Need some reassurance re DS development

[GoldPaperStars]

Bit of advice / reassurance needed. I have a 27 month old DS and am friends with another mum with a DS the same age. My DS seems to be hitting all of his nhs milestones well, but my friend’s DS seems SO far advanced that it’s starting to make me a bit paranoid. He can name colours (red/blue/green/yellow/pink/purple/orange) shapes (the simple ones, but also random ones like stars, rectangles and even pentagon - seriously!) and uses such long sentences. The other day I heard him say “I want to see the pigeons on the fence again”. He’s always coming out with long sentences like that. He has full little conversations with his parents. Has a concept of and can name the temperature of things or tells you if something is upside down or on / under something. Always seems happy too!

I’ve seen all of this for myself. His mum is lovely and just says that all kids develop at a different pace and they’ll end up the same.

Is this unusual in a child this age or should do most toddlers do this? We don’t come into contact with many because I’ve been shielding, so this is one of the few other children his age that we know. I want to get my DS checked out if there’s more we could be doing for him.

Don't worry OP, your child sounds completely normal. Your friend's child is the unusual one in this situation and your friend is right that kids develop at different paces. My daughter was a bit like your friend's son. My son is definitely not!

Oh op, please don't worry about this. They all develop at different rates x

There's a huge variation at this age, some 2.5 year olds will be having full, complex conversations and some will just be putting a couple of words together!

So long as your DS has a good understanding and can follow simple instructions, and is able to use lots of single words and is starting to put some two or three word sentences together (daddy gone work, more juice) I wouldn't worry.

They all differ developmentally so much. Your dc sounds perfectly normal, as does your friends toddler. Dc4 is nearly 3 and just knows his colours and hasn’t been talking much for long, shapes etc are not there at all. Dc1 was similar spoke simple words, didn’t know shapes, colour etc but walked at 9 months. Dc2 was talking in complex sentences at 13 months and knew shapes, letters etc before 2. However she didn’t walk unaided until she turned 2. There is only 12 months between them too. Dc3 was a mix between them all, all very different.

My DD was like that at the same age. She's autistic, very bright but massively struggles with stuff other kids find easy. Your friend is right - all kids are different, develop at different rates and have different talents.

Ps. I'm not saying your friends child is autistic.

My DD (almost 2.5) sounds similar. Great with talking - but she still can't jump! They all develop each skill at their own pace.

I had twins, one walked at 1 year 1 week, the other not until 16 months. They were both exactly the same weight when born, fed the same food (obvs) and treated the same but there was quite a difference.
I know you are concerned about a different thing but as you can see, they are all different so don't worry.

Oh and their older sister walked at 7 months, so there you go.

I know this might sound stupid but are you teaching your child these things? Your friends child hasn't learnt shapes/colours etc without any input.

God that sounds awful, it wasn't meant to

I had the same thought - maybe your friend is actively teaching her child these things.

I've 25-month twins. They know all their colors, since I've loads of books about colors, and actively taught them to them.

But thinking about it now, they don't know any shapes, since I never thought of teaching them shapes. They might know circle, triangle, maybe.
But someone has taught him, if he knows Pentagon.