When could your child do his/her ABCs and count to 10?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's something cute to write in their baby book, no one here is claiming our early counters are child geniuses. Calm down pps.

Maybe you aren't, but I guarantee that others are.

[Anonymous]

My child didn't speak at all until 26 or so months. So he wasn't saying letters or numbers, but he could identify them. Now that he's speaking (2.5) a little, he identifies all uppercase letters and can count to 10 and understands the numeric representation of quantities 10 and under. While his speech is still very delayed, he has been evaluated to be cognitively on time. But "on time" is a very wide range.

[Anonymous]

2.5 year old son knows the ABC song and can count from 1-15 but all via memorization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are there so many posts like this? Are parents worried about their children's achievement? Maybe I'm misreading this, but it seems like a lot of DCUM parents are concerned about their child doing things "on time." Every kid is different! He or she will be fine!

I am the OP. My child was a preemie and does a NICU follow-along clinic. At the clinic, this is something that is watched. I was surprised by the age range they suggested for these "skills" and wanted to see how the general DCUM population stacked up. It confirmedu suspicion that this crowd reports a much earlier time frame.

But OP, you do realize a question like this is going to disproportionately attract answers from people whose kids did it early. I have an 18 month old and a 3 year old. I've known a lot of kids. I've never met an 18 month old who could do this. Of course I know there are some but it is not nearly as common as these answers would suggest. Most 18 month olds aren't even stringing words together or if they are they e just started.

[Anonymous]

I have a PhD in Education. Most "younger" kids who count or recite the alphabet are doing just that - reciting. It's cool and it makes you feel proud as a parent, but their brains aren't yet capable of understanding numbers or letters as representations of something else. So, no need to worry if your toddler isn't reciting these specific things, yet (though certainly recitation is pretty normal for toddlers without delays, so it's pretty common).

[Anonymous]

By 18 months mine could count to 10 and was singing the ABC song because we sang it all the time and would count as we climbed stairs.

She's almost 2.5 and can count to 20 and count objects in books or the house by pointing and saying number up to about 10- like how many plates are on the table, etc. But she doesn't know her letters or numbers by looking at them, just sings the abc song and can count.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DD is nearly 3.5 and can sound out each letter (I have not taught her the names of letters or the alphabet song); write nearly all of them (except the M, N and W) if presented with an example; and recognize a handful of sight words: I, am, the, a, ball, etc. She can write her 5-letter name unaided.

She can count to 10, but gets the teens jumbled up, and is starting to add with her fingers.

She is going to Montessori preschool in a week, where all of this will be reinforced and built on.

Note that my older son could not do any of this at that age, and is now reading and doing maths WAY beyond his grade level. Sometimes it just clicks later.

You don't know much about Montessori, do you?!

I have spent many years immersed in the Montessori method.
My older son, an ex-preemie like OP's, with developmental delays, benefited enormously from going to a Montessori preschool. The excellent teaching there contributed significantly to his amazing progress.
Don't be so rude.

[Anonymous]

My son is 3 and can do it. I don't remember when he was first able to do any of these! Mommy brain.

[Anonymous]

We are a trilingual household (Russian/Arabic/English) and DS recognized all the letters and could count to ten in all three languages around 2, maybe 2.5. We did not emphasize letters or really teach him that stuff in any formal sense. We do read to him a lot and he loves books (and we have many around), so at some point there must have been enough pointing at things and sounding them out for him to remember. He has puzzles with letters and he loves playing with them, and he loved pointing out the letters anywhere he saw them. So I figured he is just into that stuff, and we rolled with it.

We don't teach English so I figure daycare took care of that one.

[Anonymous]

I don't remember. It doesn't matter when so why would I bother remembering the exact month? It was cute when he first started signing the song. He is newly three and can name maybe 1/2-3/4th of the uppercase letters (depending on the day) but gets them mixed up a lot too. Can recognize things in groups as one thing, two things, and three things. Can recite numbers to ten and sometimes beyond but doesn't know any of the number symbols yet (we have these cloth letters which is why he knows some of his letters). Doesn't yet recognize the letters he knows as making up words.

My husband could read on his third birthday but I learned in kindergarten (and I'm the one with the advanced degree . . .)

[Anonymous]

I think my son learned his letters at age 5 and my daughter was 6.

However, once it clicked, it clicked and they went from barely knowing letters to decoding and reading everything.
They have consistently been reading many grade levels about their current class and are starting at a "big 3" DC private in a week (mid elementary).

[Anonymous]

Mine could do this backward and forward at 3 months old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine could do this backward and forward at 3 months old.

+1
I am pregnant now and I think I just heard the fetus read aloud a newspaper title! Not that she is a genius or anything, it's just the way it is in our family, we have a lot of books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:18-20 months

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever. My kid did it at 6. He had delays but now he is an honor roll student. 6 is late but 2 is hardly the norm.

2 is the norm. Some kids are earlier. Some later. It all works out in the end.

Not the poster you quoted, but no, 2 really isn't the norm. It might be the norm in 2013 in DC because people are trying to actively teach babies the alphabet and numbers. But in the world in general, 2 is very young for this.

+1. I'm from Germany and we don't make toddlers memorize letters and numbers there. Most kids, even from educated families, start learning to read in first grade.