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Behaviour/development

Please remind me -- what age do children learn to name colours?

37 replies

frogs · 18/11/2005 10:02

Three children on, and I can't remember...

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lunachic · 18/11/2005 10:06

2/3 my ds started to learn at 2 and is perfecting it now hes 3 but theyre all so different at the ages they learn different things arent they ?

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Lio · 18/11/2005 10:07

2 in the Lio household

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MalorySuzannahAtTrinnyTowers · 18/11/2005 10:14

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NannyL · 18/11/2005 10:15

about 2 years... some a little earlier some a little later

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anchovies · 18/11/2005 10:16

Ds can do a good selection at nearly 2 but isn't completely reliable yet.

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Miaou · 18/11/2005 10:16

About 3ish? I used to be a nursery auxiliary and worked on colours with the children there.

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frogs · 18/11/2005 10:22

Excellent! My slightly speech-delayed nearly-2yo has just had a convincing stab at 'green' and 'purple' while playing with felt-tips. I just wondered if it was coincidence or if I was hallucinating. But I think I'll count it as progress. Way to go, froglet3!

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singersgirl · 18/11/2005 11:16

The health visitor at DS2's 2 year check said that it was unusual for 2 year olds to be certain of even one colour, so I guess from 2 on is most common.

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lunachic · 18/11/2005 11:23

frogs just to let you know my ds hardly said anything when he was 2 /2.4 now he is 3 he talks lots in fact he hardly shuts up and his vocab and grammar are pretty good too.delayed speech dev. is not always a bad thing and more common in boys i think. my dd 18 months can already have short conversations !
dont think your ds has delayed speech nearly 2 is early for most boys to talk anyway- imo theyre all so different !

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lunachic · 18/11/2005 11:25

just in case your interested we gave ds those childrens omega 3 fish oils from boots and his speech seemed to start developing about 2 weeks after he took them it was amazing !!

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colditz · 18/11/2005 11:32

My ds is 2.6 and knows most of his colours, has done for about 3 months I think. First one was pink though

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Marina · 18/11/2005 11:53

Excellent frogs
Dd is 2 and a quarter, said practically nothing until 2, and is now chatting and can name most of the bright colours and black (reminds me of Charlie Higson in the Fast Show) OK now.

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MrsSpoon · 18/11/2005 11:57

My speech delayed DS1 knew his colours at around 2 1/2, he had appointments with paediatricians etc and they said that was pretty advanced (he couldn't say the colour but if they asked him "where's the red one", etc, he could pick them out). My chatterbox DS2 is now 3 1/2 and I think he has just got the hang of colours in the last month or so.

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Stilltrue · 18/11/2005 12:12

DS3 is 22m and knows red, green, blue and black. Says red and blue quite clearly; green comes out as a strangled "gn" type sound !
My ds2 knew about ten colours (including things like purple and turquoise) reliably at 18m; I didn't think anything of this particularly until sil told me how unusual that was. She is a primary teacher, and says it's not uncommon for some reception children not to know all their colours. This would be considered normal btw.

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frogs · 18/11/2005 12:49

Yes, stilltrue, I had one like that myself -- dd1 knew all the colours at 18 months and could chat in complete sentences at 24 months. Which is why every so often I have to do a reality check to make sure I'm not measuring the other two by some mad standard.

I'm v. pleased dd2 is actually reasonably ahead in something, if she has got this colour thing right, since I'm blinking sick to the gills of listening to health professionals witter on about her delays. I think it's a handedness/brain lateralisation thing myself the other two were both strongly right-handed, whereas dd2 is ambidextrous but tending towards her left. Her speech development has (finally) started moving, but is still quite quirky so she can count to ten (missing out 6 and 7 on the way) and sing a v. recognisable rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but if she wants a drink she prefers to point and yell. The colour thing is v. much in the same vein.

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Enid · 18/11/2005 12:51

dd2 knew all colours at 18 months but talked very well and early.

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Enid · 18/11/2005 12:51

strangely that didnt impress the hv when she wasn't walking

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Lonelymum · 18/11/2005 12:52

ds3 is 2.9 and he knows the names of colours but cannot reliably put them together with the colour itself IYSWIM.

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Gobbledigook · 18/11/2005 12:56

Around 2 for ds2 (he's just 3 now so I can only remember him!). At just 3 he knows them as well as I do and he has done for months and months - I can't remember him not knowing them now. My friends ds is 2.11 and only knows red though - everything is red. They are alldifferent, I wouldn' worry

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Stilltrue · 18/11/2005 13:41

frogs it does sound like your dd2 does understand those colours! You aren't hallucinating. I'm sure she'll say them again soon to put your mind at rest.
Sorry if you've explained this elsewhere, but what do you mean by slight speech delay? How many months exactly is she?

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frogs · 18/11/2005 14:02

She's 23 months, and has only really started using words in the last 6 weeks or so. She babbles and jargons a lot, but has been slow to use words to name or ask for real objects (even people's names). Most of her language until now has been what the linguists call 'stereotypes' rather than than communicative (eg. counting, byebye, etc).

I've taught Child Language Acquisition at university level, so I know what I'm talking about! I'm just rather intrigued by her anomalous development she's quite a little character and irritated by health professionals who can't see beyond a tick box list. But my GP agrees with me, so it could be worse...

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torgrosset · 18/11/2005 18:50

Hi my daughter just turned 2 in October & is only just starting to speak - she still babbles a lot. She thinks everything is blue! I'm not overly worried - she'll learn in her own good time...

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Pruni · 18/11/2005 18:53

Message withdrawn

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frogs · 18/11/2005 19:08

Pruni, the David Crystal book is called something like, "Listen to your child". I think it was published by Penguin. I lent my copy out a couple of years ago to a friend who has since moved to China! IIRC it has some slightly dated detail about actually making recordings it's stuff like that that makes you realise how fast things have moved over the past few years! but the language stuff is spot on. It's written for the general public, but the 'informed' public, iyswim, and it's quite funny, too. Highly recommended.

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janeybops · 18/11/2005 19:27

18 months to 2 years for basic colours like blue, red, green, yellow. ds now 2 also knows pink, silver, purple and brown

When dd went to nursery the first topic was colours so I assume some children don't know them till a little later. Although there were a lot of children in her nursery who didn't speak English as their first language in her nursery.

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