People whose kids can recite the alphabet before age 2

[newmum234]

And counting from 1-20 too - do you actually do regular sessions teaching your DC how to do this? My DS is 15 months and only says mama and dada. There’s no way he’s even close to learning the alphabet or saying numbers!

@Embracelife yes he does all those things, but I didn’t think it was that unusual for a child his age to only say two words at this stage. I’m now starting to worry that it is unusual.

Anyone with a 15 month old - what words can your child say? Maybe I should start a new thread…

Is he a walker? There is often truth in the walker or talker theory, so if he is mobile and busy, that may be his current focus. Mine was the opposite, lots of communication, less movement.

No, he’s not walking yet either…

[quote newmum234]@Embracelife yes he does all those things, but I didn’t think it was that unusual for a child his age to only say two words at this stage. I’m now starting to worry that it is unusual.[/quote]
No not unusual at all.
Forget about other toddlers reciting the alphabet

But if at 18 months you worried speak to hv

There may be drop in speech therapy sessions s but more likely they will say wait to two years old in absence of other concerns

It s about the whole picture
Let him communicate with you don't anticipate

@newmum234

No, he’s not walking yet either…

Is he crawling or cruising ?

All kids are different. My eldest knew his letters by 2 years old. We played with foam letters in the bath and I would ask him to pick this or that letter. We also started counting while reading his baby books - there's one butterfly here, two flowers, etc, and build up from there. Above all it has to remain a game and stop as soon as he's tired of it, as it's important to show him that learning is fun.

My youngest at 14months is barely starting to say anything intelligible and definitely nowhere near knowing his letters. Tbf I have much less free time to teach him than I did with eldest but I also think they just learn different things at different paces.

By all means try to teach him - it can't hurt - but don't sweat it if he doesn't pick it up.

Mine are also not allowed any screen time but have tons of baby books.

By 15 months a child should know mamma and dadda plus around 2-3 other words. Bet you they come very quickly. Honestly I spent a lot of time worrying about this rubbish and now my daughter scores exceeding in all her verbal and written comms at school

So he may be a little delayed but that is still not reason to panic. However, you are mum, so you will. Do you have a health visitor you get on with? If so, give her a call for a chat. The whole internet will give you a million responses but none may be appropriate to your child's situation. Speak to someone who can get to know your child and step away from Google.

He’s not delayed. Ffs. Stop trying to pretend to be nice whilst being an arsehole.

@newmum234

And counting from 1-20 too - do you actually do regular sessions teaching your DC how to do this? My DS is 15 months and only says mama and dada. There’s no way he’s even close to learning the alphabet or saying numbers!

Just because he isn't saying words Does not mean he is not learning colours numbers and letters if exposed to them

E g you might have a sign with his name on...he may recognise the shape of his name long before he says it

Reciting things is not always understanding them

So he may be a little delayed but that is still not reason to panic.

Thanks @merryhouse for the Richard Scarry reminder- I used to love his books as a kid!

My DD is two and she is quite good at remembering numbers and the alphabet song. She's quite good at remembering most things and I think that's where some people get overexcited- just because she can parrot the out doesn't mean she can do much of any use with them! But it sounds impressive. She is genuinely good at shapes and has known colours for ages but that's only because as other PPs have said, we mention them a lot. But ultimately at this age she's still just good at remembering things. I hope she keeps that because it will help her at school but I certainly don't think a good memory makes her a prodigy.

Take him to h v or ask nursery or childminder who see him in person what they think
They will have a view
And maybe reassure you
Or if needs be refer

@newmum234

Anyone with a 15 month old - what words can your child say? Maybe I should start a new thread…

At 15 months... nothing At 2 years... five words (which got a SALT referral) At 4 years... spoke when she wanted to. Actual action from SALT At 7 years... sang in a choir to an audience of 2000+. And in multiple other performances.

At 10, still a quiet child, but no problems with vocabulary.

At 15 months not talking is normal.

If you are going to teach the alphabet do it phonetically or they will be confused when they go to school!

At 15 months my son wasn't saying much at all but at 23 months he says absolutely everything it seems, never stops talking! So try not to compare x

It’s hard not to compare op. I was at a baby group when dd ( now 10 ) was a baby and it was unbelievably competitive, over babies!

