DS learned to read at around the same time he learned to talk. Let me clarify that by saying he said words when he was 1, put phrases together at age 2, but having a conversation with him was extremely difficult until he was around 4. Since he started to read around his fourth birthday, for a while his reading actually sounded better. But he is dyspraxic and had delayed speech/language. When he read aloud, his articulation, prosody, voice pitch, etc. actually sounded a lot more normal. Even the neuropsych noted that last spring so it may still be the case. DS is very visual and had very high scores on the non-verbal section of the WISC and also hit the roof on the TVPS with things like visual memory and visual spatial ability. So I think that seeing the words and sentences in print and decoding them helped him to gain language skills. I know it sounds hard to believe. When he got to kindergarten and now in first grade his speech therapist had him read (for instance conversations in stories) in order to learn how to speak with a normal pitch/prosody and rate. He sometimes reads more quickly orally than he speaks naturally. We are now at the point where I think his normal speech sounds about as good as his reading.

Last edited by blackcat; 11/01/13 05:59 AM.