Does doing things early make any differnece in t he long run?

[codswallop]

chatiing with ohter mums wiht babies ds3s age after school this am. We were notincing th differnces between them and their siblings and we concluded that doing things early ( reading, walking, teething, swimming) makes no differnce in t he end ( after all academic prowess sadly not judged on number of teeth or ability to recite abc)

that they all swim in the end, all read int he end etc..
what do you a ll think?

Thanks, Tamum. His pre-school have been fantastic. They've even asked if they can visit his school next term so that they can see how he's getting on.

They sound great, and he's obviously inspired a lot of affection in them, which is lovely . You couldn't really ask for anything better than a SENCO being unable to tell which child they were looking for, could you?

Hmm musica- I think that's true. I started flute age 8 (recorder age 4) and found that quite easy. Piano on the other hand..... Started age 10 so not much later, but I found bass clef really hard to get to grips with. It doesn't help that I am strongly right handed so my left hand never seemed physically able to keep up.
It's stories like that that keep me going tamum..... (although I;d rather not have to wait until 14- better than never though I guess).

coppertop your son sounds quite like a little boy I know. He's kind of almost lost the autism diagnosis.

my point its tht they all learn to read int he end though, and write their name etctec, but you do tend to taske these things to heart when they are little - aaah, the miracle of hindsight I suppose

Poor you and your bass clef JJ

I learned the piano till I was 18 wihtout ever knowing what the note values were! I got to grade 5 ont hat basis - I just played quickly when there were lots of notes together!

never play now so total waste of time really

ROFL at your 'played quickly ...' Coddy!

I know crap intit?
got ot grade 5 tho! maybe mozart wwas missig somehting. laugh now as the tunes come up ont he baby mozart vid

Just read the title... but did you ever get to 15, 25, 35 .... and brag that you were crawling/had your first teeth/hair ... earlier than anyone else? IMO, no, it doesn't matter a jot

I learned piano from age 6-12. I would say I have little/no natural affinity for music, and below average coordination, but because I started early and was encouraged, I was able to achieve some limited success. (I managed grade 5 too Coddy, but no further). If I hadn't started until I was older, I think I would have struggled much more.

I still play 3 or 4 times a week, and play in church every Sunday morning. So it was worth it for me.

aah but carla remember my mum says I was eating steka nd chips at 5 months

yeah right!

Yes agree with that coddy. I always laugh at "he/she's really good at his colours" and imagine someone saying that when their kids 18

lol heard a mum at an advneture playgorud saying

" well, of course he is really good at climbin ( child very average imo) a he goes to tumble tots!"
crrrrringe
Mind you sure I was just as bad!

yes and "he knows how to count"

yeah but can he subtract? I always wnat to say!

gifted kids usually walk and read and talk early etc, but not all children that walk and talk and read early are gifted...
my son was def different and still proves to be so.
However he is crap at sports!
In this country you may as well NOt bother living

really?
I htink australia is supposed tobe bad like that ( cue urban myth music)

coppertop

I think an early affinity with something can be a pointer about future personality traits. Not ability exactly, just natural leaning towards some area. My eldest son is not a genius at English but he is an articulate chatterer. He started to talk early as a baby and really has never stopped!

Surely it's usually that an early walker with natural agility is more likely to go on to be good at sporty stuff. It's not that the early walking made them good at sport, but that they have a physical ability they were born with. Also a very clever adult will also usually be a very clever child, so may learn to read and talk early. It's just the lifelong aptitudes appearing - the cleverness and sportiness is not the result of doing things early, but is the natural development of the early skills - in most cases.

Not necessarily aloha. 3 of mine walked at 10-11 months old (I didn't walk until 13 months & neither did DS3), yet none of them are sporty & 2 are dyspraxic so have no co-ordination either!

I was always so proud of the fact that the reached their milestones early, but in the long run it really doesn't matter. (& potty training was a whole different game- mine were the last kids in the country still in nappies!)

I think that there is some evidence that if you learn 2 or more languages as your 'mother tongue' you tend to find learning other languages as an adult easier......not a possibility in our house as dh and I are both monglots.

JJ we have even more in common then, I also learned the flute and piano......I'm starting to re-learn the piano, and I also find the bass clef hard graft

aloha you have put yr finger on it there. My DS2 is v early walker, climbs, kicks ball etc (15 mo today). We think he may well be athletic and enjoy sport (not for fame and fortune of course, tho DH is calling him Rooney!! lol). But yes, it's not because he walks early that he may be sporty, but because he (may) be sporty that he's walked early. That's just what he's goign to enjoy (tho yes, take yr point Tamum, there will be exceptions). DS1 was late walker, soft joints, still (at 5) not very athletic, guess he never will be. But as Coddy says, yes, getting teeth, knowing colours, eating with a spoon, well we all do these things now! But I do think some things can be early indicators of future interest/talents. DS1 very good at jigsaws; DD very chatty and loves to sing. We shall see how it goes. That's the wonder of beign a parent, eh?

And even in the long run, people may do things well that they have had difficulty in doing earlier, ie fought to overcome problems or seen it as a challenge etc.

thomcat, i understand that the age at which you learn to read is partly genetic, although ikwym about it helping them in terms of vocab, spelling etc.