What toddlers can learn

[shnitzel]

Do most toddlers have one area where they shine?

My 22 month old can recognize about half the letters of the alphabet and will randomly point to letters and name them. She doesn't seem gifted to me in other areas but loves books and can sit for an hour listening to stories. She has fantastic gross motor and fine motor skills and very average verbal skills. Does every toddler have one thing they do that makes them seem very bright? She initiated the learning of letters because she is always pointing to them and when I give her crayons she will hand them back to me point to the paper and say "m" "o" so that I can show her the letters. I also show her the signs for the alphabet which she loves and is also learning but seem to be hard for little hands. I just freaked out because I was curious and checked on the PBS milestone tracker and it seems like this is more normal for a child turning four. Other than that she doesn't seem overly bright. She can't sing the ABC song, actually her verbal skills aren't strong enough for any song other than the one she wrote that goes "egg, egg, egg, two, two, two" 

[sapphire_chan]

DD's friends know sooo much more about dinosaurs than she does, even though she likes them just as much. Her big thing is singing and dancing.

Keep in mind, that the PBS site is going to list things that ALL kids should be doing by age X. So, while it is pretty advanced to know 1/2 the alphabet by 22months, that's not the point of those charts.

If she likes letter games, you might start introducing letter sounds. Those are more useful than letter names, and let you play games like "here's a /b/ ball, a /c/ cat, and a /e/ egg, where's the /b/?" (Note, my 31 month old doesn't play that game yet, but maybe if you start with a 22 month old who is actually willing to try Mommy's games, it'll go better.)

[nukuspot]

I think it's all different for each toddler?  My 23 mo DD is the opposite of yours.  She can sing the whole alphabet song (and a whole bunch other songs) but can't recognize a single letter.  She can count from 1 to 10 by herself but can't recognize a single number.  She's got an amazing vocabulary and is talking in multiple word sentences but average in her motor skills, she can't pedal her trike yet.  I'm curious what others have to say!

[JordanKX]

This question interests me. I think it definitely depends on the kiddo, but only having my son, 18months, I wonder the same thing.

He just learned to pedal his bike. OMG, that was only 10 seconds of "put your foot here, move your legs"... Boom. There it is. Granted, not perfect and he forgets that He has to be in charge. He'll often get off and push his tractor for a bit, and then will get back on and move the pedals.

He also seems to understand rudimentary steering. In the middle of the road, he just twists that steering wheel like crazy, but he always seems to turn it Right Before running into the curb. Every single time - I'm really not making that up. He's always been a good steer-er.
He LOVES books, but really only because he backwards-walks into a Lap, and then closes the book shut. He doesn't actually ever look at the book. And certainly doesn't allow for "listening" to a whole book. Oh No. Unless it's one of Two he's had since real baby-hood.

He definitely seems kinetically interested. He wants to DO. He spent 20 minutes last night (with no frustration) trying to figure out how to put his own shoes on. He will spend 20-30 minutes setting up a structure so the ball, when you roll it from the top, will fall onto multiple blocks.. and then land on his feet. He gets really frustrated, but he doesn't give up.

Colors, alphabet, nada. Not interested. The movement songs though.. head-shoulders-knees... he's got that. And ring around the rosey. Definitely kinetic. And he asks for those DVD-songs... he'll start the song at you (on his body) to say... I want to hear that now, please.

[Skippy918]

My son definitely has good strong motor skills.  DH said yesterday when he took him to the park on his trike, he pedaled up the hills himself, whereas last week, he was still needing a push to get up the inclines  He prefers to figure things out on his own without help.  We've already had to replace a baby gate on the stairs cause he figured out how to bypass it.  Yesterday, he managed to bypass the child lock on our lever door handle in order to get into the pantry for a snack.  It's one of those where you have to push the little button and slide it to the unlock position.  I didn't think he had the finger strength to be able to push and slide the button.

On the verbal side, he knows his letters and he's been learning some new songs at daycare which he sings over and over and over again and each time he gets better with the lyrics.  He's also very persistent and will keep trying something until he gets it right.  He practiced on the trike for a few weeks in the house and one day it just clicked.  He also needed to wait till his legs were long enough to reach the pedals.

[tuesdaymom]

From what I've read letter recanition and signing the abcs are different. Signing the abcs they say is more memory. My dd will be 22 months next week. She now knows all the letters by recanition that started @ like 13 months but didn't actually sign tha abcs until 19 months. She is very verbal that is definatly her strongest point I think. She knows the vowels and most letter sounds and loves books since 6 months. If she enjoys this enjoy it with her. Starfall is a wonderful site my daughter enjoys. When we go shopping now she tells me mommy I see letters and she will tell what she sees. She started reconizing numbers when we were shopping for her first birthday in costco (that's when we realized it). They are all so much fun @ this age.

[tuesdaymom]

Sorry for the bad spelling