At what age should kids be learning certain things?

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who's little girl is 18 mos. Granted, I know kids can learn a LOT in 3 mos, but my boys seem SOOO far behind her daughter!

Her daughter knows how to point to almost all her body parts (including harder ones like ankle & heel) & a LOT of animal sounds (including odd things like elephant & snake). She also knows about 50 signs & learns things VERY easily (ie just the day before a friend had taught her to say "no, no, no" & shake her finger when asked 'What does Mama say'...she learned it in the time span of about 10 mins being left alone with the guy!)

My boys know their nose & KNOW their eyes/ears/mouth but rarely point to those (it's only when the mood strikes them right). Conner knows 3 signs & Aiden knows 2, but they understand more. Both are starting to follow simple commands like "Go give Conner his cup" or "Bring me that diaper". Their vocab really only consists of a handful of intelligible words but they've started to occasionally mimic (although I honestly think they talk to each other since they seem to carry on a conversation in their jibberish). We've been working on farm animals for a few days & they just don't even seem interested. Today I've REALLY been pushing the farm animals & they have actually gotten frustrated with ME...like "Mom, we just want to READ the book, not point to the animals...LOL".

So, what age is typical to learn animal sounds, learn to point to things when asked, etc.? My boys play very well independently so I KNOW I don't work with them nearly as much as I should so I've made a conscious effort to do so. They also don't learn from tv b/c they don't pay any attention to it if I even have it on. I just don't know how hard to push them if it's something they shouldn't even be able to do! I know all kids are different but I just want to make sure mine aren't falling behind or anything....

On a side note, at least Conner mimicked "Moo" & Aiden mimicked "Cluck" today. I guess it's a start.....

 

Mine knew how to point to alot of body parts, but thats because we spent time teaching them that, same with the animal sounds. But your boys may know more about other things than that 18 month old. I say if you want them to know those things then spend a little time each day teaching them But I would bet they are doing just fine :good:
We are going thru letters again here, and if you had asked my two just a week ago they may not have know more than 2-3, even though a few months ago they knew 5-6. And know that I am going over them again they are right back to that plus more.

 

If you are interested in developmental milestones you can go to Early Childhood Intervention... google it... and look to see if they are meeting the basics... other than that, it just depends what you spend time doing with them in repetition... i.e. my daughter knew to raise both arms when daddy said "touchdown" before she could even say much... of course he did this with her ALL the time

 

My daughter is a July baby too and she can't do any of the things your friend's baby can do!
Mine can say "Mama" and "bah" (which is the sound of the sheep but also book, and baba, her daddy!). Oh and boob (both for "I want milk" and for "peek-a-BOOB"). She can say no with her head and high 5 you. And clap. She recognises when in songs she needs to clap and she knows how to play the seek part of hide and seek.
Oh and most importantly, she can give you the remote and point tp the TV. If you still don't switch it on, she knows how to press the OPEN button on the DVD player, tries to climb ion it to reach the TV in the hope that touching the screen will make it go on!
That is about it! She gets frustrated with me "overteaching" words in books too and will eventually wiggle away, she doesn't know any body parts and looks at you like you are an idiot if you ask her any body parts. She doesn't sign (but we don't sign either), she would nto be able to bring a diaper for instance, but knows how to put on shoes.

I think that between 12 and 24 months kids learn so much, they just can't all learn the same at the same time. Some kids are more vocal, some kids less so but more physically active. One of my boys at 14 months could talk several words, the other one didn't speak until past the age of 2 and they are both perfectly on track now at 5!

So I think your boys are doing great! Don't worry! Millie

 

I'm not a big fan of "lesson time" for toddlers, but they learn things all the time just through play and repetition. For example:

We do not sit with a color wheel and teach them their colors, or use flashcards to teach them words or numbers. But, we identify everything by color as we go through our day. If they are playing with a blue ball, we say oh look you have the blue ball. We also count things all the time. Again, no specific lesson time for numbers, but we count and identify things by numbers all day long. Ditto animal names and sounds. We don't have a lesson about it, but whenever we come across a cow in a book, we say moo. To them, it's just playing or reading, or whatever, but they're constantly hearing the colors, numbers, animal sounds, etc. as they play.

