Is My 1 Year Old Child Gifted?

First, let me remind you that I am not a physician or gifted specialist – just a mom with a log. This list is merely a recording of my experiences with Lucy and is not representative of gifted milestones as a whole. At the end of this article you will find some of the more common milestones as reported in the literature.

First Year Milestones For Our Gifted Child

Birth to Twelve Months

See Gifted Baby? Milestones of Our Gifted Newborn for more on the first four weeks.

  • Direct eye contact – At birth
  • Large social smile consistently in response to prompting/smiling – 14 days
  • Rolled over both ways – 8 weeks
  • Crawled – 6 months
  • Walked – 9 months

18 Month Milestones

  • Starts reading sight words – 16 months
  • Reads 100 sight words (see partial list here)
  • Over 300 verbal words (see partial list here)
  • Noticed that it takes a single repetition for Lucy to learn new words and repeat days later
  • Recognizes letters I, K, O, R, S, W, X and numbers 1-9
  • Stacks 6 blocks  and counts them, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6”
  • Imaginary play – feeding dolls with spoons, bottles
  • EXTREME sensitivity to hunger and fatigue or any upset in the schedule.  Still unable to deviate even minutes from lunchtime, naptimes, etc.  Keeping her up even 15 minutes after normal bedtime would result in at least 2 days of anxiety, crying, and just being “off”

19 Month Milestones

  • Stacks 12 blocks, counts to 11 of them
  • Seems to be tiring of number “games” that entail counting to 10.
  • Voracious talker.  3 word “sentences”: “more pears mom”, “Bye daddy, work!”, “Hurry up mom!”, “thank you daddy!”
  • Thank you is very big.  Lucy thanks checkers at the store and anyone else for anything and everything.
  • Noticing an interesting sense of humor.  Lots of word puns!!  “Tanka daddy” (Thank you daddy – very very fast for effect!). Had about 6 “synonyms” for mom – including mimma, mim,  ma’am (her favorite), mom, mommy, mammy.  Uses them interchangeably or really gets going when she wants my attention (i.e. “maaaaaaam” in her best darth vadar voice!).  She purposely messes with words so it actually can seem (to others) that she doesn’t speak quite right.

20 Month Milestones

  • Reads all of the days of the week and months of the year

22nd Month Milestones

  • Dramatic improvement in verbal skills: Lucy’s verbal skills have improved immensely over the past couple of months.  She strings many words together into mini-sentences.  Much to her dismay, daddy was using the drill yet again today.  She said, “Daddy drilling.  Daddy drilling all the time – ugh!”  It was so funny because Dad had been working a lot around the house lately and Lucy does not especially like loud noises, but she is finally starting to tolerate the vacuum, lawnmower, and drills after repeated exposure.  Since birth, Lucy has HATED loud noises and even used to cry at the icemaker in the fridge.
  • Counts to 25 (1-20 easily and quickly, the 20s are still new)
  • Recognizes some “tens” in writing (20,30,50, 100).  Always notices pricing in stores and points them out.
  • Knows entire alphabet verbal and written A-Z
  • Reading at least 300+ words, reading easy board books
  • Increasing interest in books, reads the words she knows and points and points to the letters in words she doesn’t recognize.  I have her “finish” sentences by pointing to the sentences in books and having her read them… ex, “The Wiggles drive their..” and have her point to the words big – red – car
  • Independently reads easy reader board books
  • Loves puzzles, 12-18 pieces
  • Knows all letter sounds/phonics A-Z

See Lucy’s infant milestones

See Lucy’s milestones at 2 years of age

See Lucy’s preschooler (3-4 year) milestones

Gifted Baby / Toddler Milestones as developed by GERRIC

GERRIC’s purpose is to undertake research in the education and development of gifted and talented students, and the following tables have been gathered over years of research and provided here as a guideline:

General Motor Examples

AbilityNormal AgeGifted Age (30% Advanced)
Sits up alone7 months4.9 months
Stands alone well117.7
Crawls upstairs1510.5
Walks upstairs1812.6
Turns pages of a book1821
Walks on tiptoes3033.6
Skips with one foot only4833.6
Throws ball4833.6
Skips with alternating feet6042

Fine Motor Examples

AbilityNormal AgeGifted Age (30% Advanced)
Plays with rattle3 months2.1 months
Pulls strings adaptively74.9
Holds object (Finger + Thumb)96.3
Holds crayon adaptively117.7
Scribbles Spontaneously139.1
Folds paper2114.7
Draws a person with 2 parts4833.6
Copies a triangle6042
Draws a person with neck, hands and clothes7250.4

Cognitive Language Examples

AbilityNormalGifted Age (30% Advanced)
Social smile at people1.5 months1.05
Searches with eyes for sound2.21.54
Vocalizes 2 different sounds2.31.61
Says “Dada” (or equivalent)7.95.53
Responds to name and “no”96.3
Looks at pictures in a book107
Has vocabulary of 4-6 words1510.5
Follows directions to put object on chair etc.17.812.46
3-word sentences2416.8
Gives full name3021
Counts objects to 33625.2

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