At what age could your toddler recognise letters, rather than reciting the alphabet?

[Rubyroost]

Just that really. When could your child tell you the name of the letter you had selected and identify all the letters of the alphabet?

As toddlers ? Never.
None of them.
Because they were toddlers, and busy doing far more age appropriate things

🤷🏼‍♀️ Mine does too. But he has a wooden puzzle with letters and numbers on that he plays with. It's hard to purposely not expose them to numbers and letters right?
He also has a wooden abacus on with letters.

DS recognised some letters around 2.5. I’d say he can probably reliably recognise about half the alphabet now. The first letter he learned solidly was the letter his name begins with. We’ve never really bothered actively drilling them into him. He also has a wooden letter alphabet and we’ll point letters out ad hoc in books or out on walks etc, then might talk about a few words which start with that sound. Like he might spot a S and say S for snake, and I’ll add “yes and S for sun and S for sausages” just so he understands that the letter belongs to more than one thing.

Honestly though, I’m not expecting him to really pick them up properly until he starts reception at school. Just familiarising ourselves with them for fun now. He likes numbers more anyway.

@FizzingWhizzbee123 thanks for your reply. How old is he now?

You would be better off teaching the sounds before the letter names, not the other way around. If your child can't cope with both the name and the sound, it is the sound which is far more important for learning to read.

And make sure you say the sounds properly eg mmm not muh

Thanks, but I'm not teaching either. I'm just wondering really.

I don't understand. Are you saying you are consciously trying to make sure they don't know them?
What is they ask?
All I'm saying is that if you are engaging in this topic at all then use the sounds not the names.

What if they ask?

No, I'm not consciously teaching. He comes across letters etc and mainly teaches himself. He's watched nursery rhymes and letters on TV, they're in his books etc. In terms of sounds wouldnt teach mmm though I'd teach muh as that's the phonetic sound and makes more sense when reading.

/m/ is what you need not /muh/
You are probably doing it right and I'm not explaining well.

It would not unusual for a toddler between 2 and 2.5 to be able to label all the letters in the alphabet and to count to at least 20 - before 24M it would be advanced but not rare.

My DS could recognise all the letters of the alphabet at 20 months.

Does it really matter? Mine learned quite a few before she was 2 but then decided she couldn't give a toss about them any more. I try and introduce the idea of phenomics if we're reading and there's a simple word and I count with her a lot. Otherwise I think concentrating on more basic skills which will equip them to learn well at school such as joint attention games and reading etc is probably more important at this age. You may have a toddler who's prepared to listen to you repeat and drone on about letters etc but mine honestly just doesn't have the attention span for it yet. If another child does then great. Don't let anyone put you down for teaching them but I definitely wouldn't expect it as the norm at this age and it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to do any better at school. Just enjoy your toddler. Mine amazes me every day with some of the imaginative things she comes up with. That's the real beauty of this age group x

@Jannt86 yes it does matter to me as my son is a little behind in a few things. I'm not droning on at him, he chooses his preferences. He seems to like numbers, colours, letters and shapes. So I'm trying to work out if he's just a little behind in things such as communication because his skills are elsewhere if you see what I mean. I'm not officially teaching anything, it's all come naturally and completely led by my toddler. He's recognised and said all his letters since 2 years and 3 months and I just wondered what was usual.

He's recognised and said all his letters since 2 years and 3 months and I just wondered what was usual.

That is earlier than average. Many children start school not knowing any.

He’s almost 3 now. As mentioned, we haven’t been teaching them to him, it’s just what he’s picked up through general chit chat. Also it’s the phonetic sounds only, not the letters (so Ah for Apple, Buh for ball etc). Also I deliberately got a capital letter puzzle because I read they are much easier to distinguish as lower case letters can be easy to muddle up (think how similar d, p, b and q are).

His most recent favourite is Puh for Poo! Oh yes, the three year old humour has hit hard suddenly since he moved up a room at nursery!

@FizzingWhizbee123 my little boy lobes to say things like 'mummy did a fart' and he doesn't go to nursery. 🤦‍♀️

My DGD has just turned 2, she can recognise letters of the alphabet by telling you a name, ie S is for Sophie and P is for Paula. She knows most of them. My son started at 16 months and learned them quickly.