Toddler knows alphabet before talking.

anitaandchris

My 24 month old knows his colors, letters, shapes and numbers. He can say about 20 other words but mostly he talks in all baby jargon. He will grunt and point when he wants something. Are other toddlers like this?

KelzinBoston

Mine can do long division, but still craps his pants. Every kid is different, right?

AshasaurusRex

Edited, sorry, I misunderstood your post to be braggy. Are you saying that your 24 month old doesn't talk yet and you're wondering if that's normal?

Army~Wife

KelzinBoston:

Mine can do long division, but still craps his pants. Every kid is different, right?

ILY! Just about made me spit my shamrock shake everywhere!

and now for something completely different

Army~Wife:

KelzinBoston:

Mine can do long division, but still craps his pants. Every kid is different, right?

ILY! Just about made me spit my shamrock shake everywhere!

Jen&Len

DS was like that.  He knew his alphabet and the phonetics by 18 months, but didn't really start talking much until he was about 2.  DD is the opposite...she is talking a lot more than DS was, but isn't too interested in learning her letters!

lite-bright

I wouldn't say it's typical of speech development, but it may just be a reflection of your child's interests. 

It is, however, something to keep an eye on in terms of his overall development and communication skills. Being particularly fascinated by and precocious in identifying letters/numbers/words (hyperlexia), especially if social speech and communication is lagging, can be a red flag for developmental disorders, including autism.

My DD1 has autism, diagnosed at age three. She was reading single letters aloud from an alphabet book at 21 months -- I have it on video. When we turned her forward-facing at 23 months, she would shout, "R, R!" every time we passed a railroad crossing sign. She could identify letters whether forwards, backwards or upside down. I was so proud at the time, but I didn't realize that it was actually something to be concerned about when you took her entire development into consideration. She did not have a lot of stereotypical symptoms of autism -- good eye contact, very affectionate, few tantrums, etc. -- but the hyperlexic tendencies are one that is clear in hindsight.

Now, my 23-month-old DD2 knows a lot of letters and numbers by sight as well -- partly because she is very interested in whatever her big sister is interested in -- but her social communication is through the roof and perfectly typical, so I don't worry about it. 

It could just be your son developing in his own way, but I would tuck it in the back of my mind for future reference, particularly if you have any other developmental concerns now or later. 

bumpuser260585

My ds is younger than yours, but I have friends whose kids were grunting & pointing to get what they want. Instead of asking the kid " Do you want more milk?" They would just get more milk when the kid grunted. Ther never really taught their child to ask for things. When ds wants something I always repeat the word over & over. Maybe ypu are being too quick to get what he needs without teaching him to ask for it?

Ginlyn0

My DS is the same way. He will be 22 months in 2 days. He can identify every letter of the alphabet and points them out in signs and has been doing this quite a while. We were at a store once and he saw the "customer service" sign and named every letter in order out of the blue and the cashier freaked out and asked how old he was. He was 19 months at the time. He talks gibberish most of the time but has about 25 words.

Like a PP said, we are watching out for other red flags because my DD has Aspergers and therefore DS's chances are increased for any ASD.

Luckie519

DS was slow to start talking.  He still does not say a ton, but it seems like every week he is picking up a couple new words.  Within the last couple of weeks, he has started to call my ILs dog "Ellie" by name, say the words dog, poop, juice, yum, good cheese, and book.  He even said "I know." to me the other day and I about fell over. 

We ask him questions and he answers yes or no to them correctly.  Like "Do you have a poopy diaper?" or "Are you ready for bed?"  Or we tell him "It's time for a bath" and he runs into the bathroom.  Or "It's time to eat, let's get in your chair" and he will try to crawl into his highchair.

flyingsaucer

KelzinBoston:

Mine can do long division, but still craps his pants. Every kid is different, right?

 

Hahaha!  

amykins1283

Liam was like that.  He became very interested in the alphabet and learned all of his upper case letters by 18-ish months, could say a bunch of animal sounds, was learning shapes and numbers, etc. but only really started talking well in the last month or so (as in, stringing words together, using more spontaneous speech instead of repeating, etc.).  His social skills are normal for his age.  He make good eye contact, initiates play, asks for things he needs or wants, answers yes/no questions appropriately (mostly no these days, haha). 

I'm pretty sure he's normal.