To think my friend's toddler is a genius

[flowerpowerr]

I went to visit a friend yesterday. I was shocked and impressed to hear her 26 month old DD already counting to 20 and identifying different colours! Is that normal at such an early age or is the child a genius? My friend and her DH are both bright.

ethelfleda

YOU are spectacularly missing my point. A child will walk at 10 months, another one at 18 months (if you do like your months). Both perfectly normal.
A child will be potty trained at 24 months, another one will be potty trained at 42 months I bloody had to calculate that BOTH perfectly normal! You could just as well say 2 years or 3 and a bit, you would make your point just as well.

Why is it so bad for parents to be proud of their offspring?
it's not. We all are, well most of us. I can be very proud of all my kids accomplishments, rewards, distinctions, medals, prices without putting them on a pedestal and pretending they are gifted geniuses. No need for it.

FrauHaribo
Nope - you definitely misunderstood my point.
That there is nothing wrong with measuring a child’s age in months. I have NOT said anywhere that a child walking early or counting early makes them a genius. In fact, I said my DS was NORMAL

here I think its important to distinguish between normal and average. Normal would be the range in which you would expect something to happen

So normal walking age is between 9 months and 18 months. The average age is around 13/14 months

so for me this sounds above average but within normal range

My 17 month old can identify green and purple, can recite numbers up to 10, and sing (very tunelessly) a couple of nursery rhymes as well as saying lots of words.

If she were my PFB, I’d be swinging from the rafters shouting about my little genius who’d be at Cambridge University before her 5th birthday.

But she’s my second, so I’ve seen how they even out by 2/3, and it stops me being such an absolute fool

Well my two are clearly ‘a bit behind’ and ‘dim’
BTW I would never use either of these words/phrases to describe ANY child, it’s bloody rude.
7 years apart, one biological and one adopted. I think the OPs friends DD is very bright compared to mine but I don’t think mine are not average either
Neither does my DDs HV who recently did her 27 month check (yup, that’s her words for age not mine). So even though she only talks in 2 or 3 word sentences and it took me 4 weeks to get her to do the tests we were given by HV (she just won’t sit down long enough to be tested) the HV is more than happy with her progression.
And since she had zero proper words when we first brought her home at 20 months, I think she’s great.
DS is in the bottom half of his class in all subjects but shows such an interest in different and diverse topics at school I have no doubt he’ll excel at something in his future
Academia isn’t everything you know and I genuinely felt a bit shit reading all these posts

so for me this sounds above average but within normal range

Very succinctly put!

You could just as well say 2 years or 3 and a bit

But sometimes it is helpful to quantify just how big or small that ‘bit’ is. Otherwise you could come up with a totally meaningless sentence like, “my first attempt at potty training at 2 and a bit was an abject failure whereas the second attempt at 2 and a bit was a great success.”

There was a thread yesterday about how someone's 20mo couldn't speak at all.
I commented on that thread as my DS turned 2 last month and can say Mom, Dad and bye. That's it.
I'm stressed about his speaking as it is and I've tried engaging him but he just wants to run around with his toys, climbing and babbling to himself.
I'm waiting for the 2 year HV check up appointment to come, but this thread has made me feel a bit shitty when it's apparently average to speak 7 languages, know the periodic table and know 8362 words and put them in full sentences

Asking for a friend'
Yah....right.

@Kelsoid Um, if you do an advanced search on my user name you’ll see I don’t have any kids, so not sure what you’re on about

I wish I’d never started this thread now.

Normal for the age, but lovely your such a cheerleader for your friend x not sure why ppl are being so mean. Nothing wrong with a little pride.

flowerpowerr don’t feel bad it’s those identifying it (incorrectly) as average that can make people feel bad
As I said the range of normal for these things are wide (as they are for everything). I’m average height for a woman but it doesn’t make the 5ft person or the 5ft 11 ones any less normal or within range. It doesn’t make either of them average though
Toddlers focused on different things some are speakers and some do fine motor some gross motor

Don’t worry, OP, people like that haven’t read the whole thread and think they’re being clever. They just come across as foolish to anyone else!

It's normal, toddlers are brilliant. My eldest explained the concept of a lunar eclipse to the doctors and nurses in the local hospital in Africa, where she was born, aged not quite three. She'd learnt it at pre-school earlier in the week. They were a bit gobsmacked by it. I think most toddlers have minds like steel traps though and they don't have to remember the mundane stuff that we parents have to deal with. It's embarrassing when they remember the swear words though!

Normal behaviours for repetition and colours

If she was adding subtracting multiplying numbers ... that's different

I used to find duplo put together like flights of stairs with a red, yellow, green pattern put together by my 18m old. I thought that was pretty good.

It's normal, my grandson knows his colours, including light and dark. His vocabulary is amazing, he knows words like claws and talons. However he seems to be allergic to the number one and always starts counting at two.