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

thanks nemo - hope your ds is doing well with the SALT.

I read a piece in my local newspaper this weekend which said that children only start to say sentences at around 2.5/3. My ds2 is 2.5 and has been talking in sentences for a while.

However, ds1 didn't really say very much at all until he was around 2 and we thought he was a bit behind his other little friends at this stage. However, now at 4.5 his nursery teachers commented to us how good his speech is and how big his vocabularly is. They say they can sit and have a really long conversation with him which they can't have with some other older children. So it just goes to show how they all develop at different rates and not saying much at 2 isn't anything to worry about.

Neither of my ds could write all these letters at 2.3. Nurseries here do 'child led' approach so when children show an interest in something they'll try to develop it but won't force it if they're showing no interest. So if your ds wants to sit and write/learn letters then I would encourage it but like others have said definitely wouldn't push it if he decides he wants to go and do something else.

Sounds pretty impressive to me to have the fine motor skills to write letters at 2. I would say let him do it if he wants to. My dd was very interested in sounds and letters at 2 but couldn't write them - she could find the right letter magnets to spell out her name on the fridge. She just did it one day without me even realising she could. We didn't do anything formal to encourage this but she learned to read and write very quickly when she started school at 4. Current evidence (I was a SALT in my pre-children life) supports doing lots of "sound" games like rhyming and I Spy to prepare children for literacy. This seems to be more useful to them than just knowing the letters. We just try to make it fun - a favourite is to make a menu for a cafe (my dd liked to do this even before she could write properly). I've never figured out what to do with flashcards - aren't they really boring?

rozzy one thing I have learnt is how different they all are. DS speech was slow taking off and he is now getting to stage most 2.5-3yr olds are at. However DD1 is 19mths and has been talking in single words for around 4mths and over past 2mths has been putting them together so will say things like 'oh no my baby'

I think unusual lissie. He might be good at art in general if he can accurately form letters now?

thank you all, youve really reassured me. tbh i was vv advanced with my reading and writing, and got burdened with the G&T label. really dont know how i would handle it in my own son.

does that sound awful?

Message withdrawn

Blimey! I think it's amazing!!!

DS has brill speech but is now 4 and can only just write a VERY odd looking 'P' (first letter of his name)

dont know really if he is, i was labelled G&T as a child (learnt to read at 2) and had a lot of pressure on me (bullied A LOT) so started to dumb down on purpose.