Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the age variances has to do with whether parents do these things with their children and very little to do with intelligence. Both are just similar to learning a song or a rhyme, right? I imagine repetition greatly increases the chances a child would do these things early.

Of course they do. Just let your kid pick it up later. Honestly you are just getting in the way of the kid expressing things that are much more interesting than having an 18 month old trained money point and say "b." that child does not have any concept of what b is, and really need not. Let that little brain grow without throwing the kindergarten curriculum at it.

4.

I wonder if the age variances has to do with whether parents do these things with their children and very little to do with intelligence. Both are just similar to learning a song or a rhyme, right? I imagine repetition greatly increases the chances a child would do these things early.

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.

Thank you. My son is 18mo and nowhere near being able to count or do his ABCs, even by rote memory. He does have a speech delay. I was freaking out a little that these kids were doing this so young...nice to see that it's not the norm.

A speech delay does not hinder learning. Our very late talker was reading long before talking sentences. Do not be surprised what is in them. Ours just started reading one day and that was it.

Mine knew his letters and numbers to 10 around 3 and that was before many of his preschool classmates. But he goes to a play based preschool and we never actively worked on this and he watched no TV before two and very, very little before three (probably averaged an hour a month). And he's wicked smart!

My daughter just turned 4 and can recognize letters and her name but still doesn't know or sing the ABC song. Knows numbers up to 50 and can point them out- can point out groups of things and tell me how many are in the group up to maybe 10 or so, I guess. She's pretty average.

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.

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.

Thank you. My son is 18mo and nowhere near being able to count or do his ABCs, even by rote memory. He does have a speech delay. I was freaking out a little that these kids were doing this so young...nice to see that it's not the norm.

Around 18 months for the ABCs and 20 months for counting to ten. Now at 2.5 she's still only up to 15 for counting.

Recognizing letters and numbers? I don't think she actually knows any numbers and I think she knows maybe half the letters, if that.

She can count objects in groups up to 9, but gets lost past that, so I'm certain most of what she knows is just memorization.

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.

I'm 21:11. I had a late walker but very early talker. We also sang the ABC song every single time we brushed her teeth so it was pretty much imprinted in her memory from the time she was 6mos old. Like I said, she could sing the song months before she truly identified the letters visually.

Ha, my son didn't really talk until 21 months. He recognized all the letters by around 2.5 and knew the alphabet song sometime after 3. We never really "worked on" it. He learned to count to 10 around 2.5-3, I think.

Could count out loud and could sing the alphabet song by about 18mos.

Could readily identify ordinal numerals and letters visually somewhere between 2 and 2.5.

Can count a group of objects in a picture or number of fingers being held up shortly after age 3.

BS.

Singing a song and recognizing letters in the contex of reading are totally different skills.

Same with numbers. Recognizing the shape of the number is one thing, looking at 3 ducks on a lake and saying "look mom, 3 ducks" is a different thing.

She could count to 20 and sing the alphabet by 18 months.

Actually KNOW the numbers and letters? By 2.5, she knew all the letters and could say the numbers that I knew it wasn't memorization.