Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school I don't know...

how DD learned most things, I never taught her colors, shapes, numbers.....she somehow has known for as long as I remember. Is this normal. Do most people have to teach preschoolers these things? DD has known these things since at least 18 months. I ust started thinking about it today when DH and I were talking. It's like she just knows things.

Some children don't know those things until K. You could look at development guides for what is typical. My kids were always ahead too.

I use to think they put too young an age on kid's games and activities so no ones feelings would get hurt if the child wasn't to bright. This sort of thing still confuses me this sometimes. LOL

DD has also known colors way before 18mo and we did not teach her. Basic shapes too, except I remember showing her hexagon, octagon and rhombus at some point when she was interested. I do not use those words in my everyday language so there is no way she could have just learned them. With numbers I have no idea when she learned them, she never actively asked about them like with letters and seems that she has known them for ages. I was thinking maybe she learned them at the daycare? Same with the body parts she has known them as long as she has been able to communicate.

From her daycare they send home a short letter everyday telling us what she did that day and it usually says that she was helping her friends with puzzles and teaching them numbers LOL She is not even 2.5 yet

It's pretty easy for me to figure out where DD learned most things, actually. Or it was, until she started reading independently. From the time she was a newborn, I talked to her about whatever we were doing. I narrated my life, and I'm sure that colors and numbers and body parts came out of my mouth. Shapes, not so much (and I'm also not sure that she knows more than the basic ones). What is a rhombus, anyway? LOL

As far as whether most preschoolers are taught, I think the answer is clearly yes. That's pretty much what preschool is all about, after all. Of course, that doesn't mean that they wouldn't pick it up on their own if they weren't taught. There are plenty of unschooled ND kids, and they learn without instruction perfectly well.

I didn't explicitly teach my son much, but we read to him from the time he was a newborn, and even board books cover the colors, shapes, etc, so I'm pretty sure that's where he learned what he knew then.

Mr W gets it from all of us - from the earliest day, he watched me and DW work on the laptop, was read to, watched TV, played with toys, spent time outside, went to the mall, etc. We took and still take him everywhere. He is a curious, pushy, and highly observant little guy.

Same here as most of you. I talked and still talk to DS a whole lot and read to him since he was born. I didn't do any explicit teaching but I'm sure that he learned all of that just from being around us and living life.

You know as english is not my first language I had to look up the name from the web when she wanted to know what it was called. One of her toys had a piece that was the shape of the rhombus. She always wants to know what everything is called and demands it with both languages. I'm sure quite soon I can start to ask her help with my english vocabulary. She likes things like rhombus that look something else (diamond) if you turn it.

I visited a preschool classroom last year. I visited in May, the kids had started at 2 years old and were all now 3. They devoted maybe 20 minutes twice a week to colors, shapes, weather, and the days of the week, the day I was there the teacher was pointing to a shape on a big colorful picture on the wall and saying, "Aiden which shape is this?". I think they didn't do quiz format every time. But what surprised me was after having been going a year to class only 1 out of 7 kids knew many shapes. Most of the others did appear to be paying attention and trying. There were some really wrong answers too so it wasn't just kids being reticent to speak. A lot of them knew maybe one shape. The teachers privately complimented the boy who knew all his shapes to me, saying "he's really amazing with knowing his shapes isn't he." So I got the sense they felt it wasn't the norm.

When I read the milesone charts its hard to know if they mean "spontaneously" or "if expressly taught". With my preschool visit it was clear that some of the kids weren't able to learn shapes yet even with some teaching.

Its not like those toddlers have no ability for understanding of symbols as they most likely know things like the logo for their favorite TV show or that the car sound in the driveway is their mom or dad arriving home. So I don't know what it is. I don't understand how symbolic learning at this age could be limited to specific things for some kids.

Polly

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.