all the planets in the solar system, including the sun, moon, and astroid belt. He also knows Pluto and it's dwarf planets Eris and Ceris. He knows 21 countries on a world map. We have discovered that if you tell him something once, he will usually remember it. Relatives have thrown around the term "photographic memory" and our daycare provider has said many times that she's never seen a child like our son and she has referred to him as a genius. The agency that does monthly inspections and oversees our daycare have also commented on his progress reports that they're impressed with his development.

So now my husband and I are left wondering, should we be doing more to satisfy his desire to learn? What does this all mean? We are content to just continue as things are and do not want to leap at labelling him anything. At the same time, we want to make sure he's getting all the intellectual support that he needs/wants.

TKS!

artlady

My children were also very gifted at a young age and I simply encouraged their natural inquisitiveness.

Opportunities for knowledge are abundant with any child.Whatever you are engaged in keep a dialogue going,explaining what you are doing and why.

Be sure to help him understand that everyone makes mistakes and that is O.K.If you have to fake making a mistake yourself to prove your point from time to time ,do so. My children at times could be very quick to point out to their peers when they were making an error.Since they did not have diplomacy down yet,it was sometimes very awkward.

Remember also that he is a child first and a gifted child second.

You may want to have him tested so that when school time arrives he is placed in the most ideal circumstance to further his intellect.

Enjoy! He sounds like a treasure!