To think dd should be able to count to at least 5 by now?

That would VERY much depend on the child. Some children are incredibly literal. Some are not. Some are very emotionally intelligent, others are not.Some kids could explain the reasoning behind a character’s actions without empathising with the character.
Depends also on what they’re reading. I read Charles Dickens at 10/11 - I understood it. But did I ‘get’ what the relationship between Pip and Magwitch really represented? TBH I enjoyed Agatha Christine more.
My own kids at 10/11 were reading Wimpy Kid.

I’ve read by school they should be able to count to ten? I can’t see this happening at this rate!

She'll be going to school in 18 months-ish? How can you possibly have any idea what she'll be able to do in 18 months!

Counting to 10 is simply learning by rote, some kids will do it earlier because theyve heard older siblings counting. What is more important is the subitising skill & understanding the meaning of numbers, by age 2 they should be able to identify 2 or possibly 3 without counting & increase this with age...I.e. by 5 understand 5, be able to count up to that but look at a picture with 5 sheep & say there are 5 by just knowing it.
Edited to add link for bbc bitesize which has a bit about it

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zsjbcmn

I think you need to relax your expectations of her before you cause some sort of lasting damage. She's 2 years old, she doesnt need to do more. She's still very young.

Just have fun with counting and it will come. We used to count the stairs as we went up and down. Sing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive in the bath with plastic fish. Count the blocks as you build.
It's really simple, learning at this age is repetition repetition repetition.

A lot of the milestone advice - including the NHS stuff - is just based on what an average child may be able to do. And as far as I’m aware they’re not expected to do everything on the list.

I remember my HV saying they often did one thing over another. My DS was very behind in gross motor skills, he couldn’t walk until 27 months and all the stuff under that category on his two year check was all noes. His fine motor skills were ok. But talking, sentences, etc, he was well ahead.

Try and concentrate on what she can do rather than what she can’t 🙂

They are all different, 2.5 is way too young to worry.

My eldest was quite advanced and youngest has hit every milestone at the last minute (way behind DC1). Didn’t sit up until about 9 months, crawled once he was over 1 and didn’t walk until 19 months. Then suddenly learnt quite a lot at once. They were both raised the same, if anything DC2 was out and about more (soft play etc) because of DC1.

If DC2 was born first I think I would have worried but there was no need to.

As others have said please don't worry, he is not behind at all, he's very little still. Some kids can't actually count properly until they go to school, my daughter is almost 5 and has only just managed to count to 20.

Literally nobody I know in real life would even think this. This place is truly mind blowing.

"The truth is, children will recite numbers before they actually understand the concept behind them. Though every child is different, most toddlers will be able to count to 10 by the time they are two-years-old. At this point in time they are probably repeating them mostly by memory and have yet to understand what they actually mean.
This concept is known as “rote” counting. Rote counting is when a child can say numbers in order, and is mostly learned through hearing the numbers repeatedly said out loud by others. "
From " online " but it s not a requirement
If they are reciting numbers they don't understand them

Just so it with her in songs for fun. Eg 5 little speckle frogs, zoom zoom zoom, 10 in the bed. You sing, model, hold up fingers.

my daughter is great at counting (same
age)… except sometimes She says 1,2,3,14… etc, they’re just starting to learn about number (and 1:1 correspondence, subitising etc)

Where? This is ridiculous

Wow! Well done mini-Zanatdy 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Nope! Some children can’t speak properly until they're 4/5. Especially subsequent children as their older siblings tend to speak for them.
They're all different.
My DD, when she was 1/2 used to sing the 1-10 song by Charlie and the Numbers BUT in the song, certain numbers are repeated (which I think is very strange for teaching kids to count to 10 correctly). So for a long time, she thought counting to 10 was done this way. For eg. the song goes:
"1, 123, 12345, 678, 9 10, 678, 9 10 🎶
However, she couldn't count to 10 correctly until after she was 3 and I think that was only because I kept correcting her repeatedly.

Now she's 10, has a diagnosis of Autism and is categorically incapable of tying a hair tie or tying her shoelaces despite many, many attempts resulting in tears. Some things however she's frankly ace at. They're all so so different.

