When do they start recognising words/letters

[mysterymachine]

Got the talking, counting (in a fashion), think copying name but when do they actually start recognising letters. Am I being to premature in getting out the letter cards and expecting recognition. DS is 2.75 btw.

Thanks for this - listed now in favourites for persual later.

Having been down this route ahead of me, what do you think to Ruth Miskin (and her materials) or am I just better using Jolly-phonics?

DS1 was 3 at christmas and I noticed the other day he saw something that had a symbol of a large letter L on it and he said 'oh that number is for (DS2)'.
L is DS2's initial so although he called it a number that sounds like recognition to me.
Not like I was looking out for the milestone, I wouldn't have thought about it again if I hadn't seen this thread.

Thanks for that ReallyTired, that pretty much describes my schooling. I started reading before starting school but problems came to light later. I wonder slightly about my son in year 2, he started off well with recognizing letters and picked up reading whole words at pre-school age. He's doing fine enough (overtaken by children who had no interest at that age) but often reads words backwards, or starting in the middle of a longer word and going backwards. Seeing all the letters in a word and seeing them out of sequence.

To answer the OP both mine have started to recognize letters at or by 2. I didn't use flashcards but when he they started showing interest pointed out letters in books and we had some foam bath letters. I used the sound they made rather than letter name.

Mine can spell two words with the bath letters 'poo' and 'mum'. He has been able to for quite some time and is nearly 2 and a half. Not sure what that says about us or him really...

Ruth Miskin and Jolly phonics is essentially the same method, they are just packaged differently.

Jolly phonics is ideal for the young child. The handbook has lots of games and Jolly Learing produces lots of lovely resources suitable for small children.

I think that Ruth Miskin materials are well written, her scheme is very through and business like. It suits older primary school more than pre schoolers. I like Ruth Miskin's book on how to teach spelling.

www.amazon.co.uk/Superphonics-Spelling-Ruth-Miskin/dp/0340851953/ref=sr_1_1?ie=U TF8&s=gateway&qid=1200778334&sr=8-1

Not appropiate for a pre schooler though, but I have been using it with my six year old to teach him how to spell.

The Ruth Miskin decodable books are nice in that they show you how to test comprehension. Although my son prefered the Jelly and Bean books and the yellow and green jolly readers.

I used the Jolly phonics hand book and then the first decodable reading books I used were Jelly and bean. www.jellyandbean.co.uk

I felt that the red Jolly Readers were too difficult for inital readers. The yellow and green jolly readers are good though. Oxford Reading Tree Songbird books some of the best decodable readers, but are very expensive.

It is not so much a reading scheme, but understanding how the structure of the English language works. I picked and mixed from various schemes. I also made up some of my own resources.

Blimey, thanks everyone, I certainly didn't expect so many responses and the vast amount of info that is available. I shall certainly take the time to look at each web site and bookmark them for when the time seems more appropriate.

I did look today on the starfall site with ds and he found it great fun alebeit for a 15min span (the length I can get him to sit without pressing all the buttons on my laptop!) so will be going back there.

But, really thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read and respond for me, I have found it really useful and reassuring.

Ds is recognising individual letters correctly sometimes. So far only letters in his name . he is 22 mo. he did it at breakfast today found a d and then another d. surprised dh who hadn;t heard him do it before ;-)
NOT something I've consisiously taught him. I have done lots of reading with him, do point out letters in his name ( he has a very short first name) and do use phonetic alphabet sounds when individulal letters crop up in picture books etc.
Not hothouseing, we just like books and have a lot around in this house.

Flibbertyjibbet - DS calls them "numbers" too. I think he thinks of a "letter" as an actual letter that comes in an envelope.

Ds1 was very interested in letters and reading. He could spell loads of words by 3, I remember being in Tesco's and he stood on tiptoe and read, "T-E-S-C-O , Tesco!" from the side of a box of baby wipes. The poor girl stacking shelves beside him nearly fell off her ladder in shock particularly I think because he was on the small side for his age and looked younger! Maybe I did hot-house him although I don't think I would use that term for something he liked doing and was happy to spend time doing.
Ds2 on the other hand, took a very long time to learn any letters and ended up being confused by being taught letter names in montessori, then letterland characters in Junior Infants( Irish Reception) then back to letter names in Senior Infants. He also confused the letter S with the number 2 and for some reason hated the letter "i" and refused to name it if shown it!
Now, ds1 has continued to be a good reader and ds2 has struggled BUT ds1 will not typically pick up a book to read unless coaxed whereas ds2 likes reading to himself and will gravitate more towards books than ds1 will.
It doesn't always work out the way you would think!

I am so amazed by these children who pick up so much so early. Mine were years later in such achievements (eg., DS1 only knew his first initial and letter O, DD only knew the digits 1-7, before starting school when they were both nearly 5yo).

...They are both at top of their respective classes in maths+literacy, now (yrs 1 and 3). Would they have made it onto G&T register if only I had hothoused them properly?

