Sorry, this is going to be long -
I had some questions about my dd4�s very advanced verbal ability and I am hopeful someone on this site can give me some advice. My daughter taught herself to read when she was two, and by three she had read the entire little house series - independently (and yes, she understood it too). Now, at four, she has moved on to Harry Potter and CS Lewis. She seems to read just as well, if not better, than I can. I was told by her preschool teacher that she was tested - and she can read, decode, and comprehend at roughly a 4th grade level. Her writing and language arts skills are in line with her reading. She is currently enjoying the EPGY 4th grade language arts and doing a great job of it. (Shh don�t tell the EPGY people she is only 4 � I think you need to be 6 to register). I can say with confidence that her spelling is, at times, better than my own.
(Personally, I think this is an underestimate of her ability � the teacher told me she thought it was �ridiculous� to think a four year old could answer the questions at the 5th grade level, so she stopped the test. But when I looked at the 5th grade questions, I think she could have gotten about half of them correct).
So here we are. Sometimes I am amazed and proud � sometimes I am just scared for her. My questions are as follows:
a) My estimate is that she has been moving 2 grade levels per year with her reading (pre-K and K at 2, grades 1 and 2 at 3, grades 3 and 4 at 4� Will her progress slow down at some point? Will she begin to level off? Should I anticipate her getting through grades 5 and 6 next year? If so, what does this mean for her academic trajectory? What happens to these kids? Does anyone else have a kid like this? Would love feedback from someone who has a kid a few years older who can give me some advice about what kinds of things I might anticipate moving forward.
b) She does not seem to be particularly advanced in her math ability � she uses her fingers to add and subtract. She can do some borrowing and carrying (although at times this may involve sock removal)� but no multiplication and division yet. It seems as though to be really good at math she would need to be flashcard-ed or something of the sort to learn her math facts. Will she eventually just figure out how to do math (i.e. teach herself) the way she learned how to read � or is math a different animal? Or is it possible to be amazing at reading and just so-so in math. Should you teach math facts to a 4 year old or is that too much? (She has not asked to learn them but is generally pretty happy to learn anything you are interested in teaching her � but math facts are pretty boring to teach, so�).
c) What does this mean for her ability to find friends? Should I anticipate social difficulties? How can I help her connect with kids that might be like her?
d) Would you share this information with your pediatrician? In some ways, they seem to be the �go to� person for all things in the �help, my kid is doing something really abnormal� genre� but I�m not sure about this when it comes to things academic.
Thanks all.
(oh, before someone asks - we did have her tested because we were interested in early K. Her verbal ability is >99.9 but some of the other subscales were just in the >95 or >97 percentiles).. (I know, *just* HA!) - we were advised to wait to start K until 5 because she was shy and physically small (5th percentile).
