Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Subtraction concept at 2.5?

Ok, so now I don't know whats normal for a 2 and 1/2 year old and what's not since realizing DD is most likely HG+....

Today she decided to play Iguana....she does this by putting socks on her feet and then a sock on each hand to create claws....
She had a group of white socks out (5) and put two on her feet. then picke up one sock, turned around and put it back in the sock bin, then proceded to put on the remainig to socks on her hand.

I asked her why she put that sock back before putting on the last two and she responded "because I already had enough socks for 2 hands. I didn't need 3"

It kind of felt like a math concept to me, that she just didn't even realize that she was doing subtraction. She has been doing similar things with snacks....saying "I have 4 crackers" then eating one and saying "How many crackers do I have now?" and then answering herself "3".

Is this normal for a 2 and 1/2 year old. She has always been extreamly advanced verbally, over 3 years ahead....but I never thought she was much in math even though she was counting early, but since she has been doing a ton of enumeration, and took off counting by 10's the other day....now I am wondering what is normal math for a 2.5 year old to be doing?

Well not my 2.6 year old who can't count to 3 yet.

My 6yr old did similar things when he had just turned 2 or a few months before. He's not been tested yet but I didn't think it was "average" at the time. I was changing his diaper, about 20months old, maybe 22months, and he had a cookie in his hand. He asked for another cookie. I asked him if I gave him another, how many would he have. He said, "2." I asked, what if I gave you two more cookies, how many would you have? He said 3. I said, what if I then gave you two more cookies, how many would you have and he said 5. I then said if you eat 1 cookie, how many would you have? He said 4. I asked if he then ate 2 of his cookies, how many would he have and he said 2. It was all done in his head w/out manipulatives.

Dazey

DD3.5 did something similar to this at that age. She would say, "Daddy went to work. There's only one car left (in the garage)." Since I discovered DD was not typical intellectually, I figured this was not "normal." But I'm not sure what is normal!

My HG son did this at 2 and I in no way think that it's normal. My very normal 5 year old step-son still has trouble counting to 20 if that puts it into any perspective.

Thank you all. She has been was counting to 15 by 2, but I thought that was normal at the time LOL. This felt like just one of those wow things....guess it is. Need to go write it down in her book Thank you all so much.

As DH just said to me. It would be nice to spend sometime with some ND 2 year olds and see how much what she is doing really differs. She and I do once a week at homeschool co-op with 2 and 3 year olds and there is definitly a huge gap knowledge wise, with DD knowing all her colors, shapes, numbers, letters, counting, and in her sentence structure. Which has definitly woken me up to her developmental speed which I was in denial of even when I was told by 2 peds that she was cognitively on a 5 year old level. But Anyway, denial is starting to fade....now I am wow, and freaked a bit LOL

Bear and Wolf both do/did things like that. Wolf was doing math on his own (addition and subtraction up to 10) when he was three and four years old. That's what made me realize we might be dealing with something beyond the norm...

To put it in perspective:

Kindergarten students in our area are expected to be able to count to 20 by the end of K, possibly some VERY basic addition.

Most children by the age of 3 are supposed to be able to COUNT to 5 or possibly 10 (generally this means rote counting, possibly numerical understanding.) Math doesn't enter into the equation at all.

Oh and the feeling freaked seems to be pretty normal. I went through it and I know a lot of other people on this board have talked about it.

Wow, it is hard to wrap my head around that although it is pretty much wht I eep hearing and why DH and I have decided she will be homeschooled for at least K if we are living here still as there is no early enterence and she would be 5.6 before she could enter and they have no gifted program and will not accelerate Still hard to wrap my head around

Today dad and I bought her a set of dinosours (which she is really into, that and anything space) well this evening Dad asked her "Didn't you have 5 dinos?" She had 3 she was playing with at the moment. She said "yes, and then walked over and picked up one that was on the floor thus having 4 and said "where's my other one" Knowing that she had 3+1=4 and she needed one more to equal 5. DH was relly surprised that she grasped that.

I have been in your shoes with the guessing game of what is normal range. When my DD was 2 weeks old and had completed the milestones of a 3 month old I concluded that the milestones were set so low for children that are borderline. I never considered it was my child that was off the charts. :P It wasn't until DD was turning 2 yrs that I came out of my denial.

Also in reference to the verbal strength and all of a sudden focusing in on numbers and math concepts... JMHO but I see pockets of interests and intensity. They get focused on something and that skill soars, be it math or science or whatever. We have had days of only interested in math with adding and subtraction, as well as fractions. When she is in this mode she hardly opens a book. Reading falls to the side. But she refocuses and is back into reading and words. I also have seen sliding in areas that are not of great interest at the moment. DD has known her letters since 9 mths and the sounds each letter makes since 15 months but when she is in math mode she can forget the sounds or just doesn't really care to answer the question. But when in her reading mode she is intense. If that makes sense. Just wanted to share that as you progress in case your DD slides ... I find it normal and further shows the intensity these kids have when something interests them.

I think it may have been someone on this website who recommended looking at the pbs website to see detailed lists of what's "normal" math skills.
http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/two/mathematics.html

Sure doesn't seem "normal" to me but what do I know.

My DS2.4 is not doing much mathy stuff yet though rote counting under 100 seems easy for him and reading/recognizing numbers below 1000 also. Can add by ones under 10, but not subtract, and thinking about plus 2 or 3 seems to turn on his guessomator. Is able to one to one count but doesn't seem to have the patience for it, likes to guess.

Polly