So my DS3 (almost 4) has been reading since he was about 2.5...at this point he can pretty much 'read' anything, aka, look at a word and be able to recognize it and speak it. Reading the words is easy (online test said somewhere around 4th grade, and preschool teacher also noted that he can pretty much read whatever you put in front of him.) BUT his reading comprehension is definitely not as high. My guess is that it's more around 1st or 2nd grade, and that is IF he is interested in doing the actual reading - which more often than not, he isn't. He is a math/science kid, through and through, and so, while he learned to read very early, it's really not his 'thing'. He does enjoy being read to, and sometimes I'll catch him reading through his books, but he is by no means voracious, or even close to it. I'm not convinced he quite realizes that reading by himself will unlock this amazing world to him (I admit, DH and I are avid readers and would love to see this cultivated in DS). But also, I don't want to push him - often we will just read to him, and gently nudge for him to read on his own (usually in lieu of nap, which is happening much too often for my liking!).
Anyway, this has become a bit of a ramble but I was wondering a couple of things,
1. does this seem normal, the ability to read but the comprehension not being as high as the word recognition? Again, I don't know how much of that has to do with his general disinterest in reading by himself, for the most part.
2. Any good ideas for encouraging more comprehension without pushing assessment tests on him or anything like that? We do non-fiction a lot, science books go over well, and DH and I will talk about the stories we read to him and ask questions about them...and he will go along with that for a while, though often after a few he sort of shuts down to questions ("I don't want to answer anymore" type thing.)
Thanks, and sorry for the long meandering post!