DD1 is 3.4 and just starting to recognise letters she knows E, L and I as these 3 letters make up her name and for some reason she loves W and always points that letter out, she is also just starting to say M is for Mummy, D is for Daddy etc. It is very inconsistent and only when she wants to do it (abit like everything for her)

She only grasped numbers last year but can count but also recognises if you do something wrong ie last night I said 4 more carrots at dinner time and put 5 on the side of her plate and she said thats 5 and put 1 back

She likes looking at books and because dd2 is just a year we have the simple books out again (hardbacked book 1 picture 1 word etc and I have been showing her the words) dont think she realy understands 'reading' though

lljkk some children just do and I'm sure we both know it doesn't really mean anything, either they're G&T or they've been hothoused. My eldest enjoyed playing letter and word games young but didn't actually have any interest in reading. As I said above he was overtaken by children who had no interest until school. Now he's catching up fast again. The youngest one likes to join in when his brother is doing spellings or reading. To keep him out the way I give him his own little letter or word jobs. Who knows if he'll continue to be interested in 6 months time, top or bottom of the class when he starts school

Can't we just stick with 'some children just do'? Why must they be G&T or hothoused? Can I not just make a simple statement about what dd does without being accused of either hothousing or claiming that she's a genius (when I use neither of these terms)?

Acinonyx, me thinks you protest too much. You have taken offence at one small sentence in quite a long post.

Its important that original poster does not feel inadequate or worry about her son's developement because some posters show off that their child knows all their letter sounds or names at the age of two.

My son at the age of two could not walk properly. He was hothoused a bit with the help of an NHS physio to gain this skill. He also had limited speech due to being deaf. He speech is fanastic now thanks to his hearing aids. I think that the Jolly Phonics at four years old did wonders to make his speech clearer.

Sometimes parents get too caught up in the rat race of life and lose sight of what is truely important. When your child is six years old no one cares at what they were potty trained, in the same way no one ever asks what age an adult learnt to read. The important thing is that a person achieves the skills to cope with adult life.

Development is a journey rather than a race. Also life is what you make of it. Hence many children who lack brains do well in life with their own hard work.

My son is a happy and confident six year old with lots of little friends. Surely being happy is what we want for all our children.

Acinonyx, hope you did'nt misunderstand my post. I was trying to say some just do and things like hothousing don't come into it

DD2 is 2.8 and recognises A (first letter of her name) but doesn't really know any other letters. She spots 'A's all over the place, eg car number plates, signs, labels, and excitedly points them out to me. The other day she found a wordsearch puzzle and coloured in all the 'A's.

RT - it's not just one sentence it's the whole righteous tone of your posts that irritate me. There seems to be some kind of code against ever saying your child can do anything else you will be lectured on the evils of being apparently over-interested in whatever milstones are being discussed.

We weren't talking about reading - we were just having a simple exchange about recognising letters. I wanted to share our expereince of a website we had used with the OP (which had in turn been given to me in just such a forum).

'Development is a journey' bladiblah - how patronising is that?

"Honestly it not a sign of intelligence knowing letter sounds or letter names at two years old. Its a sign of being hot housed. Children who learn to read later often over take hot housed children."

ReallyTired, I take issue with that. DS1 knew the letter names before he was two (about 23mo) - all of them. Had I sat down and taught him them? Nope. Had he watched lots of Countdown when his baby brother was born when he was 21mo? Yep!

Clearly different kids develop at different ages on different dimensions. No-one ever accuses someone whose child walks early of hothousing so it does seem rather unfair to assume those of us with kids who happen to recognise letters at a young age of hothousing.

LOL BBW - DS1 is hothousing me when it comes to dinosaurs...

BBW - your ds is a man after my heart with his choc cake knowledge!

Ds sounds very similar - later talker but amazing memory and not a bit of hothousing in sight.

I do note that ds is rather less of a run around /climb on things type of kid and that is why he has noticed things that perhaps an average more physical 2.5 year old hasn't? Sound plausible?

SS, there might be something in that. DS1 isn't the climber that DS2 is - DS2 not that interested in letters (although did bring his magnetic "a" up to me the other day saying "a, a, ants" because his toddler group do phonic rhyme songs). When DS1 was just two, I asked him if he was OK and he said to me, "I thinking, Mummy".

Interesting isn't it Hunker. So our kids might be good with letters but I can safely say ds would be last to scale a climbing frame!

I can so imagine ds saying 'I thinking' when his speech is up to it! He does a lot of that - you can see it in his little facial expressions he is obviously trying to suss everything out. He is so like my dh it's funny. I can't imagine dh was a climbing/ running around type either.

My son who is 2 and 2 months recognises two words: Goal (from his favorite book) and Dora (from his second favorite book!).

He knows the difference between written letters and numbers (if he sees the letter M on paper he will say LETTER and if he sees number 3 he says NUMBER) and he recognises number 2 and 8 (because of the Numberjacks!)

I started playing 'I spy' with him and he loves it (can you see something beginning with the sound 'D', etc). I think it's a good way of identifying the sounds, and later on we'll try to find games that associate the written letter with the sound.

He can kind of sing the alphabet song, but not by himself, only if we sing it with him.

He likes flashcards, but again only to play 'I Spy' or to look for the Train card, his favorite!!!

My husband and I decided not to 'teach' our children to read before they go to school, but to prepare them as much as we can to love reading and drawing and counting, etc. DH is a primary school teacher so has lots of tools to prepare DSs to read.