When should my child start learning letters?
There is no single right age. What comes first, how to tell they are ready, and the point at which a delay is worth raising with a teacher.
First words: which ones are worth teaching first
Usman Mughal · Founder & CEO, Mobizio
3 min read
There is a tempting idea that early words should be taught in a sensible order, like a syllabus.
They are not learned that way. A toddler picks up the words that get them something, and the fastest way to help is to work with that rather than against it.
What makes a word easy
Three things, and none of them is spelling.
- They can see it. Concrete beats abstract every time. Ball is easier than more, and dog is easier than nice.
- They want it. A word that produces a biscuit is learned faster than a word that produces praise.
- It is short, and it starts with a sound they can already make. The early consonants are usually b, m, p, d and t, which is why ball, mama, bed and dog turn up early in almost every family.
The NHS guide to learning to talk is the clearest short read on the order this tends to happen in.
A starting set
These are the thirteen first words our own activities use, and they are a reasonable list for anybody:
| ball | banana | bed |
| book | car | cat |
| coat | dog | fish |
| flower | shoes | sun |
| teddy bear |
Look at what they have in common. Every one is a thing in the room or a thing in a picture book. Not one is a concept.
Nouns first, then the useful verbs
Naming comes before doing, for most children. Once a handful of nouns are solid, the verbs that earn their keep are the ones that get something to happen: go, stop, up, open, more, gone.
More and gone are worth pushing slightly. They are the two that turn pointing into a conversation.
Repeat, do not correct
This is the one habit worth changing.
When a child says "wawa" for water, the instinct is to correct it. What works better is to say it correctly back inside a normal sentence, without comment:
Child: wawa You: yes, water. Here is your water.
They have heard the correct version twice and nobody has been told they are wrong. Correcting directly tends to make children say less, which is the opposite of what you want.
The Department for Education's communication and language guidance is built almost entirely around this idea: comment more, question less.
Talk more than you test
The single biggest thing you can do costs nothing. Narrate what you are doing while you do it, and leave gaps.
- Say what is happening, out loud, as you cook or dress them.
- Leave a pause afterwards, longer than feels natural. That gap is where their turn goes.
- Say the word for the thing they are pointing at rather than asking what it is.
Books help enormously, and the same book many times helps more than many books once.
Where an app fits
An app can say a word clearly, in the same voice, as many times as a child wants. That is genuinely useful, and it is patient in a way nobody is at six in the evening.
What it cannot do is respond. Language is learned in the gap between two people taking turns, and a screen does not take a turn. It never notices that your child just pointed at the dog and waited.
So it is practice, not conversation. Keep the conversation.
Our first word activities cover those thirteen words with spelling, puzzles and matching, all read aloud.
Questions parents ask
- How many words should a two-year-old have?
- The range of normal is very wide and word counts are a poor way to worry. What matters more is whether the number is going up, whether they are trying to communicate at all, and whether they understand more than they say. If you are unsure, your health visitor or GP is the right first stop.
- Which words should I teach my toddler first?
- Words for things they can see and want. Ball, book, car, cat, dog, shoes, bed. Short words starting with b, m, p, d or t are easiest, because those are the sounds most toddlers can already make.
- Should I correct my child's pronunciation?
- Not directly. Say the word correctly back inside a normal sentence instead. If they say wawa, reply yes, water, here is your water. They hear the right version without being told they were wrong, and correcting tends to make children say less.
- Should I teach the alphabet or first words first?
- Words. Talking and listening are the ground that letters are later built on. A child with plenty of words has somewhere to put letters when they arrive; letters taught before that have nothing to attach to.
Where this comes from
- NHS Start for Life: learning to talk
The order early words tend to arrive in, and what helps.
- Department for Education: Communication and language
Comment more, question less, and leave gaps for a turn.
- CDC: Learn the Signs. Act Early. milestones
Milestone checklists by age, including early words.
Usman Mughal
Founder & CEO, Mobizio
Usman is the founder and CEO of Mobizio, and has shipped Preschool Kids Academy since 2018. He writes from that: what small children actually do with the app, and the questions parents send in. Where an answer is a matter of evidence rather than experience, the source is linked rather than asserted.
Part of a series
This is one of 4 guides in Talking, letters and first writing, in the order a child meets them.
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Published by Mobizio Studio. Every child is different, and nothing here is medical or developmental advice.