Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion When did your child start to read independently?

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DS8 started reading just before his second birthday. He was fairly independent rather quickly. He liked me to read to him as well so we'd each choose a page and read to each other. I'd read the lefts and he'd read the rights. We still do it on occasion.

you'd really need to define "reading". My DD's would read independently a child's book at 2 yrs of age (pictures, words the lot) but if you are talking a paper back novel, no pictures, with mulitple chapters I'd say 5yrs.

DS8 was always very independent about his play and everything, so he was "reading" independently even before he could read -- he played with my books from the bookcases he could reach, and along the way he learned to read them. He read the numbers (page #s and chapter #s and any other #s in books) first, from about 18 months, and by 2 1/2 to 3 he was reading everything. Of course, understanding most of it came along later.

DS 5 liked the sharing too, I think was nervous that being able to do it himself meant we wouldn't read to him or with him, but once we assured him we would read together as much or as little as he wanted he was more independent. And then it became almost a compulsion. He is the kid who props up books while eating (when I let him) and wants to read everything he can see!

He read sight words at 3 but then went 0 to 600 in less than a year, almost frightening leaps - clifford starter books right before 4 by 4.5 when I found this group he was doing much more advanced and now at 5.5 is reading and comprehending books on his schools 5th grade reading list and is science comprehension is much higher.

All that being said, he has the emotional skills of.a 5 year old so a lot of content is too
scary or too inappropriate. It's a balancing act. I've gotten great book advice here but the best I got was on the wall of the library, it said just because your child can read the words don't forget the pictures. In one of his leaps forward DS was devouring nonfiction
and chapter books and because of that sign I realized I was ignoring his 5 year old parts in favor of the advanced parts. So in his library basket right now are 2 simon basher science books, a dragon slayer academy book, the newest Melanie watt picture book, and 2 older chapter books which he has finished but he wants to read with us too.

I go to the library constantly to keep the books flowing, but he sets the pace on how long we keep them. Also I found that DS liked pictures long after being a really
competent reader, there are great "picture" books that are more substantive, like magic school bus.

I could obviously go on and on it's really fun when they are interested in reading like this but for us (and others here) it's also a bit like having to feed them. DS actually gets antsy without new material. There are a lot of flavors to the early readers - I would do a search, there are some fabulous threads and the book rec's are awesome here!

DeHe

Hi Annette,

My DS just turned 4 and he is independently opting to read 1st/2nd grade story books on his own (not chapter ones usually but picture type) just starting recently (despite having been technically able to for at least a year.) The Mr Putter series is at the upward edge of what he'll read on his own, or abridged type Winnie the Pooh, easy picture books.

He independently read non-fiction in areas of interest earlier, around 3 maybe although I forget exactly when, very long ago now -- adult level non-fiction coffee table type books, guides and encyclopedias (but mainly bolded text, side-notes, picture captions, not lengthy small text). Also around then started mid-elementary age non-fiction. Prefers an adult to read those too but around late 3s much more willing to do it on his own, such as spontaneously in the car or when the parents look busy.

Anything like a fiction chapter book he still much prefers an adult to read. If it's a long story we have to stop part way in to act it all out and then lots of variations on the story line to the point there is little resemblence to the original... finally returning to the actual book possibly weeks later. So I choose shorter ones, as I get frustrated with not ever finishing the books. DS doesn't seem to need them finished.

In addition to what you've mentioned to read to them, DS likes the Andrew Lost series, also liked The End of the Beginning, The Complete Winnie the Pooh stories (not abridged).

I think for DS stories are a time of feeling connected to a parent, a passive entertained or cuddled feeling. Because of that I have tried hard not to push him to read on his own -- it's difficult not to when I know he can easily do it, there are a lot of moments when I could get a lot done if he was reading a long book.

Other things that get in the way of him reading long books are interest in pictures (spends as much time looking at the pictures as reading the text), and a tendency to re-read a line or jump down 2 lines instead of one when he reaches the right hand side of the page and has to start again at the left, especially with small print.

I wish there were more long stories out there with detailed pictures on most pages, with lots of text but more visually broken up into segments.

Polly

Mine was another early self-taught reader. I think in the sense you mean he's been an independent reader at least since around the time he turned 3, maybe 2.5; but he was certainly younger than that when he started to like sitting and looking through books on his own, and I don't really know when he was first actually reading them. It's probably more to do with personality than with reading as such, though - he's always been very content to amuse himself much of the time. (I thank my lucky stars he's an introvert like both parents!) In terms of the mechanics of reading, my shorthand is that his reading age tracked roughly twice his chronological age from 2.5 for the next couple of years, but in fact by the time he started school at 4.5 he could read anything he was interested in, including adult science material, and when he got stuck on a word it would generally be because the word wasn't in his vocabulary at all, rather than because he couldn't decode it. Can't really answer the question about chapter books because the stage at which he was becoming competent to read them was also a stage in which he was much more interested in non-fiction books which aren't laid out that way. He had some favourite short chapter books at 3, but serious interest in fiction didn't really come till later (4, then more each year since).

When I saw the Frog and Toad, I remembered posting about my DS's first books. A search brought up this thread:
When do you consider your child a reader?

I know there are other threads out there, too, if you feel like searching.

My kiddo always liked to be read to as well, and it took a while before he would pick up a book and read it by himself. He grudgingly would when he was 5 in kindergarten and he had some reading logs. Now at 7, he's reading all kinds of stuff. Currently he's on a math kick, so it's "The Number Devil" and "Life of Fred."

Here are a couple of threads for your "milestones":
What is your first grader reading?
What is your 10/11 year old reading?

I remember feeling the same way when my kids were starting to read. That kind of book doesn't seem to be as common nowadays -- I had better luck finding them at used-book stores and library sales than at regular bookstores.

Anyway, here are some of the books I was able to find that have the format you describe -- most are large-format and all have good illustrations but also a fair amount of challenging, interesting text.

Fiction:
The Minpins (Picture Puffin edition), by Roald Dahl
The Great Blueness, by Arnold Lobel
The Last Basselope, by Berke Breathed (creator of Bloom County)
The Book of Beasts, by E. Nesbit with illustrations by Inga Moore
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, by Janet & Allan Ahlberg
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, by Rudyard Kipling with illustrations by Jerry Pinkney
How the Elephant Got Its Trunk, by Kipling with illustrations by Tim Raglin
Petronella, by Jay Williams with illustrations by Friso Henstra

Poetry:
Sir Cedric, by Roy Gerrard
The Remarkable Farkle McBride, by John Lithgow
Micawber, by Lithgow

Non-fiction:
Life Story, by Virginia Lee Burton
biographies of Columbus, Lincoln and others by the D'Aulaires (of 'Greek Mythology' fame)

Hope this helps!

Our dd (now 11yo) showed unusual interest in the written word at a very early age. One of her first spoken words was "readabook." And her speech and reading fluency took off almost simultaneously, just around her 2nd birthday. By age 4 she didn't want us to read aloud to her any more, 'cuz we were too slow :-(

These days, she's still crazy about books and its a rare day she reads less than 500 pages. And she's very cuddly - fortunately we found ways to bond with her other than reading aloud to her.