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.

Sorry that was meant to be @TinklyLittleLaugh

I remember a friend pointing out a piece of farm machinery to mine when he was 2 and saying 'Look at that tractor', to which he replied witheringly 'It's a self-propelled forage harvester.' He's not a genius - he was just really interested in farm machinery!

My youngest DS wasn’t talking in sentences when he was 2, health visitor suggested his brothers encourage him to talk. Consequently his first sentence was spoken when two delightful ladies said hello to him, his response ‘hello son of a bitch ladies’. The fact he had actually uttered his first sentence took the edge off the shame a little bit!

I am wondering if OP’s friend was performance parenting though “and what colour is this, Harry? Yes it’s red. RED. Show Auntie Flowerpowerr the blue one now. BLUE”

At 20 months my DS2 could speak sentences in 2 languages, and would change language depending on who he was talking to, without that person talking first IYSWIM.

It's nothing special, just what he was exposed to since in the womb, i.e. a 2 language family.

No big deal.

My youngest sister could read and write the English alphabet and read the Bengali alphabet before she started nursery.

Mrbob on page one - of course they don’t all even out eventually. Yes, some people are late bloomers, but generally your bright toddler becomes a bright adult, and a toddler who is not very clever becomes an adult who is not a raging intellectual. Now the dim one may grow up to be very compassionate, or a talented dancer, or do a job that’s vital to your community. But they are less likely to be very clever than the ones who started out clever.

Kids pick different things up at different ages.

This. My friend's ds could recognise pretty well every car model out there when he was not much earlier. My ds, who was not interested in cars (and whose parents were not interested either), could just about tell the difference between a car and a bus.

Just reciting the numbers 1-20 is no different from being able to recite a nursery rhyme: it's just repeating sounds. It sounds impressive because we associate those sounds with complex mathematical calculations- but unless he actually is mathematically gifted he doesn't. If he can work out what you get if you take away 6 bricks from 20, or have 3 lots of 5 bricks, then that is more remarkable. As is a child who can explain what the nursery rhyme means or read a nursery rhyme they have never heard.

Our childminder at one point wondered whether there might be some delay to our youngest (bilingual) child's language development. What worried her was that he had been unable to tell her the word for a baby goat. I tactfully refrained from pointing out that there are not many goats, adult or juvenile, around in our very urban community, but that as he was perfectly capable of telling the difference between a male and a female mallard, his cognitive development, as far as the animal kingdom went, was probably nothing to worry about.

@Damntheman

It's not really a lullaby, it's "Noen kommer, noen går". Which is actually a bit dark for a bedtime song, but she doesn't know the lyrics, so that's fine! Am totally looking up the ones you mentioned though - keep trying to improve my Norwegian, and would love my daughter to pick some up!

I can’t remember

Everyone else has said its normal so must have been when ds could so similar

I know his first painting looked something like Casper the Ghost - I was convinced he had a natural artistic flair it was just fluke

Why refer to him as 26months old? What is wrong with 2 years old? Or just over 2 years old? Why do people do this! After 1 year/12 months I fundamentally think people should use years. Whatever next? 56 months old!?

Very normal. Around that age they're just taking it all in.

They're reciting stuff like a parrot from things they've heard or seen.

Relatively normal. My youngest was obsessed with Jolly Phonetics at age two and was already building words.
She is now averagely bright and doing well in all areas of life.

@VladmirsPoutine I usually agree with you in general conversation. But when you’re asking about language development, don’t you think 26 months is much more useful than 2 which could be 24 months or 35?

Huh? That's normal

@Ellisandra Then say 2 years and 2 months. 35 months is sheer madness... just say nearly 3. Unless you are a clinical practitioner measuring these things for medical records or whatever there is no need to speak in terms of months after 12 months.

Ds didn't even talk at that age. He started to talk when he was almost three. Now he is doing very well at school.

One of my nephews didn read until he was 7 and has a PHD in Lingustics now!

She may turn out to be a genius, she may not. My dsis hardly spoke until she was two (parents were thinking of getting her tested). She's 55 now and still won't shut up!
It all comes out in the wash.

It’s so normal I don’t even feel churlish saying it’s normal.

DS barely spoke before he was 2 and certainly couldn't count at 22 months !! so it would have seemed advanced to me too at the time but apparently it is normal

He also only stated to be able to read at in year 2 (so 6/7 years old) He is 14 now and studying for GSCE in the top set for everything so I would assume it doesn't mean much.

Neither of mine could count to 20 at 26months so I think that’s quite impressive. I don’t think it means much though

@Areyoufree my daughter who is just over one counts in French and sings French songs. It is very funny as she can't count in English plus neither me or my DP speak French. She has picked it up from a mixture of YouTube, her elder sister (who the Youtube videos are for) and a friend of my DP's.

I used to compare DD with a friend’s child who was like the child in the OP. He was only 4 weeks older than her but months ahead in terms of all milestones. They both now practice the same profession (both very happy and successful and still good mates) and DD is more highly qualified than him. All those nights worrying and comparing them were a total waste of my time.

putsomethingontheendofit Try not to worry - as others have said, there's plenty of time to catch up!