When did your DC start recognising letters?

[SilverSixpence]

Hi, just curious really. DS has started to recognise a few letters (19 months) and was wondering whether this is common or not. His speech is pretty good for his age (not sure how many words, definitely 60+).

also wondering what activities I can do with him which will help his learning without actually starting to 'teach' him as he 's too young still imo

That sounds very forward for one so young! You don't need to be formally teaching him anyhting though. Right into reception, it's all about learning through play and learing about the environment around them. You've obviously done a great job introducing him to books etc and he loves to talk so just carry on doing what you're doing. Once he's at nursery/preschool, they follow the Early Years Foundation Stage which continues into reception at primary. Teachers don't ned you to teach them to read or write before they start school but if they can write or recognise their own name and surname, it's useful for when finding their peg etc.
I always pointed out road signs, door signs etc when in town but other than that, just sharing books is the most important thing for developing speech and an interest in learning. They all learn at their own rate and nurseries/preschools have to allow for this and design their planning around each individual child.

Does sound early! DD knows her numbers so I showed her a b and a g and she recognises them usually. She is 22 1/2 months.

dd is in junior infants (reception) and still doesn't recognise more than 3/4 letters.

ds1 on the other hand recognised the whole alphabet, upper and lower case, from about 2.5 and can actually do her readers and flashcards better than dd!

i didn't do much to encourage ds1... he liked showing off and readingthe letters off signs/packets/books/etc so we let him do that alot but we make a point of not pushing him.... plently of time in the years ahead to learn to read and i don't want it to bore him before he ever gets to school.

certainly by 18 months

DS was about 15 months, and was reading pretty much anything at 3. DD was about 3.5 and is just starting to read fluently at 5.5. I think she is more 'normal'!

DS recognised letters quite early and always likes to point out the ones he recognises when we're out and about. I've got him the leapfrog fridge phonics game, which your DS might like (sorry don't know how to do links).

about 20m

TBH, while your DS does seem to sound advanced compared to a lot of children (my DS started recognising 'O' and 'S' about a month ago at 21m), I don't think there really is a case of 'advanced' or 'behind' in children so young. It usually all evens out by the time they've been at school a couple of years. (Though in reading, your DS is on the early end of the spectrum.)

By all means be proud of your DS because it sounds like he'll be an early reader - something which can only help him at school and in life generally, but I wouldn't worry about finding particular activities at this stage. His attention span probably isn't all that great, so dedicated activities are likely to end in mishap.

Mind you, saying that, since my DS began recognising characters, I've started drawing them on his blackboard (I started him holding crayons and chalk ridiculously young, and he seemed to enhjoy it so we persisted), and he will say the ones he knows, though often as a 'bye "O", bye "ssss"' as he carefully wipes them off! Still, goes to show how contrary they can be.

Also, don't do what I did and instantly break out the flashcards (which my mum bought be as she only sees us every six months to a year, and used to be an LSA - I'm not a pushy parent, honest!), because he will probably just happily sit and fold them in hlaf or otherwise crumple them. At least she only got him some cheap ones!

And be prepared for him to possible stay at recognising the odd letter and not make even progress - my son hasn't really learned more than three letters, and has stayed that way for the last month. Boys do apparently do things in fits and starts, another reason to simply praise him when he does it, but otherwise not read too deeply into it.

My ds was 15 months when he could recognise letters x, m, n and o but he's 2.6 now and still only recognises those 4 letters! Think it's very dependant upon the child and not really about 'teaching' them at this age. Just read a lot and keep chatting and they'll pick it all up. My friend's little boy is 4 and still doesn't recognise any letters but is brilliant at nu,bers andcan do simple sums and write all the numbers so they are all so different.

Definitely by 18 months. She was a chatty wee thing too, spoke fluently at that age too. She's 2.9 now and never stops. She's currently explaining to the cat why it can't have a sweet because he might have 'undiscovered diabetes' and it would kill him. I genuinely don't know where she gets it from.

