Yeah, it's not really convincing that it can typically take up to 7-8. By that age kids are already able to read, write and do basic math, which of course requires them to understand "classes" like numbers and letters, such that they could handle both "write a number" and "write 23".
My daughter had a solid grasp of it definitely around 16-18 months. She could easily talk about books or toys, cars, food, drinks etc.
Not sure if this is unusual but 7-8 as the other poster mentioned sounds crazy late for that kind of conceptual understanding to appear.