Please tell me this is normal....

[Lovecat]

My DD is 2.1 and seems to have a complete mental block when it comes to a couple of things - even as I type this I'm thinking how pathetic it is to be worried about this, but she is my first (and probably only - long story) and I suppose I want you all to pile in and tell me I'm a silly mare for worrying over nothing...

Anyway, it's this:

When confronted with the colour orange, she says yellow. She also calls Oranges 'yellows'. Every time she says this in relation to the fruit we say something back to her like 'you'd like an orange?' and she shakes her head and very definitely says 'yellow!' Yellow-coloured things are also yellow, btw...

And when she sees a sheep, she says cow. When she sees a cow she says cow. She knows that cow cows go moo and sheep cows go baa, but they're all cows to her and she gets quite angry over us suggesting that they might not be cows. When that ad for Shaun the Sheep is on she's sitting there going 'cow! cow!'

I'm just a bit concerned that she's so adamant about it - normally if she gets something wrong and we say what it really is, she instantly corrects herself, but on this she's not budging...

Anyway, before I go to the clinic and get laughed out of there I'd really appreciate some reassurance that this is quite normal...?

sounds normal to me

Message withdrawn

I think your DD is a little too young for definite colour and object identification - My DS is about the same age and some days knows blue and other days is etermined that it is green - wouldn't panic if I were you as it does sound okay to me - am sure lots of other MNers will be along to tell you the same thing

My ds says black is brown and his name is mummy. She might be doing it to get a reaction out of you.

my dd does this - in her case, everything is a piggy...

sounds really normal. DS1 didn't do it but he couldn't speak at all, so you couldn't really know what he was thinking

It's fine lovecat and don't be embarassed for worrying,, you have to have something to worry about, you're a mum! To NOT worry would be less normal!

I think it's quite common to confuse yellow with orange and vice versa and quite sensible too seeing as they are close to each other on the spectrum! My older SN child still does it, although corrects himself when he thinks about it (NOT to suggest that this problem has ANYTHING to do with special needs.. it's just a maturity issue is what I'm saying.)

And DD, now 8, used to call all small animals bats! She used to scream "BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!" excitedly at every small creature she saw.. we fond it hilarious!

sounds really normal. DS1 didn't do it but he couldn't speak at all, so you couldn't really know what he was thinking

A lot of children her age can't talk at all - and certainly don't know any colours! You're very good by the way - if either of mine had done that we'd still be calling oranges "yellows"! We still talk about mazagines (very embarassing in the newsagents I can tell you!) biders and bibis (spiders and biscuits) My dd at about this age called all small animals cats and all big animals dogs. This included mice and elephants. The sheep and cow confusion seems far more comprehensible!

I have ds1 2 1/2 he is the same - I thought he may be colour blind to start with but he was just too young has just started to learn the basic colours now. He says all sheeps are cows but know sthey go ba ba - I wouldnt worry im sure she will gradually change to the correct thing in the next year

Oh, thank you all!

It's so good to know that it's not just her - katelyle, I think I suffer in that all her friends are a few months older than her and all seem very verbally advanced, so I don't really know anyone her exact age to compare language with (and I know, I know, I shouldn't be comparing anyway! )

Actually, in my family, squirrels are still called squigs and jelly is yelly because of my brothers and my early attempts at pronunciation... so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at Yellows!

Thanks once again for calming my ridiculous fears!

Every colour is "red" according to ds3 (2 in January). Every food is "eggs" - he picks up a carrot "eggs eggs" in fact grandad is now "eggs" as well (probably because he makes pancakes).

It's a normal part of speech development to start with having one word to mean a whole category of things. Completely normal.

Lovecat - haven't read the whole thread but this seems normal to me. Ds (now 2.8) has been interchanging yellow and red for ages although he knows the names of all other colours and does get those 2 colours right in terms of recognition.

It appears to be a label problem rather than a colour recognition problem because I keep testing him by saying "go get me the red car" "or get the yellow hat" and he will always get the right item.

He also used to get the names of animals mixed up, but again I don't think it is a recognition issue.

I wouldn't go off to a child psychiatrist yet, I know what you mean about first children, it is easy to get too worried

Forgot to add ds is bilingual, so talking later than most monolinguals which is normal too !

Oh, I am yellow rose, NOT red rose ! I know my colours

completely normal, don't worry.

Completely normal. For my dd2 (22 months), every fruit is a plum.

Me: Would you like some fruit?
DD2: Plum!
(I offer her a plum).
DD2 (shaking head): Noooo! Plum!
Me: Do you mean an apple?
DD2: Noooo! Plum!
Me: Do you mean a banana?
DD2: Noooo! Plum!
etc etc etc
Me: Do you mean a pear?
DD2: Yes! Plum! (eats pear)

totally normal - she's grouping - all large animals are cows. Perfectly normal.

Lovecat your totally normal show me a mother who doesn't and I'll tell you she's not a true mother as we all do at different levels which is why sites like this have been so successful.
My dd1 is 3.10yrs and has been at speech therapy as her language skills are delayed. my ds is 5mths old and called Oliver she can not say his name both her and dd2 2.11yrs call him ulger. The speech therapist said that words starting with 'o' are the hardest to say and most children master it between 3 and 4 so whilst they can't say it they find other words to use. dd1 still says tun and not sun and harlotte for her own name charlotte. NOthing to worry about she is able to say yellow so sounds like her speech is developing in line with national averages. At 2.1yrs my dd1 still used her own developed sign language and gestures (dummy) was an uurr sound whilst her finger flicked her bottom lip for example

I love that your DD is so adamant about it. Shows character. This also sounds so familiar. Our DS at that age couldn't say Snowman. He's say Doe-Die instead.

And we'd say "SSSSSS...NNNNNN O MMMMMAN" And he'd nod frantically in agreement and say: "Doe-Die!".

LOL about nodding frantically in agreement. Aren't toddler adorable when they are so very fervent about everything. I think I am feeling toddler broody!