Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Anybody have a boy who learned to read very early?

More early readers here. At least 3 of our 4 (2 boys and 2 girls) started reading single words at 12-13 months and were reading simple books at 2. It's normal for us, so I don't think about it too much, but initially, it felt very freaky.

Mr W (24 mos) knew some sight words at 20 mos in both English and Spanish. Now, at 24 mos, we catch him reading by himself and then hiding the fact from us - and the fact that he is reasoning.

But he slips up sometimes - Monday we were at the store and he stopped in the medicine isle and picked out a box with Orajel on it. We were not aware that he was teething. But, he was, and knew what he needed and where it was and found it and put it in the cart.

The Montessori school was all over us on his 3rd day about how advanced he was. "Do you know that he knows his letters and some words?!!!" LOL. Last week he signed himself in with his own PIN, too - he has known my debit card PIN for six months now..


FWIW, I was reading at a 12th grade level in the 3rd grade. The weird thing is that I knew the words before I had heard them spoken so I ended up with some strange pronunciations.

DS5 is like this as well. When he was as young as 3, he pronounced "jalapeno" with a hard j sound and "debris" with an s because he'd learned those words by reading to himself.

Had an experience like this with DS8. We were working on spelling. I asked him how to spell "rendezvous." He said that he didn't know what it meant. I told him I was sure he'd seen the word before, and spelled it for him. He said, "I know that word. I think it's in Harry Potter when they talk about the DA. It means a kind of meeting, right? I just thought it was pronounced REN DEZ VUZ." From that moment, he was able to spell it perfectly. *lol*

Same here. Both DC18 and I read early and spelled early, resulting in some words being mispronounced. Lol.

I had some of those mispronunciation issues as a kid - I remember going to school in junior K (age 4) and pronouncing 'memory' as something like "mee-MORE-ee".

But more on topic, my DS is two and a half and did his first real definite reading of a word (out of context, no familiar logo/picture/font to work from) in mid-November, so 2y4m. Now at 2y6m he's got a handful of sight words and is sounding out simple CVC words, and asking a LOT of things like 'what does that word say?' or 'what's the question mark for?', and really likes for us to write out words for him on his easel. He asked me to draw a trumpet and 'draw its word' the other day, then looked and said "that has the word 'pet' in it!", which surprised me (probably more than it should have, LOL).

Apparently this is pretty much bang-on, to the month, the exact same timing for when I started to read, so I guess he comes by it honestly!

Yes, my 16-mth old reads several sight words and knows his alphabet by sight. He also has an extensive vocabulary, and speaks in up to 10-word sentences (though he is generally prone to 4-5 word sentences and to cutting out connecting words like "the" and "being" verbs). I think he frightened our doctor at his 15-mth appointment, since she had the other physicians in her practice come to watch him talk. I have not, however, noticed him sounding out words other than saying the first letter of each word.

My mother has always insisted that I was a very early talker and reader, and has kept my first diary with an entry from when I was three and a half, so I'm not overly concerned about possible hyperlexia-related issues. It's nice to be able to know exactly what he's trying to communicate at a time when he's often frustrated by what he cannot do; I feel really lucky!

DS 3rd grade does this on a regular basis! Interesting.

I didn't get a chance to read all the responses, but to answer your question: YES! We had a very similar experience. We noticed that DS5 could read at 18 months when he corrected his sunday school teacher when she had said the wrong word reading something on the wall. He had been reading some before that, but we assumed he just knew the stories of things since he had always loved books and we read so much to him. But it turned out he could actually read quite well at 18 months and continued to progress in reading. He is now 5, not sure what reading level but he can read anything. Maybe somewhere in the 6th/7th grade level? But his real interest is Math. He LOVES math. He is already doing algebra and probably averages around 6th grade level for math...but not quite sure. We did have him tested before school started and he is a PG child, which did not really surprise us based on all the early stuff he did. He ended up skipping K and is in first grade with LOTS of differentiation.

My 9yo GT son talked and read very early. The first time he went to an adult babysitter he was about 1 - 1 1/2 months old. When I picked him up, she said 'Do you know that your son says 'hi' back when you say it to him?'
I did know he did that, but I never told anyone, because who would believe that??
He ended up talking in sentences at 5 months old. 'What is this?' 'What is that?' etc... very curious and it drove us nuts :O)
He read 'Gastroenterology' to me off a sign at the doctors office at the age of 3 to the shock of everyone around me...
Kids are amazing aren't they??