I was young when I got into DW, too. I used to see Tom Baker and John Pertwee on PBS in Oregon. I couldn't figure out who they were each supposed to be, and then I saw The Five Doctors when I was like nine, tuned 10 minutes into it and was confused as all get-out.
My daughter asks to watch the Daleks every night, and now she calls her little contraptions Daleks instead of "Doctor Who house" because they really do look like Daleks.
Oh, and as I was typing I just figured out why she makes the "binoculars" gesture when we talk about Daleks. She's trying to mimic an eyestalk!