When can kids identify letters and numbers?

JoannaJes

Just curious.

armywife7205

DD was able to identify several letters before 2 and could also pick out her name and a few words (sight reading in popular books)

ETA: Each child is different... and the more you read with your child that will help too.  

LawLove08

Matthew is just starting to identify letters. ?It's nothing we really practice at home (other than reading), but they do a new letter every week at his daycare. ?It always blows my mind when he points to a letter and correctly identifies it.?

leslie13510

Mine have started to identify a few within the last month or so.  The numbers 2 and 9, and the letter E, seem to be particular favorites in this house.

laurenFaith

DD can count from 1-20 alone and to 30 with some help. She knows all of her letters and often points them out on her T-shirt, street signs or books.

I'm very happy to be able to brag about something because she walked later and talked later then the norm. She was evaluated for both. I'm always worried about her development so it feels good to not have to worry about one thing!

wellfleet04

It's really whether kids take an interest or not, not a real milestone.  DD who is now 3 could sing abcs, identify all upper and lower case letters, spell her name and knew numbers 1-10 with  one-one correspondence by 20 months.  Many of her friends couldn't do these things until closer to 3 years old because they just weren't interested.  Both are normal and neither is an indicator of future academic success.

It was nothing I pushed.  She had a letter puzzle she was obsessed with and bath letters, and she just got into it and learned them.  I doubt DS, who is 17 months, will learn them as early as she did.

KathrynMD

DD knows can recognize letters - but she calls them all E! LOL - I'm just impressed she recognizes them as letters! I think letters and numbers are a pre-K/Kindergarten skill.

mavs_girl07

DD can identify numbers 0 through 10.  She also knows just a few letters- M, I, and T are the only ones I think. 

JoannaJes

Thanks for the responses, ladies. DS correctly identified "E", "M", and "A" today. At first I was really shocked, like, should this be something he can do already? I thought maybe it was a fluke, but it sounds like some kids are just interested in this earlier than others.

monkeyqueen

wellfleet04:

It's really whether kids take an interest or not, not a real milestone.  DD who is now 3 could sing abcs, identify all upper and lower case letters, spell her name and knew numbers 1-10 with  one-one correspondence by 20 months.  Many of her friends couldn't do these things until closer to 3 years old because they just weren't interested.  Both are normal and neither is an indicator of future academic success.

It was nothing I pushed.  She had a letter puzzle she was obsessed with and bath letters, and she just got into it and learned them.  I doubt DS, who is 17 months, will learn them as early as she did.

This (the bolded).    Kids take interest in different things, therefore they learn different things.   Olivia could care less about letters, so she recognizes her name and can identify only a few sounds/letters.  But...... she is excellent in early math skills.   She recognizes all numbers to 10 (since she was around 2 years old) and can add/substract up to 5.     She is also already drawing people with people characteristics and drawing shapes (she's recognized all shapes and colours since 2).     Long story short, there's a huge spectrum on when kids master these concepts.

If a child doesn't know all letters by the time they reach kindergarten, it shouldn't matter in their ability to learn to read.  If the teacher teaches right, they'll learn their letters/sounds at the same time as learning to reading ---- it doesn't have to be a precursor.  I've taught kindergarten and it's amazing how little kids need to know before kindergarten in order to still be reading sentences in a couple of months.

 

cbwm

DS is able to identify all numbers 0 - 20, about 6 shapes and 5 or 6 colors. 

He has a speech disorder to he can't say them, but if you ask him where something (i.e., Will, where's the square?) he can point it out without any hesitation.

According to his developmental therapist, it's very uncommon for kids under 3ish to be able to do any of this. Not that there aren't kids who can do it, but that there are more who can't than can. 

goodheartedmommy

LOL @ the responses here. Hello, liars!!! DS is 4.5, can identify and write/sound out all letters, and can sound out or spell some simple words (by sounding them out) and he is ahead of a lot of his friends (not all, some know more than him, because that's the way kids work). There's no way in hell 10 18ish month old babies can identify letters, and if they can, it's no different than them knowing the difference between a cow and a horse (it's obviously memorization). Weird. Why do people feel like they need to say their child can identify those letters, or why do they feel they should make their child know those? Normal 1.5-2 year olds (or 3-4 year olds) don't know those things. Let them live the life of an average child their age.

