2 y/o - should they be counting/colours/reciting whole songs?

[Poppytime]

Ok so this may be me overreacting, and possibly pregnancy hormones playing a part...but I am getting increasingly worried/upset/guilt ridden over this. Recently my baby group from DD (23m) have been circulating more and more videos of their similarly aged toddlers reciting the full ABC song, counting to 20+ in various languages, singing whole songs etc... DD doesn't do any of these things :( - she is getting along pretty well verbally I thought - has some 2/3 word sentences, understands a lot - but we don't have counting, we don't have colours really, and no full songs being sung!! She is in nursery full time at the moment, and I am beginning to wonder if I should be spending all the free time with her teaching her these things? Am I failing somewhere? I just don't find I have much time with her after I pick her up in the evenings after work, its just dinner, bath bed...its making me upset just typing this, as I said, I suspect pregnancy hormones aren't helping! Potty training is another thing! No progress there, yet apparently her peers are all getting towards being dry in the day? I just feel like I am failing my DD, and with a new baby due in a couple of months, I will have even less time to focus on her development. Can anyone offer some words of wisdom/reassurance - is there anything I need to be worried about here, and what can I do?

Goldmandra that is very true about the other abilities and I think DD is doing well physically and loves playing games etc

I understand about Facebook and sharing but these videos are being sent on whatsapp to our specific group so a bit different!

And slightly yes you are right about snapshots, one of the toddlers who can do these 'amazing' feats is very shy and I actually haven't heard her really speak in real life! Not that there is anything wrong with that of course, it's just a personality thing and she is obviously more comfortable speaking just with her parents

I'm guilty of posting these kinds of snippets about my DS who is 2. He is often just busy running around and causing mischief everywhere so those rare times when I catch him doing something like counting or saying a few recognisable words I want to share it with everyone, 'He's not just a trouble maker he can do other stuff too! Here's evidence!'

At 23 months DD was only saying single words, but by 26 months she was stringing enough words together for me to have proper conversations with her about simple subjects. It was an explosion of vocabulary!

I remember one of the parent's of a boy in her nursery class saying to me that she was worried that her DS wasn't saying much compared to my DD, but he was 3 months younger than DD so actually exactly as she was at that age.

I suspect the DC from your NCT group actually vary in age by quite a few weeks really, and at that age a few weeks makes a huge difference.

DD is 26m and has a really good memory, so can sing songs, count to 10 etc but it's just recall. Anything requiring understanding, ie colours, actually counting is very hit and miss.

A good memory is very useful for party tricks!

And this is why I have a love/hate relationship with my NCT group. People can't just help getting competitive over the babies' development...

This thread is amazing. As someone with a 2 year old with two words only, never mind colours or counting, it is most refreshing. Thank you!

Friend taught her 2 year old to answer 'Who's the Prime Minister?' which I enjoyed

It's worth singing a lot though I think - not to teach the songs but to get the ears/brain/voice links strong. Also it's fun!

My dd could do all that at 2. My ds didn't even speak until he was nearly 3. So he obviously couldn't. They're all different. And now they're older they're both pretty similar to each other in terms of ability. I wouldn't stress yourself.

My dd was reasonably on target, like yours, OP, and a friend of hers was a lot slower learning to speak. Guess which one has a masters' degree? Yeap, the slow one.

I went away for the weekend when dd1 was 18 mos and dh had not only taught her the alphabet, but she could pick the letters out of a pile of wooden ones when he shouted out random letters... I have no idea why, to this day. But they had lovely fun doing it, and were very proud of themselves when mummy got home and the performance was put on...
I didn't go away again.

My ds1 just turned 2 and cannot talk at all. He makes so much noise thou. ????
His know what he wants and has a great understand and memory. I am a little worried but only because he lack of speech is contributing to his (bad) behaviour. Your dd sounds very normal x

I remember weeping on my DD's second birthday because I was so sure she had something terribly 'wrong' with her. She had long given up on the ten or twenty months she'd picked up between eighteen and twenty months. By her second birthday she'd been completely silent for months while everyone else's two year olds were chattering away. It was horrendous. Now she is nearly four and talks a lot about things that interest her. I was listening to her identifying sea gulls, mountain songbirds, 'nocking birds', herons, fairy wrens etc the other day and it suddenly struck me that I had wasted all that time worrying for nothing.