do most small children have "photographic" memories or is ds (3.4) unusual in the stuff he remembers?

[deaconblue]

wondering if this is common and a skill we lose with age or if ds is unusual. eg he likes the idea of Ben 10 (has never watched the programme so doesn't know the characters through tv) so I bought a pack of Ben 10 top trumps cards. After a few times of looking at them with me he knows the name of every single character card in the deck, you can go through the pack and he gets every single one right.

DS1 could have done that, my other 2 DC's couldn't.

I do think though, that as small children aren't thinking "what shall I cook for dinner, haveI paid that bill, I need to put the bins out, I musn't forget SIL's B'day" they can there for remember struff they are presented with.

With DS1 it was some what of a party trick to teach him with flash cards.

true, his little brain is just waiting like a sponge to soak stuff up whereas mine is full of trivia already.

I don't think it's unusual tbh but can freak you out - like when I was talking to my ds about going to see a family we hadn't been to visit for a year and he said oh yes they have a xxx colour door

I think it's whatever gets them interested - my ds knew all the Thomas the tank engine trains at 3 years old - even if they looked exactly the same to me! With his homework now though I find myself repeating the same thing over and over and it doesn't seem to sink in at all!!

My ds freaks me out all the time with his Thomas the Tank Engine book set, within a couple of days of getting them he knew every single train by name... He's memorised 50 books in a matter of hours. I think because they can't read yet their brains work differently and are more efficient at recalling information because they can't read it. That's my theory anyway A bit like a blind friend of mine who can play Connect 4 amazingly well, he memorises everything because he can't visually recall it, so the brain compensates.

I think its normal. I saw it mentioned in a programme about primates and it was something that humans lose after early childhood but other higher primates retain. My ds was like this and he still has a very good memory but not in the freakish was he did when he was a bit younger.

My DS1 is very much like that - there are tons of examples of him freaking me out because he remembers stuff that I really wouldn't expect him to (just can't remember any at the moment....I wish my memory was like DS1's )

He is 3.2 and has always had a very quick grasp of things (i.e. show him how a toy works once and then he would be able to do it himself from a very early age). I thought it was probably normal until DS2 came along and is completely different.

But DS1 is not as good in other areas (such as drawing, colouring, behaving [sink]).

Neither of mine manage to remember that dirty clothes go in the laundry bin though!

Pokeman on the other hand.

here are the chimps. There have been a few of these sorts of threads and it always seems to be the boys who remember things unually well. My dd wasn't like this at all.