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.

ODFO everyone with the 'it's average' bollocks!

OP- it's very clever for a just gone 2 year old- don't listen to the MN collective who try to insist that all their kids are just average. I work in the highest achieving primary school in my local authority and the average 4 year old can just about count to 20 and many can't quite yet and some can do much more! Of course some 2 year olds can count to 20 but most can't.

Isn;t it wonderful Op to see what they can achieve at such a young age..?.all that enthusiasm and potential.....toddlers are great!

Yeah mine both did this at age 2.

Get all the usual hearing tests etc. done and tell the doctor if you have any worries, but seriously, one child learns one thing, the next child learns another. My daughter's best friend in school could hardly say 3 words at age 3, but is a very polite, well-spoken, well-educated young man now :)

I was out with my friend who was looking after her little 2 years 6 month old grandchild the other week. Little one jumped into a postman pat van in the supermarket doorway and announced 'Oooh good, right hand drive'.

It's within normal range which is incredibly wide! Dd didn't speak properly until 4 so of course we didn't think she knew such things but when she finally bothered to speak she could already read properly ... she's certainly at the more unusual end of development (she's autistic) but I have known kids who barely sat still long enough to learn anything in reception go on to get firsts from Oxford, and those (whose parents thought) were super bright stack shelves having failed every exam. Let little kids be little kids, they have the rest of their lives for being compared to others

My dd could do that at 16 months. She is now a very normal teenager. Bright, sure, but no Einstein!

This is a mumsnet ‘normal’which isn’t that normal so yes probably average among a higher achieving middle class subset but doing really well against the whole population.

If you look on the milestone charts colours aren’t expected until 3 which shocked me as mine was comfortable with them at under 18m. At 3 she’s only just getting 1-20 consistently right but she was adding and subtracting up to 10 at 2 so she had a deeper understanding of numeracy rather than the more impressive sounding 1-20 if that makes sense.

YABU to describe a toddler as a "genius."

I can't even remember what age my DS was when he started counting or identifying colours. It has no bearing on how bright they are, it might just mean that their parents spend more time doing those particular things with their child.

Crikey this thread is so mean! I agree with Sallycinammon, I think it's so lovely that you can see that toddlers are amazing.

Just because your child does something clever, it doesn’t make them a ‘genius’ unfortunately. You can still be proud though and encourage their learning further

I think they are really clever!
My 19mo counts to 3 and knows the colour blue, which I was mega impressed with! I’d think he was a little genius if he was able to count to 20 and knew colours in 6 months time. Some posters just like pissing on other people’s chips 😂

Normal for a child who is stimulated.

My dd was younger trained and spine in full sentences at 2 but she has 3 older siblings who spent a lot of time engaging with her.

*spoke

ODFO everyone with the 'it's average' bollocks!

The OP could have described a toddler reciting Shakespeare and she still would have got dozens of replies saying “Yep, sounds totally average”.

My ds is 2y2m and can order number cards from 1 to 100. He can also arrange the alphabet in upper case,lower case, and Match upper to lower. He knows all his colours and 2d/3d shapes, and has been doing all this since 18 months. But hes never spoken a single word.

OP, do you have much experience with toddlers? Or see this little girl often? The only reason I ask is because my friends who don’t have kids and who don’t see my Dd (21.5 months) for a few months or even weeks are often amazed at her progress and say things like she’s advanced for her age from the amount she speaks etc, but around other parents or people who work with kids it goes unnoticed because they know how quick children at this age develop, change and start doing things! They just grow up so fast, particularly when you don’t see them every day.

My Dd can’t count to 20 though! She counts to 10 but that is a result of a really annoying Peppa Pig doll she has that recites the numbers. I want to leave it out in the rain 😂.

Other mums who are feeling a bit rubbish, (like me) that their toddler can’t count to 20, let’s just remember they all develop at their own rates and it evens out at school.

Why refer to him as 26months old? What is wrong with 2 years old? Or just over 2 years old?

@vladimirspoutine Seriously? Clearly I don’t know much about kids, but even I’m aware that there’s a hell of a difference between a 2 year old and a 3 year old in terms of brain development and mental ability There’s no point being vague when you can be specific.

Normal at 2. I knew someone who's kid was nearly 3 and didn't know their colours though, she laughed at me when I tried to teach her when I was there for dinner one day "of course she doesn't know her colours yet" - I was a bit but this was before I had kids so I thought maybe I was wrong. Every parent focuses on different things and they do all even out at around 7 anyway.

Well I would say that child is a genius but my daughter didn't talk in sentences until she was 3 and could only count to 20 at 4 and a half. She's a middly at school. Definitely not the lowest but equally not the highest.

And the responses on here are sarky and horrible. Because there are parents out there who's child can't do those things at certain ages. And responses like these make them feel shit

That sounds pretty standard to me. I don’t know why people get so excited about young children counting to 10 or 20 - it’s just a bit of natural memorising, the same as learning a song

Not quite Shakespear but DS could recite 'jabberwocky' at 2, DHs friend had bought him it as a board book, and it was his favourite bedtime story

OP, do you have much experience with toddlers? Or see this little girl often?

No, I have quite limited experience so that might explain why some posters are surprised at my surprise. I was just impressed at such a young child being able to count to 20 is all!

Jesus, my child seem very developmentally subnormal compared to others on this thread. Today my 20 month old's favourite word has just been to bark at me 😑

Yikes, just saw the real version on wikipedia. DS could recite a cute abridged version!