I am wondering if I can get some opinions on whether my son may be gifted. He is 25 months old.
Since infancy, we have had the feeling that our son was a little different. As a baby, he slept very little, was colicky, and seemed extraordinarily alert and sensitive. In short, he was high needs.
His motor skills seem on target (certainly not delayed) for his age. He throws and catches a ball, jumps on two feet, stacks blocks, etc. We don't think he shows exceptional math aptitude, though he recognizes and names many shapes, including octagons and can count to 10 (I think this is typical).
The two areas where I see possible above-average development are in the areas of language and intellectual curiosity. His speaking vocabulary is 500+ words and of course he can understand many more than that. He also creates fairly complex sentences, regularly using words like "and," "maybe," and "actually." Some examples of things he has said recently: "People live on planet earth." "That's Uncle Erik's ball shirt when he was a little boy." "Mommy and Oliver drove in the car to Wisconsin. Daddy and Uncle Peter drove the moving van." (we moved when he was 18 months old). These are just typical examples of things he says - not the most complex or astounding.
He sings the alphabet song and recognizes all upper case letters and some lower case letters. He understands that letters can form words, which represent things and ideas. He has a chalkboard and asks me to write words on it.
Our son is very curious and very active. He constantly asks questions and wants to read all the time. I mean all the time. I never thought I'd live to see the day when I would want my child to stop wanting to read so much.
Some anecdotes:
He can distinguish between some genres of music. For example, if he hears a jazz song (even for the first time), he can recognize "That's jazz." One thing he did recently that surprised me was when he was strumming on his father's guitar and then asked for a song (that we haven't listened to in a while) that happens to have a strong lead guitar strumming. Clearly, he made the connection between the sound of his strumming and the sound of the guitar in that song.
While visiting his grandmother recently (before his 2nd birthday) he saw a model helicopter in a locked glass cabinet. We told him we couldn't take it out, so he said, "Get scissors. Make a window."
Thanks so much for your time and responses.