Yes, 2 year old development is so interesting. My sister (mathematician) told be about this tribe that had words for one, two and many, so understanding the difference between these three concepts is a foundation concept of maths. My aunt was just saying how impresed she was with her slightly older 2 year old granddaughter with counting and understanding it with objects. As a reception teacher she spent a long time teaching it, but younger children just do it naturally, then sometimes forget it! I think small parts play is good for that too. Children know how to learn innately.

My youngest couldn’t say many words at that age, let alone count. She got 12 x grade 9’s in her GCsE’s, and is a maths genius, so I really wouldn’t worry at all. She is so little. There can be so much competition between parents at that age and comparison, whereas they all develop at different paces in those younger years. My nephew is 3 in April and isn’t saying any words yet, let alone counting.

Ok. I don't know that book. I found the Anthony Browne books great for inferring and reading into pictures etc but you can just do it naturally too with plenty of chatting, observing etc. I loved those years.

Wrt counting, I remember my dc2 just turned two, laying out his trains saying 'Another one and another one and another one'.. this was early and meaningful counting tho he wasn't saying the words in that instance. Understanding and making meaning is much more important than reciting. At the same age I remember he was able to look at two items and say that there were two of them ie on sight. None of this was me teaching it but just learned naturally alongside play and conversation.

DD is almost 3 and can count to about 12 but I don’t think it means much to her at the moment, she just says it as if it’s a nursery rhyme. Can only count accurately with me pointing and counting with her.

My point being our DDs have 19 months to learn 10 numbers - they’ll be alright!

(Assuming your DD starts 2026 - if not then you’ve got a whole year longer!)

Thanks, it is helpful. She used to be really keen on discussing books and films but now it feels a bit like drawing blood out of a stone, we talk about lots of things so are on the right track. Last year at school they read 'I want my hat back.' very funny book where the pictures tell most the story and the bear lies. She didn't get the subtext, I wander if she would now. To be honest, it's a strange book choice as I thought the subtext was meant to amuse parents and go over the head of toddlers (subtext being the bear had eaten the rabbit)

Exactly - ONLINE!

Stop reading crap online and just have fun with your child. All kids learn at different rates.

My DS1 had a vocab of 400 words by age 2. DS2 had less than 10 coherent words at the age of 2. DD was somewhere between the two. Seven years later and DS2 is by far the most eloquently spoken with a huge vocabulary.

Let her be 2. She will be under pressure soon enough. She is a baby.

I think you can 'work on'these skills and naturally through use of picture books, discussing real life events and scenarios, people's feelings etc as well as tv programmes and films. These to me would be better than on harder texts that may just be beyond her for now, and that's not a negative but just in terms of the unsaid. Being able to predict in a picture book or comment on the character's feeling etc is the start of all of that.
I do notice my older dc can call a film plot for example, v early on. He knows how stories work.

@mikado1 sorry she's 6 not 8 but I'm wandering if she'll get the subtext better in a couple of years. I do think she's better than a year or so ago. Eg they I think your right she's reading books too advanced. They did to a lot of picture types learning like your describing in reception.

A lot of stuff is said/written online. That doesn't make it all true. Anyone can write anything at all on the internet. There's plenty of good stuff and plenty of bollocks too.

Your child is 2.5. Stop stressing and just enjoy her as she is. Let her be a child. A two year old who can count to three and not all the way to ten is very normal. You need to chill.

I have three grown up DDs now. Two graduated with good degrees from top universities. If I am honest, I have no idea what any of them were able to count to at the age your child is. It didn't matter. We just chatted, read stories and maybe there was just a little bit of counting in the course of normal day-to-day play. Nothing else though.

It may be that your child can count but just isn't saying numbers out loud. My dc with absorb information and then will suddenly recite it all in one go. They were like this with learning to speak too. He didn't say his first words until 2 and a half but said pterodactyl as his first one and then spoke in sentences within a day. You child is still very little savour that time and let her develop at her own rate

Just realised the PP has said the same thing.