What can I do better with my 19 month old?

Question

Sometimes I feel like my 19 month old should be further along developmentally than she is. She doesn't know her colors. She calls all animals puppy. She only counts 1-2, 1-2. She says abc and that is it. How can I help her learn things better? Any games or things you would suggest to help teach her?

Answer 1

Just get her more interaction with kids. A play group or something should do just fine. But remember don't put too much pressure on her. She's not even 2 yet. I would wait until she's 3 1/2 or 4 before you start panicking about her not knowing her colors or counting. (that's somthing that they can also teach in kindergarden).

Relax she's fine. She's still just an infant.

Answer 2

She sounds like she is doing great developmentally.  In fact counting 1-2 is a great skill for her to know and saying the abc's is overrated.  You really don't need that skill until kindergarten.  Most kids don't know there colors until age 3.  If you are concerned read her books.  There are great books out there for toddlers that have basic concepts in them that teach colors, shapes, numbers, letters.  It sounds like you are doing a great job though!  

Answer 3

she's 19 months - take a chill pill.

at 19 months she will understand a lot more than she can say, so you just need to verbalise things for her...if she points out an animal and says 'puppy' (at least she is recognizing it as an animal and puppy is the only word at she has at the moment to try to tell you what she's looking at) so you say ' good girl, that's a duck and he's yellow....can you see the yellow duck??)

At this age physical activity is more important than trying to get her to say abc - moving, running, crawling etc helps to make the connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain - which will be the connections she uses later on for reading.  Kids who don't do a lot of physical activity and lack coordination often have trouble in school later so try focusing on that at the moment.

Good Luck!!

Answer 4

She sounds perfectly find developmentally. Don't listen to all those mamas making up stories like their kid can speak five languages at 4 months old lol! People are full of c**p! Keep reading to her every night, and give her great toys that help her learn her abcs and colors. Keep singing the alphabet song to her, and when you are out in public, point things out to her, tell her what to call it, what color it is, etc. Make everything a learning experience. Good luck, I'm sure you're doing a great job.