Is my son behind?

[DD]

I noticed some posts about toddlers at the age of 1 being able to read and
such. I am concerned about my toddler who is 2. He really cannot speak
that well, and speaks in fragments such as "go out", or "go bath" etc etc.
He can understand us to an extent. He doenst read but I think it is too
early for that. I just dont know. He knows some letters of the alphabet
and picks them out when asked..(is that a good sign?). When do you know if
therapy is needed. What is a toddler at this age of 2 able to accomplish?

Thanks for any ideas you may have.

D

[Ericka Kammerer]

DD wrote:

> I noticed some posts about toddlers at the age of 1 being able to read and
> such. I am concerned about my toddler who is 2. He really cannot speak
> that well, and speaks in fragments such as "go out", or "go bath" etc etc.
> He can understand us to an extent. He doenst read but I think it is too
> early for that. I just dont know. He knows some letters of the alphabet
> and picks them out when asked..(is that a good sign?). When do you know if
> therapy is needed. What is a toddler at this age of 2 able to accomplish?


The "red flag" goes up if your child can't say two word
sentences (of just the sort you describe above) at 2 years of
age. Sounds like he's doing just fine. There's *huge* variation
in normal language acquisition. Reading at 2yo would be very
early. Recognizing some letters sounds normal too.

Best wishes,
Ericka

[jjmoreta]

"DD" > wrote in message
...
> I noticed some posts about toddlers at the age of 1 being able to read and
> such. I am concerned about my toddler who is 2. He really cannot speak
> that well, and speaks in fragments such as "go out", or "go bath" etc etc.
> He can understand us to an extent. He doenst read but I think it is too
> early for that. I just dont know. He knows some letters of the alphabet
> and picks them out when asked..(is that a good sign?). When do you know
if
> therapy is needed. What is a toddler at this age of 2 able to accomplish?
>
> Thanks for any ideas you may have.
>
> D
>

I agree with the other posters that the claim of a one year old who can read
is ludicrous. I could read at the age of 3 and I was considered *extremely*
advanced. Picking out letters of the alphabet is a wonderful accomplishment
at his age!

Try not to focus too much on the minutaie of what he does or doesn't know at
his age unless he's really showing a deficiency in an area. All kids
progress at different rates, and it isn't always because of intelligence.
Some kids take a little longer on some concepts, and some kids aren't as
motivated as others. There's plenty of time for catching up with other
children even if he may be slightly behind on something.

If you do a Google search for age 2 milestones, you can find sites with more
information. Here's a thorough one, including the things you should look
out for:
http://www.medem.com/MedLB/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZJ8RP86DC&sub_cat=105

- Joanne
#1 - 25w3d

[Naomi Pardue]

>What is a toddler at this age of 2 able to accomplish?
>

Well, 2 covers a pretty wide range, and a child who has just turned two can
usually do much less than a child who is almost 3. However, there is also a
wide range of what is normal for all 2 year olds.
Rest assures that VERY few 2 year olds (and virtually NO 1 year olds!) can
read. Language ability varies widely but your son sounds well within the normal
range if he is speaking in speaking in phrases and simple sentences, recognizes
some letters, and understands much of what you say to him.
(If you are concerned though, by all means ask the pediatrician. The doctor
should be doing some simple evaluations at his regular appointments, and noting
if he is falling behind in any of his milestones.)


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)

[Puester]

DD wrote:
>
> I noticed some posts about toddlers at the age of 1 being able to read and
> such. I am concerned about my toddler who is 2. He really cannot speak
> that well, and speaks in fragments such as "go out", or "go bath" etc etc.
> He can understand us to an extent. He doenst read but I think it is too
> early for that. I just dont know. He knows some letters of the alphabet
> and picks them out when asked..(is that a good sign?). When do you know if
> therapy is needed. What is a toddler at this age of 2 able to accomplish?
>
> Thanks for any ideas you may have.
>
> D



Beware of bragging relatives. We have a neighbor who swears
her grandson played the piano well at 6 months of age.
Yep, turns out they propped him up on someone's lap and he
batted away at the keys. Played about as well as my cat....

;-)
gloria p

[Andrea]

My son is 2 in September, and he doesn't say "go out" or "go bath".
My other son is 4 in September and is only just talking with the aid of
speech therapy as he has Apraxia with developmental delay. It hasn't harmed
him, he runs around and is a happy soul.

I think there is too much pressure from other people and the health
officials for babies/children, to be at a certain stage at a certain age. I
used to worry, but now I am happy to let my babies develop in their own
time. After all each baby is as individual as you and me, so why compare
their progress?