The result is that they know all of the basic colors, they can count to 10, they can make all of the animal sounds that we can make (if anyone can help me with an elephant, please let me know!). They've only demonstrated this knowledge to us within the past month or two - but we've been describing things this way pretty much forever. The repetition (even if it's not in a formal teaching manner) does sink in, and suddenly you realize they know way more than you thought!!

 

QUOTE(BridgePort @ Oct 8 2008, 03:19 PM) [snapback]1017377[/snapback]
I'm not a big fan of "lesson time" for toddlers, but they learn things all the time just through play and repetition. For example:

We do not sit with a color wheel and teach them their colors, or use flashcards to teach them words or numbers. But, we identify everything by color as we go through our day. If they are playing with a blue ball, we say oh look you have the blue ball. We also count things all the time. Again, no specific lesson time for numbers, but we count and identify things by numbers all day long. Ditto animal names and sounds. We don't have a lesson about it, but whenever we come across a cow in a book, we say moo. To them, it's just playing or reading, or whatever, but they're constantly hearing the colors, numbers, animal sounds, etc. as they play.

The result is that they know all of the basic colors, they can count to 10, they can make all of the animal sounds that we can make (if anyone can help me with an elephant, please let me know!). They've only demonstrated this knowledge to us within the past month or two - but we've been describing things this way pretty much forever. The repetition (even if it's not in a formal teaching manner) does sink in, and suddenly you realize they know way more than you thought!!



Ditto this! There are SO many learning opprotunties throughout the day that you don't need to sit down and have learning time. We taught body parts during bath time. I gave both girls a wash cloth with some soap and said, "Wash your belly button!" "YAY Good Job!" "Wash your ears! YAY! Good job!" "Wash your elbow! Where's your elbow? (tapping my own elbow) YAY! You washed your elbow! Your elbow is All clean!" That sort of thing. Narrate your lives. That's how they learn things. As they get older and can say the words themselves, you ask them, what's this? or what color is that bus? I found that I would get tired of saying everything all day long, but as a result, my dd's have excellent receptive language skills. They may have some speach delays, but they darn sure understand everything.

 

It's funny you should post this. I think it depends on the child's natural interest/abilities AND how much time you spend on this stuff.

My older DD was very attentive from the start, loved to look at books, and I was a SAHM with only one child to chase....so we spent a lot of time learning animal sounds and colors and letters and what not. She also memorized everything she saw on TV, and so she definitely knew all kinds of things by 16-18 months, even though she wasn't talking yet. She's one of those kids that could do puzzles easily before age 2, spell words at 2.5, etc.

My little ones, though -- ha! For one thing, they're both crazy active and have short attention spans, so neither has sat for more than 5 seconds to look at pictures in a book. And, they just don't have the interest that their older sister did in animal sounds, etc.

And, I'm now chasing three children, so I certainly don't have time to "teach" them all day. A day where everyone is clean and fed, and the house is somewhat under control, is a success!

So, at almost 16 months, Karina knows to pat her belly if you ask and maybe point to her ears, and that's it. She will sometimes grab my nose if you ask her where her nose is, but even that's iffy. Kevan does none of those things, and neither of them do any animal sounds, despite my singing 10,000 verses of Old McDonald, playing with the See n' Say, etc.

But, I really don't stress about it. I've never heard of a kid starting kindergarten without knowing his body parts or colors or animal sounds.....so we've got LOTS of time to worry about it!

 

Mine have only really been able to point out body parts consistently for the last 2-3 weeks and we are finally starting to associate sounds with animals/items (moo for cow, cuckoo for the clock, vroom for car, quack for duck, etc). Remember boys can be a little bit slower with the verbal skills too.

