When do children start to recognise written numbers?

[Cattenberg]

For example, pointing at a 5 on a football shirt and saying “five”, or to a 3 on a front door and saying “three”.

We passed a friends child doing this on our way to preschool this morning. She is just 3 and recognised a house number correctly. My DS is nearly 3.5 and doesn't do this. He sometimes sees a number or a sign and says something, but it's not the correct number.

My DS is coming up to 4 and I think he's been doing this since he turned 3, or maybe just before. It's all about exposure and interest though. He got a toy till for Christmas last year so he got familiar with numbers that way.

My daughter has recognised 1 - 9 since she was about 20 months, but I think slightly older is more usual. I didn't realise she could until I got her a toy till and realised she was saying the correct numbers as she pressed the buttons.

My boy has been able to point to the correct number (1-10) if you ask him since about 18/19 months. His speech is still pretty unclear (at 21months) so although I know he’s trying to say the correct number no one would have a clue that’s what he’s doing!

We had a book though from when he was born where they play hide and seek so count about 5 times in the book and we would point along to the number as we said it. As a pp has said it’s definitely related to exposure and interest -my boy is just really into numbers!

DD1 learnt them waiting for a bus for nearly 90 minutes. Every number went past from 1-10 except the number 2 we were waiting for. By the end of 90 minutes she knew her numbers perfectly.
She'd have been about 2yo, but not sure exactly.

No idea for the other two.

Getting the right number every single time and being able to count things, put a certain number of lego pieces on the table or in a box = about age 3

Getting it right some of the time and/or by coincidence = about 2 years old

Being able to see, recognise (and repeat) a number = before 2

So it depends on what your definition is. I'm guess the 21 month old above cannot put 5 items in 1 pile on the table and 3 in another so it's a different level of understanding

That’s interesting. My friends’ children vary enormously in this, but it’s a very small sample size. One 20-month-old can recognise the numbers 1-5 and enjoys pointing them out (which really impressed me), but she can’t reliably count two objects. Sometimes, she’ll count them, then count the first one again and decide there are three!

My 2.5 year old recognises most of the numbers from 1-20 reliably which really surprised me recently as I’ve never made any effort to teach it to him. I think he learnt it from numberblocks on cbeebies!

There is a big range here, but 'on average' a typical 24M old would be able to recognize all the primary colors, identify all numbers from 1-10 (and count to 10), count up to 10 objects, sort colours, identify all/most letters from A-Z and be able to identify about 10 body parts.

My 19-month-old DD is a real chatterbox with a big vocabulary, but I don’t think she knows a single letter, and she uses colour words as though she’s completely colour-blind. Ah, well.

My DS has been able to do it reliably since he was about 2.5

Knowing the symbol/number is different to actually having a concept of the number.

As is reciting 1-10 in order very different to actually being able to count objects

I don't think actually being able to count to 10 objects accurately is typical for a 2yo actually @AladdinMum and having just had my son's 2y+ review at 28 mo, he's thought to be doing well to recognise just a few letters.

@Harrysmummy246 totally agree, the range is massive in this area and just knowing a few letters at 28M is perfectly normal. When I mean counting 10 objects I refer to them touching each one of them with their finger while counting, I agree that just looking at the objects and counting would be a challenge for a 2YR old. My 2.5YR when he started nursery could count about 30 objects by touching them (count backwards from 10), could label all the letters of the alphabet, recognize his name on paper, knew many colors, was able to sort colored objects into different piles, could fit nine different objects in a shape sorter, etc - I was really proud (and still am!) of his abilities, thought they were advanced, but at the nursery they told me that his abilities were average compared to the other seven 2.5YR olds in his class (all other children could do them too and more, some in more than one language!)

Mumsnet is funny. There's always someone who's kid can read Shakespeare at 18M.

My kid has just started school and only just really knowing her letters. DS is nearly 3 and hasn't got a clue about anything like that.

@AladdinMum - I don’t know where you’ve got that list from but it’s absolute nonsense.

I never pushed my son to learn numbers as I know the actual understanding of number (as opposed to simply recognising the symbols) comes later. He’s picking them up now and has just turned 3 - I think because they’ve been learning them at nursery. He’s been counting in a very basic way (one, two, lots) for a while now.