Early Talker, Late Talker: Is My Child Gifted?

Two families were visiting their great aunt and uncle and chatting with each other as their first borns, and cousins to each other, were crawling and toddling around the living room floor in front of them all. Little Debbie, about 14 months old at the time, was jabbering away and running circles around her one month younger cousin, Fritz. Debbie’s parents were pleased but embarrassed as Aunt Helen oohed and ahhed over how precocious — smart — Debbie was. Debbie and Fritz have long since grown up, and if either is more intelligent than the other, it’s not as obvious as it was when they were toddlers. What happened? There are several real questions here.

• Are girls and boys naturally different in early talking abilities?
• How does early or late talking relate to how smart a child is?
• Is it proof that a child is very smart when she talks a lot and “sounds smart”?

Whether or not a child talks early is a cause for either delight or concern for most parents — because it is one of the earliest milestones — next to those first steps — that we look for in our little darlings. But what does it really mean? What is early talking? Well, it depends on whether or not you have a little boy or a little girl, an introvert or an extrovert, or a first child or later born, just for starters.