Shocked about what ds's friend aged 6 can't do ...

[Easy]

Today We took ds's friend (well his girlfriend, according to him) for an outing, our first time with this friend. Now I know my ds is advanced for 6 (everyone tells me so), but I was shocked to find that she
a) is unable to fasten a car seatbelt herself (her mum put her in my car as we went, she couldn't fasten it herself for the return journey)
b) Doesn't know when her birthday is, beyond being able to say "It's a long time to my birthday"
c ) can't identify the months of the year, and doesn't know it is February now.

Also can't understand why I corrected the phrase " I don't want no chips", altho' I recognise this may be acceptable language at her house.

My son has fastened his own seatbelt since just after his 5th birthday, has a complete grasp of the calendar, and has been able to tell people his birthday date since 3 y.o.

He can now tell the time (altho' won't admit it, he's too sly).

Are my expectations too high and the girlfriend is average for 6, or is his friend "a bit behind"

I'm genuinely curious about this one

Fastasleep, pmsl.....electrocution.....

Fgs! the child is six. does it really matter how she said she didnt want any chips?
Is it really that important to you?

I couldn't give a monkeys about her or her chips... I am interested in linguistics though.

I'll stick wi' chips, uur too confusing youu arrr, the lorra yer!

Chips....omg, I'm hungry...its only 11am fgs

Chaucer was quite big on the double negative. It did used to be standard English, although, granted, quite a while ago. I don't think double negatives go against any of the basic grammatical rules.

It's true that in French the double negative consists of "ne" and "pas" or "plus" or "jamais" or whatever. But colloquially, of course, they just use "pas".

Gordon Bennett! - Yoos lot gettin yer knickers in a twist. Get thee sell up t' Stoke and sees ow we towk up 'ere. Yay avin a 'larf!

I am from Stoke

Wey up Greensleeves Just noticed a grammatical error in my post - that should be laff not larf!

Where you from?

But do you think Chaucer could buckle a seat belt????

Lived in Longton for ages when I was a kid, but really from Newcastle under Lyme! You?

Glad you never babysat for Einstein, apparently he couldn't even talk until he was 5.

TBH when I look after other kids what I notice is their nature, the type of person they are.

As for 'I don't want no chips', coming from the Southern US, that just makes me laugh. Hung around WAY too many PhD-level engineers who regularly used double negatives whilst sitting in a pick-up truck in the drive-through queue at KFC . 'Do y'all have any of that gravy there to go w/mah biscuits, pleeze?'

I was born in Newcastle u. Lyme left before I could talk, though, pity.

I'm shocked that anyone would know exactly when their child began to fasten their own seatbelt.

Hey, Expat...I have long wanted to understand 'biscuits' US-style: can you explain, pleeze, Ma'am?

Cor! Glad I've been away from this post. But NotQuiteCockney has said everything I would have said much better than I would have said it.

The Norway/Sweden example was one I was going to use in my first post, but it got too long.....

The point I was trying to make was that the little girl had just learned the dialect spoken in her home, rather than 'not learned English correctly'. At some point at school she will be taught the standard English alternative to the dialect she speaks, and she will probably learn when to use it, if she wants.

Er...And children differ enormously in their interest and motivation for learning things like months of the year and telling the time. DS2 is much more interested in practical stuff like that than DS1 ever was, so will learn it earlier.

'That there gravy sure is mighty fine'.

One of my dad's work colleagues was a TOTAL brainbox from the backwaters of Alabama who got his PhD from a really prestigious 'institoot of higher ED-oo-ca-TION', as he said it. MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He hung his framed sheepskin degree over the toilet in the downstairs loo so everyone would see it 'That there degree cost a mint, so I'm gonna make damn sure everyone sees it an' all.'

My BIL has a master's in engineering and works for NASA outside of Houston, but he is a 'hick' to the core and to hear him talk you'd think he was uneducated as all get out. He refers to DH as 'Scottish boy'.

Biscuits in the US are scones w/o the sugar.

Originally from Cobridge (a proper potter!) - now in Baddeley Green via Bucknall.

They talk posh in Newcastle

You should hear 'em up here, Potty . Especially once you get a few drinks into 'em. Even the poshest one will lapse into 'aye'.

Scones without sugar? Definitely need gravy with 'em. Thanks for explaining, ExP.

Children develop at differant rates. A lot of 6 year olds wouldn't be able to identify the momts of the year. Also a lot of six year olds would still need help with seatbelts.
She is probably able to do other things that your son can not do.
So yea I think your expectations are a litle to high.

well, I do A level Eng lit marking for EDEXCEL every year and I MARK DOWN CLUMSY GRAMMAR.So do the other markers. We are paid well for this.

So there !!!!!

Donnie, of course you do. English papers should be in Standard English, and by the rules of Standard English, this is bad grammar. Obviously. Nobody is doubting that.

(Do kids really try to write in txtspk for these sorts of things? They don't, do they?)