I’ve got 2dc. Ds is 18 and has just finished his A levels and has ASD. He hardly spoke before he was 2.5 but was fully toilet trained just after 2. Dd is 10 and was having conversations at 16 months, I thought I had a genius on my hands but she was in nappies until 3 and had a dummy for much longer, well into primary school.

Now they’re both very articulate and bright and dd is now being assessed for ASD/ADHD which I also have and was an early talker and reader but at the age of 43 I still don’t understand how to play rock/paper/scissors....

Your little boy is doing great. You say he’s developing well and doing as a pp suggested. With my ds he literally started talking overnight and never stopped.

Also you will find that your ds can understand way more than you realise. The speaking will come.

My dd could recite the alphabet very young. It made for some extremely cute home videos! But was otherwise useless as she hadn't "learned the alphabet" she was just making the noises having heard me sing it to her. She could also sing a number of songs in French. She just had a very sticky memory. It was a lot more meaningful when she could recite entire stories we read together as I knew she understood those, I always found the alphabet a hollow achievement.

So unless you are going to be teaching from an ABC book to actually recognise the letter shapes then don't bother, and don't worry in the slightest. You could teach a child to recite by rote basically ANYTHING if you repeat it and make it a game or song or regular thing you repeat over and over. Up to you whether you want to focus on the alphabet.

In any case at school they don't care so much about learning letter names Ay Bee See Dee, they use phonics to learn to read. So you may be better off teaching phonic sounds as a first step.

Counting and shapes and colours are in my opinion different as it is something you can actually learn in context and are useful. My son has learned colours from shouting out all the colours of the cars we see as we go about our daily lives ( silver, white and black were learned before purple or green!). Counting we learned going up and downstairs, or sharing things out while we play. Shape, again easy during play to find or draw circles, squares, stars, triangles.

Having gone through this with two kids, I'd stick with useful words not faff around with reciting the alphabet sounds by rote at this age.

My 18 month old doesn't know his ass from his armpit.

I don't know that DS1 could record the alphabet, but he definitately knew all his letters before he was two. He wasn't "taught", he watched Countdown with my Dad and used to play at being Carole with letters in the fridge.

He got very average GCSEs and now at 20 is working at McDonalds, but we love him

This made me LOL

My aunt used to watch countdown, when her children were babies it was nap time but as they got older they watched sitting on her knee so they all know their letters fairly early.

Now one has an English degree from Cambridge and the other 2 have PhDs in maths.

Almost 15 months here. He doesn’t say anything yet, not even mama/ dada. Has been walking though since around 9months.

From a group of children we know age 1-2.5 years I would say hardly any of them say anything, and those that say odd word are all
Nearer 2 years

Interestingly we are not in uk, and the red book equivalent here says age 20-28months start speaking odd words. So ‘they’ don’t expect speak as standard either in a 15 month old.

My eldest knew about three letters, middle one could recite the alphabet forwards and backwards, youngest could read some words before he was 3. Eldest got all A*s at GCSE, middle is on course for 6s and 7s. Little one achieves above expected in reading (just), but at expected for everything else. Obviously this is anecdata, but, certainly in my family, academic ability as a toddler predicted literally nothing.

At 15 months my dd could say about 3 words. Now she is 2. 5 you can have an actual conversation with her about pretty much everything. 15 months is a baby! My dd couldn't walk then either, she walked at 18 months.

Your child sounds perfect. Reciting is learning off by heart, counting to 20 or learning the alphabet is no different to learning twinkle, twinkle little star. A lovely party piece but it doesn’t mean anything. It’s very different from 1:1 correspondence which means being able to count the number of objects correctly. As for the alphabet, DD1 learnt to read super easy sentences around her 4th birth eg Dad has a hat, it was a mixture of an extension of what’s she was doing in school nursery, too munch alphablocks and her interest. She has just turned 5 and he reading is above average but not genius level and she doesn’t know the alphabet yet. I believe she learns the letters names in year 1 but I maybe wrong.

Also there is a huge different between what they can do at 14 months and 2 years. It’s nearly a full life time ahead for them.

My dd could speak in full sentences at 12 months, but now at 18 after a year of university, I still don't think she can recite the alphabet correctly (she's a little dyslexic).

Every kid does things at their own pace. And some never do all the milestones. My dd never did "turn over" which agitated the health visitor no end. Luckily gp wasn't worried.