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my 2 year old son can spell words

Posted by tylers_dad_josh (My Page) on
Sun, Aug 13, 06 at 12:31

so my sons favorite toy is his collection of magnet letters and numbers, he's always loved numbers, counting them and so forth. But yesterday he really freaked out his mother and me. Tyler's mom was cleaning up the letters and found the word "stop" written in perfect order, the next day I found the word "pause." Now some insight to this would be he's FASCINATED with electrical things like remote controls. Anybody have any insight on if I should have someone evaluate this kind of behavior?


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: my 2 year old son can spell words

On the one hand, this could indicate your son is extremely bright. On the other hand, it could indicate his brain is developing in 'non-standard' directions and that an evaluation would be a good idea.

Is your son advanced in other areas? Does he ask probing questions about how things work? Is he an avid 'watcher'? Are other family members unusually intelligent, supporting a genetic predisposition to high intelligence? Does he assemble jigsaw puzzles designed for older children easily? What about other building toys like Legos? 'Yes' answers here would support a high-intelligence theory.

The words 'STOP' and 'PAUSE' could easily have been copied from a TV remote control. (Is the RC in all caps? and your son's writing also all caps?) Still, an impressive achievement for a 2-year old, but not the same feat as spelling 'cat' or 'tomato', or even mixing upper and lower case letters. Copying words can be a visual pattern-recognition thing; spelling them is a whole sound-symbol coding exercise -- so very, very different. (My older son started writing letters at age 2, but in his case, it was clearly a visual pattern thing -- simply copying shapes that he knew were somehow important.)

How does your son play with other children? Is he indifferent to, upset by, confused by, or annoyed by other kids? Does he line things up often, and melt down when his lines are disturbed? Is he anxious or upset by changes in routine? Does he have just a few favorite toys, and play with them the same way over and over? Does he repeat words and phrases he's heard on TV? And if he does 'TV talk,' does it sound different from his regular speech? (Inflection, vocabulary, not appropriate to context) Does he use your hand as a 'tool' to get things instead of pointing? How are his language and speech development coming along? Does he mix up pronouns like 'it' 'me' and 'you', or have trouble with 'Wh' questions? Does he seem over- or under-sensitive to certain sounds, smells, tastes, textures, or sensations? Does he have a strong preference for only a few foods (macaroni and cheese, milk, chicken nuggets) and refuse to eat anything else? How are his sleeping patterns?

Problems in these areas suggest you may want to have him evaluated. Very bright children with issues on the autism spectrum (Hyperlexia, Asperger's Syndrome, PDD, High Functioning Autism) could show the types of behaviors you described for your son, but would also tend to have many of the problems described in the paragraph above.

If he's only got 1 or 2 issues from the second set of questions and they're not too severe, then you probably don't have anything to worry about. Just keep an eye on him, and enjoy your obviously bright little boy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hyperlexia


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RE: my 2 year old son can spell words

I would question does he also talk well....or is this just a letter arranging thing.
My son could read at 3....we suspected because he knew things we didn't mean for him to know....but I finally held up a newspaper and asked him what it said....and he read it ( but did stumble over a foreign place neme!). Mystery solved!
He was faulted in 1st grade because he didn't finish all his reading work book assignments, so a compassionate teacher had him evaluated....yep...smart!
I just say present him with every opportunity to learn.
Linda C


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RE: my 2 year old son can spell words

Yes, I have the same situation where my 2.5 years old daughter played with her older's brother magnetic board with numbers and letters. She started spelling any short words she spoted and recently spelled "orange".
We try to buy teaching toys for them mainly from the store below.
In short it seems like you have a "normal" smart and bright boy. Keep stimulating his as much as possible!

Here is a link that might be useful: educational toys for children


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