I wouldn't really worry...like I said, mine didn't really do much until just a few weeks ago and now it seems like it is something new every day.

 

I was so happy to see this post! I'v been wondering the same thing about my boys. They started walking at 11 months and haven't stopped for one second sense :huh: I try soooo hard to do the teaching as we go through the day thing, but it's hard b/c I'm always feeling rushed or fighting with them to do something. Bath time is out of the question because about the only 2 things I can say the whole time are 'no don't touch the spout cover, it's their to protect you' and 'you have to sit down in the bath so you don't fall' <_<
Logan says 'ball' and does some weird 'awh awh' sound for animals. Lucas doesn't say anything. The only body part they know is belly button.
It is so hard to get them to focus on anything! I'v actually started reading them a bedtime story after I put them both in bed at night. Not the dream I had of snuggling them both while reading a bedtime story, but they will both stand or lay there and listen

 

Thank you ALL for your responses. I really like the idea of ditching the "teaching time" & just do it all the time. I try to do that, but I'm kinda lazy with it, so I'll have to step it up a notch! I swear, my kids know I'm trying to teach them & just take off ! I definitely think I have busy bodies...my niece is 8 mos older & LOVES to just sit, look at books, & be taught various things. Not mine...they'd rather be wrestling, climbing, & being naughty. At least they will bring me a book during the day & let me read it to them...I guess I'll just have to 'teach' on their schedule!

As for the elephant, when you ask Kylee what the elephant says she puts her lips together & blows; almost like a trumpet type sound. It's hard to describe, but it sounds like an elephant!

 

QUOTE(ahmerl @ Oct 8 2008, 10:55 AM) [snapback]1017731[/snapback]
A book that we have depicts the elephant saying "BLLEEUU"

So, we we do animals or read the book, I say "BBLLEEUU" and use my arm like it is a trunk in front of my nose. I look like a complete fool, but they get it!

QUOTE(nurseandrea02 @ Oct 8 2008, 11:05 AM) [snapback]1017747[/snapback]
As for the elephant, when you ask Kylee what the elephant says she puts her lips together & blows; almost like a trumpet type sound. It's hard to describe, but it sounds like an elephant!

Thanks - these are both better than what we've come up with. We actually have one book that says an elephant says "preeen" - what?! DH and I just both looked at each other confused at that one. Another tip on the animal sounds is simply to be consistent. Dogs say all kinds of things, and all the books say something different (bow-wow, ruff, woof, bark, etc.), and we used to do all those various sounds and the boys never responded if we asked them what a dog says. Finally we made an executive decision that a dog says woof, and within no time, the boys knew that a dog says woof (we'll save for a later day why sometimes woof is spelled ruff). We also experimented with a rooster - cockadoodledoo or err-err-err-err-errrrrrrr (closer to what it actually sounds like, although it's tough to spell). They never got cockadoodledoo, but the errrrr version is so darn cute - it kind of sounds more like they're yodeling or something, and they never know when to quit so it starts really strong and then just kind of trails off.

Once they start picking up on a few of these sounds, etc. (and I wouldn't worry about it for several more months by the way), it will be so much fun for you to hear them that you'll become extra motivated to keep narrating your life, as another poster accurately described it. They're just so cute and proud once they start to get it. But again, ours didn't 'get it' until quite recently, so don't stress about it yet!!

 

I've noticed that they learn at light speed when it's something that interests them... but if something doesn't interest them, you can see their eyes glaze over and their mind (and body) wanders off to do something else. I don't give formalized lessons but teach them constantly by pointing out things and talking about them.

Oh, and elephant was the first animal sound T&T learned because we happened to be at the zoo and I was talking about each animal as we saw it and they were so tickled by the arm motion that they remembered. You never know what might click.

 

I think you will find that if you spent just a few minutes each day working on it, they will be doing everything you are describing that the 21 month old is doing. I don't think they are behind, but at that age, they aren't just going to whip out a new skill. You have to show them, and practice, and you will be amazed how much, and how fast they will learn!!