ToledoDeux

goodheartedmommy:

LOL @ the responses here. Hello, liars!!! DS is 4.5, can identify and write/sound out all letters, and can sound out or spell some simple words (by sounding them out) and he is ahead of a lot of his friends (not all, some know more than him, because that's the way kids work). There's no way in hell 10 18ish month old babies can identify letters, and if they can, it's no different than them knowing the difference between a cow and a horse (it's obviously memorization). Weird. Why do people feel like they need to say their child can identify those letters, or why do they feel they should make their child know those? Normal 1.5-2 year olds (or 3-4 year olds) don't know those things. Let them live the life of an average child their age.

Jesus.  So because your kid didn't do it, no kid can?  Really?

DD knew her alphabet by 17 months, and could read (actually read, on her own) by 2.5.  What would be the point in lying about that to you?

I didn't force it on her, or "make" her memorize anything.  She loves books, loves letters, and believe it or not did those things while living the "life of an average child."  FFS.

bethCT

Emily loves to play with letters and knows M (with her bathtub letters, we tell her W is M too to avoid confusion).  She can do every other letter of the ABC's - if I start A she'll say B, all the way to U.  But she is a HUGE reader!  I swear she was reading in the womb!

mavs_girl07

goodheartedmommy:

LOL @ the responses here. Hello, liars!!! DS is 4.5, can identify and write/sound out all letters, and can sound out or spell some simple words (by sounding them out) and he is ahead of a lot of his friends (not all, some know more than him, because that's the way kids work). There's no way in hell 10 18ish month old babies can identify letters, and if they can, it's no different than them knowing the difference between a cow and a horse (it's obviously memorization). Weird. Why do people feel like they need to say their child can identify those letters, or why do they feel they should make their child know those? Normal 1.5-2 year olds (or 3-4 year olds) don't know those things. Let them live the life of an average child their age.

WTH would anybody lie about identifying specific letters or numbers?  And WTH do you sound so bitter?  Like a pp said, some kids are just interested in it.  So yours wasn't, big deal.  It doesn't mean 18-24mo olds who can do these things aren't "normal".  DD got some foam letters/numbers for the bathtub from MIL last Christmas.  Within the last month or so she's been asking "What's that? What's that?"  So we tell her the number or letter it is and she's learned to recognize a lot of them.  She loves it and now every night in the tub she says "I wanna count!"  So we play with the numbers and count....I guess that's us not letting her be a child. 

monkeyqueen

goodheartedmommy:

LOL @ the responses here. Hello, liars!!! DS is 4.5, can identify and write/sound out all letters, and can sound out or spell some simple words (by sounding them out) and he is ahead of a lot of his friends (not all, some know more than him, because that's the way kids work). There's no way in hell 10 18ish month old babies can identify letters, and if they can, it's no different than them knowing the difference between a cow and a horse (it's obviously memorization). Weird. Why do people feel like they need to say their child can identify those letters, or why do they feel they should make their child know those? Normal 1.5-2 year olds (or 3-4 year olds) don't know those things. Let them live the life of an average child their age.

Well...Olivia certainly didn't do any of those things at 18 months.   However, my niece (now 14) was reading fluently by age two (simple books), and reading newspapers by age 3 (of course, full comprehension wasn't there).  I'm pretty sure by 18 months she recognized most, if not all, of her letters.    Sure, it may not be most kids - but there are kids who are certainly early readers....

Even if it's just memorization, it's still identification.   Of course, a child shouldn't have to know those things, but some do!!!  I've never sat down with Olivia and did the flash card thing or anything, but she's learned a lot on her own (not letters - she does not care about letters...unless it's in her name) - colours/shapes/numbers/adding/subtracting/how to draw people/drawing shapes/etc.

eta:  I actually think she's learned most of this from 'Dora'... or at least that explains the random Spanish words she uses on occassion......I guess I should be teaching her some French, seeing as it is one of my country's official languages ;p