Andrea -

Mom to Peter 7, Ellie 5, Alden 3, Joseph 23 mths, and baby Kamron 8 weeks
old. AAlso married to David my wonderful husband.

Mom to
"jjmoreta" > wrote in message
...
>
> "DD" > wrote in message
> ...
> > I noticed some posts about toddlers at the age of 1 being able to read
and
> > such. I am concerned about my toddler who is 2. He really cannot speak
> > that well, and speaks in fragments such as "go out", or "go bath" etc
etc.
> > He can understand us to an extent. He doenst read but I think it is too
> > early for that. I just dont know. He knows some letters of the
alphabet
> > and picks them out when asked..(is that a good sign?). When do you know
> if
> > therapy is needed. What is a toddler at this age of 2 able to
accomplish?
> >
> > Thanks for any ideas you may have.
> >
> > D
> >
>
> I agree with the other posters that the claim of a one year old who can
read
> is ludicrous. I could read at the age of 3 and I was considered
*extremely*
> advanced. Picking out letters of the alphabet is a wonderful
accomplishment
> at his age!
>
> Try not to focus too much on the minutaie of what he does or doesn't know
at
> his age unless he's really showing a deficiency in an area. All kids
> progress at different rates, and it isn't always because of intelligence.
> Some kids take a little longer on some concepts, and some kids aren't as
> motivated as others. There's plenty of time for catching up with other
> children even if he may be slightly behind on something.
>
> If you do a Google search for age 2 milestones, you can find sites with
more
> information. Here's a thorough one, including the things you should look
> out for:
>
http://www.medem.com/MedLB/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZJ8RP86DC&sub_c
at=105
>
> - Joanne
> #1 - 25w3d
>
>

[Rupert]

"DD" > wrote in message >...
> I noticed some posts about toddlers at the age of 1 being able to read and
> such. I am concerned about my toddler who is 2. He really cannot speak
> that well, and speaks in fragments such as "go out", or "go bath" etc etc.
> He can understand us to an extent. He doenst read but I think it is too
> early for that. I just dont know. He knows some letters of the alphabet
> and picks them out when asked..(is that a good sign?). When do you know if
> therapy is needed. What is a toddler at this age of 2 able to accomplish?
>
> Thanks for any ideas you may have.
>
> D

Us boys like to take our sweet time learning things (at least from
what I have read). Girls speak much better than boys at very young
ages. Sounds normal to me (again from what I have read, not from
personal experience).

[Mary Gordon]

Sounds pretty normal to me, particularly for a boy. Try not to
compare your son to other kids too much. I have three kids, and I can
recall with my oldest thinking there was something wrong with him at
the same age, since he spoke only one and two word phrases, almost no
three word complete sentences and had a big collection of words that
sounded like "ba" (for boat, bus, ball etc.) or other incomprehensible
sounds - pa-dee was spider. I got the idea he was behind after we had
a friend over whose toddler was verbally precocious - full articulate
sentences at 2 like you wouldn't believe. Neither of us moms had the
experience to recognize that her son was truly exceptional verbally -
and then when she had a second son, who was more like mine in terms of
development, she took him to the doctor and he just about fell on the
floor laughing. She thought son #2 had a problem - but the only
problem was that she was comparing a kid who was average verbally to a
kid who was really off the scale.

Incidentally, being very verbal early is NOT an indication of overall
intelligence or ability. Her son turned out to be a B student and mine
is an A student, so being able to yack up a storm early didn't mean
the kid would turn out to be Einstein. My middle child, also a boy,
was VERYverbal and he has a high functioning form of autism (a
non-verbal learning disability), similar to Aspberger's syndrome, so
believe me, being verbal is not a sign of general purpose competence.

As far as reading goes, my kids (now 12, 9 and 5) were pretty average
in terms of age. They could count by kindergarten (which starts at 4
here in Toronto), but none of them could read by the start of grade 1.
Oldest was mid grade 1 before he really started reading (i.e. reading
stuff to us off signs in the neighbourhood), and #2 repeated grade 1
with a lot of extra phonics teaching, so was reading well by the end
of his second cruise through grade 1 at age 6-7). My daughter goes
into grade 1 in the fall, and no, she can't read (she's 5 1/2). I
could at that age, but I was one of those spontaneous readers. Just a
fluke. She knows her letters and numbers, and tries to sound things
out, and likes to write words if you dictate them to her, but by my
standards, that isn't really reading just yet.

I think your kid sounds totally normal to me. I never met at two year
old that could read, although I'm sure there are some out there
somewhere, but none in my house.

Mary G.