At what age could your child...

[handslikebirds]

1. tell you what sounds each letter in the alphabet makes (eg A=ah)

2. tell you what letters a word begins with. Eg if you said 'what letter does garden begin with' and they say 'guh... G"

3. be able to tell you words beginning with a letter eg if you said 'tell me a word beginning with h' and they say 'hat'

Thank you!

Children do finish up with different levels of academic ability, and early abilities in speech etc. probably do correlate with greater academic ability. But things do "even out" to the distribution curve where they will all finish up as time goes by.

My query is: does it matter? Is it worth introducing these concepts at an age when there are better things to capitalize on - insatiable curiosity, physical freedom, imagination, establishing loving relationships. These qualities are at their greatest when they are small and are precious beyond academic skills, which most will arrive at in their own good time.

Threads like these - though they might not have the intention - run the risk of making parents anxious that their child is not progressing in a healthy way - that their child is in some way "behind." And the risk of parents starting to prioritise one aspect of progress over others.

Just let the little ones be. Leave them in the happy unfettered world of their imaginations - they will be fed down a structured tunnel for the rest of their lives.

But if you have a verbally able child they love learning about letters and sounds, they want to learn to read, they enjoy recognising letters and sounds them out. It is fun it is play.

Similarly later in the car playing the timetables game playing fizz, buzz it is all enjoyable for those children.

I think it is normal for dc to develop an interest in numbers and letters. Just go with the flow and don't stress about it too much. Some parents get real pushy with their kids and all the kids learn to read in the end. I would say the most important age is 5/6 to make sure they got reading down. I was quite relaxed early on with my dc and did not make a big fuss about it, just made sure to provide many books. Once my dc found books of interest they started to read independently. Sometimes I would ask some questions to make sure they understood what they read.

A play based approach is totally compatible with still developing early numeracy and literacy skills. It’s the basis of the entire EYFS