Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Spooky.

I have two sons. Both have been exposed to a text rich environment from birth with both parents modeling reading, both parents reading to the children. Both children were very curious about print from a young age.

Older son broke the code in Kindergarten. He did whatever the teacher asked him to do all school year at school but didn't really show that he was sounding out or attempting any reading at home. Still enjoyed bedtime stories. Spring break he woke up one day and showed us all he could read...no sounding out, no emerging halting bumbling...he went from 0 to 100 miles an hour. If I had to guess I would say very fluent late second grade level. He was off to the races. Comprehension was right there too. He always had been one to make connections (abstract, book to book, book to life, book to imagination) and that continued at this reading level and all through his school career so far.

Younger son, at 4, looked around the house and came to the conclusion that he was the only one present who couldn't read. He asked me to teach him. I took out the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 lessons. He did the first 10 lessons in the first session with me, he wouldn't stop. The next day he did another 10. The next day the lessons were getting harder and I stopped after 5 but he wouldn't put the book up and worked through parts of the book by himself (you would have to see the book to understand). He then took the book back to his room and in a few days he was a reader. He would read or attempt to read anything posted. Our night time reading became half me reading to him and half him reading to me because that is what he wanted. Also one of those kids without what I would call a long emergent reader phase. He entered K reading 3rd grade books. His comprehension also completely on the same level of his decoding. His instructional level in 4th grade (with a skip of third grade) is 9th grade level (he isn't getting instruction at this level but that is the tested level). He reads from the library 4th grade to 7th grade books (his elementary school doesn't have many books higher than 7th grade).

The article assumes so much about Sarah. I would love it if Sarah's MOM could give her story. I bet it would be so much more informative.