I have to agree with the majority ... we had an intense baby on our hands and demanded to be read to a lot. The board books really introduce the basics. We also explored our surroundings. Many a trip to the grocery store with Mom talking to her about everything that attracted her attention, which was everything. By the time she was 6 months old we had the "What's this?" and "What's that?" game. She would point to anything and everything and ask those two questions and clearly log it into her memory. Her vocabulary grew like wildflowers through her questions and before she was a year old had so many words I couldn't count them.

I remember when she started counting and why ... she was about 10 months old and counted her feet when I was dressing her. She quickly progressed to 10. The reason she started counting had more to do with my mother. My mother always wore these shirts with buttons on them and DD would point to each button as my mother counted them. The first thing she learned was her body parts by the time she was 3 months old she had all the basics and most of the details such as eyebrows, cheeks, chin, etc. She couldn't say all of them at that point, but she pointed to them. Clearly something I taught her while playing and dressing her. Her next big learning was letters. Something I would never have thought to teach a baby but clearly something she was fascinated with ... she had uncovered some tiny board books for each letter. I like to buy ahead when I find things cheap and found them at the halfprice bookstore while I was pregnant. We had a friend come over with their toddler so I pulled them out for him ... later that day DD got hold of them and at 6 mths asked us her game of "What's this?". By 9 months she knew all of the alphabet. As for her colors and shapes ... she wasn't that interested in them and it wasn't until she was around 15 months that she decided to learn them. Did we read books with shapes and colors in them? Of course and while out I would describe objects using colors and shapes but only when she was ready to add that to her knowledge bank did she.

My point is sometimes it seems like they magically just know but if we examine our day to day routines you will most likely discover you introduced it to them. This said ... ND children need lots of repetition and are usually older before they acquire the knowledge. I have noticed that my DD, who is now 3, picks up things quickly and gets bored easily. An issue associated with gifted children.