2 year old: alphabet/numbers

[Anonymous]

I agree with the poster who said it is memorized from watching the same DVD over and over again. Hopefully it is something she will retain, but if she doesn't use it often, she may loose it. I don't think its the skills like this one that truly show the advancement of a child. I think things like deductive reasoning and ability to express thoughts that would show true advancement.

I have one child who had something like 80 words at 12 months, and could do all the things you DD could do by the age of two. However this child is not gifted, and at three I am seriously thinking of having him evaluated for learning and developmental issues.

On the other hand, I have a nephew who had good deductive reasoning prior to the age of three. I remember accidently using a bad word in front of him. He told me it was a bad word, but if I was able to use that word, could he then use another bad word. He could do puzzles faster than I had ever seen anyone do them, and while he did require speech therapy (delayed speech), he was still able to express his thoughts, theories and desires. He is now 12 he is doing many college level courses. Luckily my sister has a degree in Education and is able to home school him.

[Anonymous]

That does seem very advanced. My son will also be 2 at the end of this month, and the only things he can do out of things you listed is identify animals and their sounds, and he can "count" as high as 7 or 8, but he has just memorized the order of the numbers. He knows the names of some colors, but doesn't usually get them right (he'll see something red and say "green", occasionally he'll get blue right) He sees letters and usually calls them all "E". But he'll occasionally sing parts of the alphabet song, but again that's just b/c he memorized the song.

[Anonymous]

Holy cow! My son is 14 months and barely talks beyond grunting, etc. I mean, he gets his point across with pointing, etc and a little sign language...but should I be worried?

What videos are your kids watching? I need some recomendations!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy cow! My son is 14 months and barely talks beyond grunting, etc. I mean, he gets his point across with pointing, etc and a little sign language...but should I be worried?

What videos are your kids watching? I need some recomendations!!!!

LOL. Don't stress. When I read posts like this I start to freak out too. BUt I think as long as your kid is meeting the devleopmental milestones, wouldn't worry. It's not a race.
I was supposedly very verbal at an early age, but it doesn't appear to have made a difference in my adult-life. No Nobel prizes here.

[Anonymous]

My DD was the same way - not a genius but advanced. My recommendation is to keep challenging DC. At 3.5 my DD can do 100 piece puzzles and beat me in Memory, all things I thought would be too hard for her and therefore she would get frustrated. But she keeps surprising me.

[Anonymous]

LOL, my almost 2 yo points to all letters and exclaims, "Letter E!!" too.

[Anonymous]

I think my kids learn very differently from each other. DS didn't say his ABCs or count until he was at least 2.5, maybe closer to 3. BUT he recognized all of the letters and numbers much earlier (before 2). Step 1: I could put the letters from his puzzle on the ground and say "find me the A", and he could do it. Step 2: hold letter up, and say, what's this? And he could say the letter. Then eventually he started putting them together (singing ABC, counting). But he started speaking a lot later than DD. DD, on the other hand, was saying the entire alphabet and counting to 10 by 18-19 months, but didn't recognize any of the numbers or letters by sight until much later. We didn't set out to "teach" either of them. DS just really loved his number and letter puzzles and the Dr. Seuss ABC book. I think DD just learned from DS.

[Anonymous]

I agree with an earlier poster - since you child learned these things from TV is does not really mean anything at all! If you are looking for signs of 'giftedness' it will be more about a deeper understanding of things rather than "knowledge" or anything that can be memorized. So for example, if given a new puzzle can they do it quickly without any help? - being able to do their own puzzles over and over again might mean they are smart and have memorized how to do it, but will not necessarily imply giftedness. Another example, if there are 5 people in your house, but only 4 apples, can you ask her if there are enough apples. If you simply say "Do we have enough apples for everyone?" Don't count them with her or say anything more than that. If she quickly says "No, we need one more" than is a sign of a deep understanding of a one-to-one relationship (a key math concept) and subtraction (which is what backwards counting is). If your child really understands backwards counting rather than having merely memorized it, they might be able to do this. So you get the idea, look for signs of deep understanding rather than memorization. Also gifted kids will ask deep questions: "why do polar bears not eat bamboo? so panda bears eat finish?" Seeing a similarity between animals and wanting to understand the differences. Going beyond naming animals to understanding animals is a sign of giftedness rather than probably just smart.

[Anonymous]

OP here: Wow! Lots of great advice and insight! Thank you for taking the time to write--especially 14:28 (right above)!

[Anonymous]

You might be interested in the babycenter group:

http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a3785/early_milestones_toddler

[Anonymous]

Is this the farce thread?

[Anonymous]

My DS knew all shapes, colors, letters (and their sounds) and numbers at 2. At 2.5 I was explaining that "S" is for snake - and then he asked me what was next.....what letter came next! I thought that was pretty impressive. Anyway, everyone tells me how "bright" he is - since he is my first I have no idea what to compare and I don't have many friends with kids, believe it or not. He was/is very verbal and clever.

[Anonymous]

I hate to say it, but I knew a kid that could do all those things at one. Now that was one amazing child! He was in my son's daycare and was about 6 months older than DS. So they overlapped in the infant room. I was so dissapointed when my son reached one and was barely saying "mama".

I think 2 is well within the range of normal. As your child grows you will see that he/she has inclinations towards certain types of learning and certain subjects. So what is "normal" for one child is not "normal" for the next. If your child truly takes an interest in a subject, then the sky is the limit when it comes to early learning.

[Anonymous]

I have noticed that toddlers who watch a fair amount of Sesame Street, Baby Einstein, DVDs and the like almost always know their numbers and letters early on.

[Anonymous]

No idea if it is advanced or not but our 2 yr old could do the same things and also knew 1-5 in spanish as well as 1-20 in english, had a very high vocabulary, could do those puzzles in the square cardboard boxes (multiple jigsaw pieces). She picked this up from the books that we read and what we did. She was slower to crawl, walk, and wile her fine motor skills were OK I did notice that she didn't draw with as much detail.

I have noticed that our second child DS is more advanced at 1.5 in gross and fine motor skills than DD was at his age but not as advanced in other areas. We don't spend near as much one on one time with DS as we did with DD. He benefits from have a sibling in ways that DD didn't and probably has picked up skills from her and has a fun time playing with her as well as us. I wonder though whether the 2nd child gains or loses in this situation.