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.

My dc is 2 and a half and knows 36 elements of the periodic table....I point at various parts and we name bones, muscles and organs.

Ahh but can she do the actions to 'wind the bobbin up'?

I think with naturally bright DC you don't have to drum it into them teach them, they just pick it up by themselves. My DSis learnt read at 3 just by watching/listening to my DM helping my DB to read his school reading books.

@WTFdidwedo

There is almost no benefit at all in the sense of learning the whole thing, apart from it being in the form of a fun song and great memory training. This is what has made many people successful.
In my families field of work they have periodic table available on paper lol. Reality is depending on chemist organic/inorganic they only need to know 10 - 30 elements, so almost no one knows the whole thing.
Also my family like to make really lame jokes so I'm prepping my kiddo in advance lol

I hope that one day she may want to know the concepts behind periodicity but for now it's purely fantastic brain training.

She's also very into anatomy textbooks lol I don't know whether to hide it from her or not. My father used to watch surgeries DURING family dinners so I grew up immune to, well, everything. I was around 7 I think, DD is 2 and a half so I'm unsure if it's early exposure but it's normal in our house.

“That barely makes the child average” grin utter classic withering MN response..

it's true though, if nothing else, that's what many kids are taught at nursery. Some probably ignore it, but others listen. Nothing out of the ordinary.

@PickwickThePlockingDodo

Omg are you kidding me when our weekly group taught her that song she stopped wanting to sing/learn anything else for a while and I had to Google wind the bobbin up or whatever it is actions wise she sucks as I have no clue but she does her best at weekly group and tries to practice at home

I have noticed when kids have older siblings they're way better at a lot than others. It's amazing how quickly they pick up gross motor skills copying their siblings daily. There are some kids on their scooters at the age of 2 zooming around after their older siblings, whereas my DD can barely scoot a few meters.

FrauHaribo not every 2 year olds goes to nursery though, it's not compulsory. My 2 year old goes to nursery one day a week and mostly paints and plays in sand from what her book says.

It's certainly average for a 3-4 year old but not for a 2 year old. Although it probably is in the affluent areas that many MNers are from.

altiara
Blimey, my DC didn’t speak properly until 3 (I think, can’t really remember anymore, now they talk too much and too loudly)
......

I worked with an extremely bright young woman who told me didn't utter one word before the age of three and the family was worried about her. "I showed them", she said.

I was extremely chatty very young and sang a lot, I remember toddling around the garden in green dungarees eating dirt and singing; my son was the same (minus green dungarees0. Husband, by all accounts, was quiet and shy. Bless.

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!

This is very funny.

My second DD could count to 100 by 2 and at 18 months pointed to a clock and said, “Where’s 13 o’clock?”. We must have taught her how numbers “work” at work stage but there were no memory games or flash cards.

She’s 11 now and not a genius but is advanced in maths and receives a modified curriculum and is in pull out extension classes. She mainly cares about swimming at the moment though.

Ok so you told us his age in months purely so we’d agree he’s a genius.

He’s probably not a genius, most people aren’t.

Young children are wonderful and have an amazing capacity for learning. Mine were able to do that in two languages because we are a bilingual household. They are both bright (IQ tested due to dyslexia) but neither are geniuses.
Geniuses, as opposed to bright people, are genuinely rare.

Now that they are older they seem to mainly use their intellect to find excuses not to do what I am asking them to do

FFS
to repeat
‘Asking for a friend’

DD1 could speak very well by this age and could count up to a hundred, knew colours and complex shapes by 18 months- despite being very clever she is autistic.
DD2 who is showing no signs of autism and is 23 months pales into insignificance when compared with her sister. I'm sorry to say it but I would much rather that DD1 wasn't autistic and was just average. Just because they're clever doesn't necessarily mean it's a blessing

Average. My DS counts and knows some colours at 18m, my father regards him as slow because by that age I could talk in sentences and identify the letters of the alphabet on flash cards.

It's possible for many children to talk well,count,and know colours at that age. My son when young, could also read well and write quite a bit when at that age. It's not being a genius at all, In my case,I spent a lot of time teaching him lots of things. But it was in the days before the distractions of tv and techno stuff of any sort.

I can't remember what age DD could count to 20 by ... but I do remember it took me quite a while to persuade her that 'dig and delve' were not the numbers that lay between 12 and 13.

Well my son is 6 months old and reading Homer in the original Greek whilst whittling yo a great coq au vin. So sorry but your friend's child seems rather delayed.

And that was the end of the story of Einstein.

I’m surprised that so many people in this thread think it is normal as the minimum expectation at the entrance of reception is for kids to count to 20 and know how to write their name. So I suppose that the government have a very very low expectation for young kids or we all are rising up geniuses.

Personally, by the time my son got to that age, he had taught himself the alphabet by playing with fridge magnets, by the time he reached his 3rd birthday he could read, multiply by 12 (but not by any other smaller number) and was fluent in 3 languages.

He was not by any means a genius, just a product of his own environment. In fact there were girls in his (private) school who were reading 6 months before him.

I still think, however, that is great that your friend’s DD is counting up to 20 at two.

My dd could do all of that after she turned 18 months but didn't talk very much otherwise. My ds can count to 10 and knows his colours but not shapes yet and he is 2. He does talk a lot though in two languages and is very physically able for a child his age. I figure they all just get it in their own time. It's nice to be proud of your friends baby though x

Genuinely laughing at all the ‘it’s normal’ brigade. You lot are completely bonkers, you really are.

Bright and confident, but definitely not a genius!

I could read pretty fluently aged 3. I wasn’t forced by my parents, just very interested in it. Aged 32 I am distinctly average!

Just realised I am actually 33, so maybe a little below average.....

It’s very bright and yes, above average. Anyone saying it’s normal and average is a total prat.

My DS1 could do that at 18 months, he could speak in full sentences and recognised all digits and numbers. I knew it was unusual but people just kept telling me he was ‘bright’. He’s now got a diagnosis of HFA. Still very bright but other challenges to meet.

DS2 is 18 months and says nothing except ‘ooo’. No one calls him ‘bright’. But he communicates in ways DS1 never did.

Some kids are brighter than others. I’m my experience it evens out as they get older.

Oh god see I would have said that's very good. My 17 month old has only one word "peppa" and my 4yo was the same at that age.
I hate posts like this because there are hundreds of lurkers who now think their toddlers are behind because in mumsnet world its barely average.I have taught reception age children (not in uk) for many years and could count on one hand the amount that started school reading. I have however met many hothoused children who averaged out around 8 or 9.