To think dd should be able to count to at least 5 by now?

[Gappp]

She’s 2 and six months and can only count to three and I’ve tried so many times to get her to do more. I’ve read by school they should be able to count to ten? I can’t see this happening at this rate!

As others have said please don't worry, he is not behind at all, he's very little still. Some kids can't actually count properly until they go to school, my daughter is almost 5 and has only just managed to count to 20.

They are all different, 2.5 is way too young to worry.

My eldest was quite advanced and youngest has hit every milestone at the last minute (way behind DC1). Didn’t sit up until about 9 months, crawled once he was over 1 and didn’t walk until 19 months. Then suddenly learnt quite a lot at once. They were both raised the same, if anything DC2 was out and about more (soft play etc) because of DC1.

If DC2 was born first I think I would have worried but there was no need to.

A lot of the milestone advice - including the NHS stuff - is just based on what an average child may be able to do. And as far as I’m aware they’re not expected to do everything on the list.

I remember my HV saying they often did one thing over another. My DS was very behind in gross motor skills, he couldn’t walk until 27 months and all the stuff under that category on his two year check was all noes. His fine motor skills were ok. But talking, sentences, etc, he was well ahead.

Try and concentrate on what she can do rather than what she can’t 🙂

I think you need to relax your expectations of her before you cause some sort of lasting damage. She's 2 years old, she doesnt need to do more. She's still very young.

Just have fun with counting and it will come. We used to count the stairs as we went up and down. Sing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive in the bath with plastic fish. Count the blocks as you build.
It's really simple, learning at this age is repetition repetition repetition.

Counting to 10 is simply learning by rote, some kids will do it earlier because theyve heard older siblings counting. What is more important is the subitising skill & understanding the meaning of numbers, by age 2 they should be able to identify 2 or possibly 3 without counting & increase this with age...I.e. by 5 understand 5, be able to count up to that but look at a picture with 5 sheep & say there are 5 by just knowing it.
Edited to add link for bbc bitesize which has a bit about it

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zsjbcmn

I’ve read by school they should be able to count to ten? I can’t see this happening at this rate!

She'll be going to school in 18 months-ish? How can you possibly have any idea what she'll be able to do in 18 months!

That would VERY much depend on the child. Some children are incredibly literal. Some are not. Some are very emotionally intelligent, others are not.Some kids could explain the reasoning behind a character’s actions without empathising with the character.
Depends also on what they’re reading. I read Charles Dickens at 10/11 - I understood it. But did I ‘get’ what the relationship between Pip and Magwitch really represented? TBH I enjoyed Agatha Christine more.
My own kids at 10/11 were reading Wimpy Kid.