Is my 22 month old gifted? She has hit all the developmental milestones early - rolled at 6 weeks (one way only), sat up unaided by 4.5 months, crawled just before 6 months, stood supporting herself before 6 months, first steps at 8.5 months, walking by 10 months, running by 12 months. First words around 7 months. She says 4 word sentences now and has a vocabulary of over 400 words (we can't count it anymore) She turned pages of a book before a year. She can jump with both feet (did so for the first time at 20 months)

She knew all her basic colours (blue, yellow, red, pink, purple, brown, black, white, orange) by 19 months.
She can count to ten though often skips seven and when we first counted backwards with her she added the nought at the end all by herself though we had never said this to her even when counting forward. She can count objects correctly to five - more than that and she gets a bit confused.

Today she named three of her friends at a toddler group she goes to and when I suggested that one of them come and swing on the swing with her because Mummy was too big she told me that "Sophie jumping no swing" (she was on the trampoline)

She knows all her letters phonetically and most of the numerals (0-9) and can read a large number of words (I suspect more than 200 though its hard to say) She cannot read books, but does read certain words out of books - and that is also hard to know as she knows at least 3 books off by heart too. She asks us to read stories to her which I think are quite advanced for her age and will listen to second grade readers that are about 60 pages in length without getting bored and still be able to tell us a lot of the story even if she heard it only once 10 days previously.

If she is gifted then what should I do with her? I have enrolled her in a private school (our public schools in this country are terrible) for grade 000 (age 3-4) in 2011. We have no gifted schools in this country at all and I am worried she will be very bored especially if she is already reading by then. Her fine motor skills are slightly advanced - she does 8 piece puzzles with some help but gets frustrated if she struggles to put the pieces together and she scribbles like a normal 22 month old (although she will draw ovals/circles and tell us she has drawn a face - no features)

Would love some ideas on how to keep her stimulated - she entertains herself very well, but calls for us a lot to "Mummy come help" or "Daddy come look" We do do a lot with her to try to stimulate her without pushing her but at the same time, she goes through things so fast it is very hard to keep up. She also sleeps very very little (often 21:00 til 05:00 waking once or twice in the night - she naps maybe an hour a day) and we are exhausted and in need of some ideas.

DoulaLC

She is certainly advanced in some areas....whether or not she is gifted would have to be determined later. Some early learners level off with their peers around 7-8 years old.

By all means, continue to support her curiosity....especially with reading which will give her a strong foundation for the rest of her learning.

She may or may not be bored once in school, but you can provide enrichment activities to enhance what she is learning there. It may well be that, for her, the most important benefits at first will just be socialising with the other children, following a routine and directions, and interacting with a wide range of materials.

At 22 months, she is right where she would be expected to be in regard to wanting that interaction and affirmation from you and her father with whatever she is doing. It is an exhausting age!

Maybe promote her creative side. Have safe materials that she can work and create with while being supervised. Fabric pieces, yarn, ribbon, felt, stickers, glue stick, etc.. Go to the park and find things in nature she can use....pine cones, leaves, twigs, etc..

Have some fun dress up clothes she can use her imagination with. Modelling clay, finger paints, make homemade playdough, a child's easel for painting, etc..

Just a few ideas that may spark an interest.