Smart Genius

Right now I am developing a little "action plan" for my days with Liam to ensure we're tapping into all his capabilities and not just letting opportunities pass.  Don't worry, I'm not drilling him with PSAT questions (yet), but I am going to take advantage of the fact that this kid loves to learn.

To make this plan, I turned to resources that track children's average developments in all general skills areas, and I just came across something that about made me pee myself.  According to the development tracker put forth by PBS, most kids ages 2 to 3 are able to sing the ABCs but don't recognize independent letters.  Few children  recognize the graphic design of familiar letters, and even fewer children by age 3 know the names of letters or are able to recognize uppercase letters.

Since Liam was 20 months old, he has been able to recognize and name the letters of the alphabet out of context.  I could point out any letter and he would say the correct name back to me.

Since Liam was 21 months old, he has been able to name an animal or word associated with a letter when we name a letter to him.

In the past few weeks, Liam has ramped up how often he plays these letter games independently, pointing out and naming letters in books, on clothes, on billboards.  He also will walk around and say, "A. Alligator. RARR!  B. Bear. GRRR! C. Cat. MEEOWW!"  And just this morning he proved that he not only proficiently recognizes uppercase letters but also is beginning to recognize lowercase letters.

He's not even 2 yet.  See why I'm making an action plan?  This kid has got a big ol' brain and needs all the exposure he's willing to accept.  And I'm just the mom for the job.

The video clip below is from 7 Nov, over one month ago (so when Liam had just hit 20 months).  Damn genius.  Love love love!