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.

My dd (now 2.10) 'knew' the alphabet at about 20 months (ie could sing the song) and recognised all the letters by 24 months - she also recognised her name, and the words Dora, Star, Mum and (to my eternal shame) Mayfair.

Not at all hothoused - but totally the result of a magnetic leappad thingy attached to the fridge - it sings the alphabet song and also sings 'a says ah, b says buh' etc.

She is 2.10 now and just about gets the sounds of the letters.....took longer than just the names.

Numbers are a different matter - she can count to 20 but has no interest / idea what the numbers look like (except number 8 for some reason) and is totally flummoxed if we try to count backwards.

I think that all kids excel in different areas, some walk earlier, some talk earlier etc etc. My dd couldn't crawl till she was 1 and didn't walk till 18 months - whereas my great-niece crawled up the stairs at 8 months (gave her mam a heart attack!). A little girl in my dd's nursery class can paint recognisable objects already, whereas dd just brings home splodges. I really dislike the 'hothousing' term - kids will do what they can when they can, and we wont know it till they do it!

Thinking more about this thread - I just feel you can't say anything positive about your child's intellectual/ mental capabilities without someone accusing you of hothousing or people thinking you're claiming your kid is a genius.

How sad is that.

Why should I have to feel awkward about mentioning what my son happens to be able to do in front of others? I feel almost apologetic about it sometimes and like I have to then add a load of comments about what he isn't good at just so I don't sound like a boasting type.

Does anyone else think that's a sad situation?

I'd love to hothouse DC morning noon and night -- they just don't cooperate (pooh, there go my Oxbridge fantasies).

I'm always reading threads on MN where seems like EVERYONE else's DC are years ahead of mine, on toddler type achievements (anything to do with language, for instance).
Why do I seem to be the only person who ever posts to say as much, even though my DC were so much later (sometimes YEARS later) & they turned out ok and never actually seemed far behind their peers in real life?
What about all those kids who start school not able to read their names, speak properly or dress themselves (I fear my youngest will be one of them). Not many of them have SN, so why don't those parents reply?
What is it about these comparative threads where only those with precocious youngsters feel confident enough to post?
Cos it leaves a lot of us secretly wondering...
You could easily read most of this thread and assume there's something wrong with a child past their 3rd birthday who doesn't care about letters, and then as a parent conclude it's somehow due to your own negligence.
If it's easy to feel insecure for being accused of hothousing, imagine how easier it is to feel insecure if you suspect you've been lax in encouraging your child enough to learn.

I'll join you lljkk. My ds is five and a half, six in August and it's only in the last couple of months that I feel he actually recognises all of the letters.

He is able to sound out basic three letter words but is not able to read really.

In a way we have been lucky because, due to some co-ordination difficulties, he was seen by the school Ed Psych, and the report highlighted to us that ds is indeed a bright child, well above average in some areas.

Trouble is school (and therefore, parents) are so concerned with the child's OUTPUT (because it's what they're measured on) that there is now more of an emphasis on early acquisition of skills.

Kids can do things YEARS apart from their peers and still be 'normal'. Sometimes it does feel hard to admit that your child is 'behind' though!

I totally agree that the posts in reply to threads like this aren't that representative. I have sometimes had concerns re ds's speech so asked what is typical of his age and I'm pretty sure the people replying are not typical - usually about 75% seem to have super advanced talkers and the remainder a mix of 'average' and others concerned.

To be fair though when most of us replied to the OP i imagine it was in response to 'am I going to be prem in getting out the letters', rather than a question like are all kids this age able to recognise them.

DS could point and tell me all the letters before he was 2...probably about 22 months.

SaveSrab - that was my reading of the OP too. Not anxious, not looking for reassurance, just an open question as to how young toddlers might take an interest in letters.

It depends on the OP. If the OP is anxious and clearly looking for reassurance then people will respond to that. This was not one of those so I thought it was OK to just post a plain response.

And it's not about insecurity - that's not an appropriate term here. Annoyance, exasperation - that's more like it. I'm not wondering what I might have done wrong - I'm wondering why I'm being told that I'm either hothousing my child and/or they are dysfunctional.

Thanks everyone for responses on here. I never expected such a wide variety of feeling. As some of you picked up, I only wanted a general idea as to when I could expect some recognition so that I can be there to help and support. I certainly didn't want to start a debate where one is better than another etc. As I said earlier, I have picked up some valuable tips and web sites here which I will follow through but let ds take the lead as to when it happens.

Thanks again.

My 2.95 yo and I play "making words" with his sticky bath letters. Today we made "B for Belly, U for Umbrella, M for Mummy, Buh -Uh- Muh, BUM!"

He loves it. But he can't recognise all the letters by any means. And certainly can't read. But I think he can recognise his own name.

I read at 2, apparently. And while my "reading" was very fluent, my comprehension was appalling. To this day, I skim read and can't remember a thing I've read once I've finished the book. So I'm not going to push him on reading at all. Just fun with letters. .

Really must stop being lazy and read to end of threads!

ds, 2.8, recognises a few letters. He's bilingual, so learns 2 sets of letter names - he recently pointed at a U and said 'that looks like a '. He says Ks and capital Rs 'look like they're walking'.

Wouldn't bother with cards. ds1 has some alphabet ink stamps and 'learns' about letters while messing around with them.

My daughter is 17 months, and she's always loved books. We've had alphabet stuff for ages. She loves her ABC and now recognises many letters, will point them out when you ask where they are and makes the sounds too. She'd already shown interest in words, but just this last week or so she's started recognising words and trying to say them! I'm wondering if there's anything special I should be doing to make sure she's understanding them properly...I don't want to mess up her development yet obviously I want to encourage her.

Ds2 (2 and a half) has a cute set of wooden letters. He has cleverly worked out that the stalk of the "p" fits nicely up his nose.

Ds is really keen on learning to spell words now but I'm sure I'm leading him up the garden path now as I don't know how to do phonics.

Anyone got any ideas on how to respond to his enthusiasm but without telling him the 'wrong' thing....should I look at something like Jolly Phonics for him?

He knows the letter names and sounds now and recognises lower and upper case letters.

It's so tricky isn't it. Where do you go for this kind of developmental advice, when they're not in school yet?!

ds (21 months) recognises numbers because of the numberjacks too!

Ds taught himself the letter names from a jigsaw puzzle by picking up each piece and saying "what's this?" he would have been around 2.

He taught himself to read at 4 by getting everyone to tell him a couple of words in a book and then putting it all together. He choose a time there were between 4 and 6 adults in the house so we all did very little, and he could read before we noticed what he was doing.

He started school a month ago and his teacher does phonics. He's been fine going from sight reading to phonics, he uses his sight words when he knows them, works them out when he doesn't (and then memorises them and they become more sight words).

He also went from typing emails with me giving him the letter sounds (no blends), to working out how words could be spelt with no problems.

Mixing the ideas has done him no harm at all. I teach him piano out of 4 different piano methods, so maybe that's just a style that suits him.

They sing a song at school which which goes "my name is b(ee) my sound is b, my name is c my sound is kuh" etc. which solves the whole problem for a confused child in 2 minutes each day.

My DD is 17 months and can recognise about 5 letters and about 5 numbers..but she can't walk or stand well yet so I think she is putting all her energies into that! She loves to go around spotting letters and things, but I wouldn't force her to if she wasn't interested..all kids are different I think!

ds is the same. he only started walking a few weeks a go.

Re the hothousing debate..my DD is always pointing at things and ASKING me what they are, so I end up telling her words and letters all the time, not teaching her anything she isn't interested in and asking to know!!