DS IS 2Y, AND YESTERDAY STARTED WRITING THE LETTERS A, E, I, O, B AND C......

[lissie]

(PFB alert) he knew he was doing it (told me what the letters were as he was writing them) is this "normal"? it took me aback a bit. we read with him all the time, dh and i both love books and i used to be v good at writing. how should i encourage him

look up Jolly Phonics

and yes you sound horrifically PFB

i know, i was cringing as i wrote it, but was curious. theres loads about development up to about 18m but after that.... nowt!

LOL lissie, if you go fishing on MN you're almost guaranteed to catch an old boot

in my defence i just want to know if this is standard developmentally. his speech isnt great and it took me aback a bit.

well gecko can write in spanish

hi lissie

hi TR, i did read mandarin to ds in-utero....

In all honestly a very experienced pre-school nursery nurse and I were discussing new intake the other week.

She was rather stunned and saddened when she asked a woman whether her 3 year old could recognise or write any letters, and the woman said 'I make her sit down for an hour every day with workbooks'

babies .. let them be babies

but seriously Jolly Phonics .. play games and continue reading with him

thanks headtwig. will look into the jollyphonics

lissie, if he is anything like my DS you won't need to encourage him - stopping him would be the problem. Not wishing to rain on your parade BUT, you did say his speech wasn't great, and actually there is a condition called hyperlexia (which my DS has) where the brain is wired up so reading comes easily and spoken language (and therefore social interaction) doesn't.

www.hyperlexia.org/

Sounds very bright, Dd1 started writing just before her 3rd birthday, she's 3.5 now and is doing jolly phonics, we bought her some flash cards from ELC and she spends an hour a day (her choice, we dont force anything) playing/reading the cards. She can read a little, write and type on the pc. She has also picked up spanish and a little french. I think if they enjoy learning than go for it.

I know alot of people will say 'wait till they get to school' but thats hard if they want to learn.

Lissie - I can understand your curiousity and it can be hard to mention these things to other mums in RL without sounding very annoying and boastful! Maybe it has the same effect on MN but at least on MN it is anonymous!

Ds just turned two and he can't write letters but he can identify them e.g point to the R or whatever letter. I think he knows almost all of them now.

I too absolutely did not teach them to him - no hothousing here! I do watch countdown a lot though with ds around - not for him but because I like it.

He too isn't very good at talking though so he can't actually say them all. I've looked up hyperlexia and whilst some of the things stand true for ds I am not going to lose sleep over it yet as I think he is probably ok. Here's hoping anyway.

My dd is two and can say things like 'actually mummy, is your back better today? Then can you turn me upside down please'

But she doesn't know any letters at all!

I would say it was unusual to know and write letters at this age. Is he just two or nearly three?

Ds3 is nearly 3 and he couldn't do that. He can write a 'J' and he knows it's a 'J' for his name but that's about it.

He sits in the car and while the older 2 are doing spellings (weird children, they love them!) he says 'mummy, I can spell 'car' - japjnmd' - ha ha! Bless!

Your dc sounds a bit advanced!

His speech and language are brill though. Just not his writing!

seriously though
dd2 has been saying thinkgs lik'
'I'm actually drawing mummy' and I've made a mess, can I have a wipe' and she is only 2.3yrs.
I would say writing letters is veery advanced at this age.

she is drawing circles and colouring in...and pretty well, at the mo

thank you. really didnt want to sound like a nob.

aloha he is 2.3, ive been a bit worried about his speech but its more that he gets words muddled up than anything

I think dd could write a few letters at this age
though I could be wrong, I forget what happened when!

(though I do rememeber being in france when I know she was 21 months as I know date of holiday and us driving round a corner and her saying "mummy, daddy, look at those enormous trees" )

lol

My DS1 is 3.3, and for a long time he was stuck on W, for some reason he picked up the letter W! He knows his letters now, but can't write any (as far as I know...)

I agree that we should let our babies be babies, but kids are actually wired to learn a lot at this age, and so long as you don't pressure (ie force them) I don't see what damage can be done, if they want to learn!.

DS was a slow talker for a long time, but recently he's started talking alot more. I got told off this morning for wanting to sing a nursery rhyme with him. He told that nursery was for singing, not at home!

(I have no idea though if he is "normal" - I don't think he's "behind", nor do I think he's by any means "ahead").

ladygrinning, I read your link with interest as Ds has always been very advanced/eager and keen with things like writing etc but his speech is behind[currently under SALT for past 8mths or so]

My daughter went through a phase of sort of trying to write letters, back to front and things about 6 months ago at about 2 and a half but I think it was just her trying to join in with me when I was writing stuff as It hasn't continued other than with s which she loves. I think its in her brain but she is not interested in doing it. Maybe its just something your son has figured he can do like drawing a circle or triangle or a face but for him its letters because they are everywhere in the world. My daughter is very verbal, in the same way that many other posters have said with their kids, she talks properly, I guess letters are just another thing to be curious about.
I think some kids just have really good hand eye coordination so can do letters easily whilst some can't.

I wouldn't compare him too much to others, 2 -4 years olds seem to vary massively. I have friends whose nearly 3 year doesn't say a single understandable word and others who have a children who can basically read simple stuff at 3 so its just not that helpful to compare. Just nurture what he has got.

Lissie and Nemo - just curious - in what ways are you thinking your dc's are behind with their speech? Ds has lots of words but only combines a few (which is fine as he is 2.0) but he can only make a very small number of consonant sounds.

boo at 2 I wouldnt be worrying yet, Ds was close to 3 before he was refered to SALT, he is 4 in oct. His pronunciation and level of speech was behind. He basically talked outside the home in grunts and limited words.

In France they can start school at 2. My ds (4.5) started when he was 2.5 before his third birthday he could recognise, say and write all the letters to spell his name, Harrison, so it's not a short one. lol

My neice is in her last year of university doing an early years education degree, she visited the school whilst here on holiday and said she was very impressed with what the pre-school age children were able to do. She said it is not uncommon for children to start school at 4 without being able to recognise or write their name. The problem I have now is that Harrison knows all the letters of the alphebet in French and only a few in English.

I think it gives them a great start in life, encourage him if he wants to but don't force him.
I also believe though that it doesn't really matter whether a child is an early talker, reader, writer etc.... they normally all catch up to a similar level in the end.