I think it's more a party trick at first though. No different to seeing a sheep and saying 'sheep', basic recognition without meaning iyswim.

i think i got DD doing letter-recogniion games from 14 mo (really easy, playing with big 'A' and big 'e' and getting her to fetch one....i've stopped doing the games so much and she has gone backwards on it....she has favourites though such as 'm', 'o' and 't' but is much less good on others. I am being a lot less fussed with DS, which i think is typicl second child parenting slackness...

partly i wanted her to talk more, though she still likes making noises and reading the odd word (ok, Ponk, Up, Go..three words)..an it seems sort of stuck level wise.

i think whenever your kid can apply a name to a toy, they can understand letters represent sounds....

dd knew most of her alphabet and all of her numbers before age of 2, but now at 2 1/2 is not even remotely interested in anything, and if I show her a letter she will pretend not even to see it

I think children enjoy different things at different times and you may find his interest waxes and wanes, enjoy and promote it whilst you can, it may be a few months before he redevelops his interest in it - either that or he'll be a baby genius

DS knew all letters but Q by about 16 months BUT not in alphabetical order. Now at 20 months knows what sounds each letter makes but still doesn't have any interest in putting them in order (this was how my parents taught me to read - phonetically - so that's what I've been doing, but do really wonder if it's the wrong thing to do when I see other LO's not that much older than DS reciting the alphabet in order? I read extremely, extremely early but always struggled to stick them in order too!)

In terms of suggestions, I think reading, reading, reading is the best thing, probably close to two hours total each day! Our philosophy has been to follow his interests, which are mostly numbers. He is obsessed with numbers and counting. So we now write out the words to go along with the numbers, etc. "2, TWO, do you hear how the word two starts with the T sound?"

We only do this because he seems to love it and soak it up, would never push him. And always have fun!

School age?
Not really interested before then.
By middle of Yr2 they had reading ages ~3 years ahead of chronological age, btw, so I think it all worked out ok... .

You could try your DC with some of the educational type videos, or on the Starfall website, OP.

this is really interesting, it sounds like there's a big range - like I said I don't want to be too pushy about it, but he enjoys his books and seems interested if we point out the letters .

wow it seems everyone's dc knows them quite young mine is 19.5 months i don't think he knows any, although i have not really "done" them with him or anything
did they just pick it up by themselves or do you keep showing the letters to them? we've got fridge phonics and he watches alphablocks & obv we read books but thats it i've not emphasised it with him at all i didn't realise kids of this age know their letters

DS loves wooden alphabet blocks and magnetic fridge letters, and has always been obsessed with books, so that's where it started for us - just responding to his wanting to know what the letters were, and telling him what sound it makes. He would have no idea what order the letters go in but can tell you that a "B" says "buh" type thing. We do spend a ridiculous amount of time reading in this house, but I figure there are worse things we could be doing!

2 weeks after his first birthday. He had a bus as a birthday gift, it had letters on the side, the ones you press and they make the sounds with the numbers and shapes on the top. He played with it and picked them up, the bus had a 'find the letter..' programme and he used to play this and find the right ones. I didn't see it as odd at the time, you never know what to expect with your first child. I used to read to him alot (he was always bringing me books to read) and he read his first word at 3.5 and his first book (Mr Silly IIRC), the following day. He picks things up really quickly, which is a bit of a curse rather then a blessing as he's nearly always constantly bored!

at 16 months DS could identify all numbers up to 10 (if asked where is number 7, where is number 2, etc) and many letters, probably about 10. He was non verbal until the age of 2.6, but he could pronounce many letter sounds correctly. The brain works in very mysterious ways.

He now speaks a bit and not surprisingly one fo the first thing he said was to count up to ten. He also can now identify and say on his own many double-digit numbers (he actually says 'seventy-four' when pointing at a door number, for example.

I would say to just play with him normally and if he points at a letter in a book or car numberplate, just say what it is. That's how it started with DS, he was obsesssed with numberplates. I just didn't make a fuss over it at all.

DS could recoginse H (the first letter of his name) from 22 months. We walked past the Hidden Hearing shop one day and he stopped and pointed and said "H for Henry!" I hadn't pushed it with him at all, just spelled out his name a few times.

He's 2.4 now and recognises a few more, mainly because we got Fridge Phonics for Christmas and he likes playing with that.

He made a scribble the other day and said "mmmm for Mummy". It really did look like an M too!

DS2 (2.5) recognises B,D,G,M,N,S and W as these are the letters of the people he loves (including himself!)

When DS1 started school we were told they expected no more than to recognise their own name written down and be able to count five things (as opposed to count to 5 IYSWIM). other than that it was mostly physical things they were expected to be able to do like peel a satsuma and go the loo on their own.

about 15 months, she has those foamy bath letters, she remembers them, by saying, a for alec, e for elizabeth etc...shes almost 3 and recognises her and her brothers names written down. She's loved books from the moment she could pick one up, and still can spend hours at the book case. Never pushed her just told her what the letter is for when she's asked