Simple question, but I couldn't find the answer on Google (or most likely I wasn't searching the right terms).

When you say a child learned to read at X years old, does that mean reading single words, or sentences, or whole books, etc.?

That is a good question. I would say that it means the child has learned the basics of phonetic decoding ("cracked the code", as reading teachers like to say), which includes blending letter sounds to form words. So a beginning reader typically can read simple structures like CVC (consonant-short vowel-consonant) words, using the first (most common) sound of the letters, and may have a store of under 100 high-frequency words by sight. Most readers reach this stage somewhere between late in kindergarten and mid-way through first grade.

Progressing from single words to sentences usually doesn't take that long, as long as the words in the sentences are fully decodable or in their high-frequency sight vocabulary. The distance from sentences to whole books depends largely on the text density of the book, since many early readers only have a single sentence on each page, accompanied by many visual cues and illustrations. If you're talking about what we consider fluent/mastery readers, that usually takes until the end of third grade, for NT readers, at which point most readers can handle somewhat more substantial chapter books, and need primarily to practice, and build up vocabulary, rather than learn mechanical reading skills.

I often wondered this. I ended up going with the age DS was able to actually sit down and read something, so when he was reading a novel level 1 reader without any help and was able to enjoy and talk about what he had read. Up until that point I considered him to be learning to read.

I often wondered the same with crawling, I considered DS to be crawling when he was on hands and knees and able to purposefully move across the room to get something, but later I noticed many people saying their kids were crawling when they were just dragging themselves along or when they got up on all fours and wiggled out a little progress. There doesn't seem to be a set definition for any of this stuff which makes it hard to understand what is being asked for precisely when we are asked for milestones. I tend to always go with the most stringent definition of everything, I don't need to say DS talked at 1 month because he made a word like sound, crawled at 3 months because he traveled across his crib, walked at 7 months because he let go once while cruising, read at 1 because he knew the words stop and exit (from signs), etc. DS read at 3, late 3 even. Until that time he was not able to put it all together and actually read something in a way that I consider to be reading.

Don't get me started on all of the videos friends post on facebook of their kids "reading" memorized books or, my favorite, those readers they give out in K that repeat the same 2 words and add one novel word in, say a color, written in the color the word represents (I like Green. I like Yellow. I like Blue. etc.) Sorry, not reading. This would probably not bother me so much if I could also have posted early reading videos of my son. But of course I couldn't. That would be bragging and showing off, something you can't do once your kid is too far outside of the realm of average.

But yeah, that is what I went with and I feel confident and truthful saying that is when DS read. But I also keep in mind that my definition is certainly not the one everyone uses, especially on social media.

Thanks aeh! Good to know

SaturnFan, I feel like you. I don't feel I can say DD4 is reading yet because she can only decode simple phonetic words (which she's been able to do since late 2/early 3) but hasn't progressed much beyond that point. Having said that, I haven't made any effort to help her. I get a bit confused between scaffolding and hot housing. But this week I borrowed some flash cards from a friend and after a few days DD4 is pretty close to what I would call reading. She gets a lot further in books by herself now that she's got those sight words plus the basic decoding skills she had before. But still not reading solo. I'm a bit conflicted about whether I should keep going with more flash cards/sight words or let her figure things out by herself. Anyhow. At least if I ever feel the urge, I can say she 'cracked the code' and started 'reading' at 2

With the flashcards stick them with her books and do them if she asks.

My DS started sounding out words around 2 as well, but to me that didn't mean much as he didn't have the other cognitive skills to actually properly read at that point. I wouldn't say that I taught him, as in I didn't use flash cards or workbooks or anything, but I did tell him the sounds the letters make and point out words/print in his environment and I figured he would pick up what he would pick up. I might not have done even that had DS not been super interested in letters/the idea of reading. I would say if your DD is asking to learn to read or showing strong interest when you talk about reading then go ahead and teach as long as you keep it fun and child led. One thing I did once DS started reading was to read together and take turns per page, that way he got practice, had a great time reading with mom, and wasn't overwhelmed by too much work all at once. I also bought a lot of books to make sure there was always something interesting to read that tapped into his interests at the time.

I don't consider teaching kids a problem if it is child led. You wouldn't say that you taught your child to eat just because you prepared some mashed up food and placed it in front of the kid and offered a little guidance for getting it into their mouth. If you squeeze the kid's cheeks open and shove the food in, well that's totally different. If you make feeding time super fun with sound effects and games, well, maybe you will feed your kid more than they naturally would have eaten, but I think it's up to each individual family if they consider that to be acceptable or not. I did not feel pressured not to teach DS anything just to keep up the appearance that I wasn't pushing him. I knew I was just following his lead and that others would judge no matter what. I never helped him eat either, but it doesn't bother me if other people use airplane sounds to get food in a kid as that is well within the realm of normal parenting.

I think the vast majority of parents tell young children colors and numbers and practice counting, etc. and this is fine. I think most kids master this stuff when they are ready. As long as your child is eager to do the learning activities you are presenting and isn't getting frustrated and it is something you feel fits with your parenting style, I say go for it. Either you teach her or they will teach her at school, what's the difference really?

I would agree that as long as it is child-led and enjoyable for the child, "teach" as much as she wants. Given that you're worrying about hot housing, you won't be pushing her too much. It's the parents who are unaware they are pressuring their children who are in danger of hot housing. In any case, I believe it is generally the role of parents to teach their children to develop the skills necessary for independent adulthood.

I did teach mine, to varying degrees, and mainly by request. One has dyslexic qualities, and needed a bit more explicit instruction. Others learned mainly in the process of shared read-alouds, or from older siblings, with embedded phonics instruction and scaffolded reading by the child. Very little reading was taught in isolation (except for the child who received more OG-style instruction). One knew all the letter (primary) sounds for over a year before suddenly blending them into words, at which point it was a few short months to fluent independent reading. Others progressed on a smoother trajectory.

I suspect that when most people state that their child read at a particular age, and that age is early, they are talking about decoding CVC type words. But I agree with you, there are different degrees of "reading" which is why I always qualify my statements by saying things like:

He could decode CVC words at age two.

He could read fluently on a first grade level at age three.

He could read anything you put in front of him, not necessarily with full understanding, at age 6.

I count reading as being able to read multiple word sentences and comprehend what it's saying. Until then it is just reading single words.

I think part of my issue with the flashcards is that I'm not following DD's lead. DD isn't interested in reading at all. Or being read to. Not as a baby, not as a toddler, and not now as a 4 year old. From early on every few months I tried to establish the habit of reading before bed, and it always failed. DD would squirm away, or shut the book, or find something else to play with, or hum to herself, or jump around in bed, or outright tell me she didn't want me to read.

Then I wondered if maybe the reason she didn't like it was just because she couldn't do it herself (totally in character for her). That's why I borrowed the flash cards. I figured if I pushed/coaxed/bribed her for a few days to learn some words then she'd gain some independence and hopefully start to enjoy reading a bit more. And I think it's worked. Last night she let me read her two books (!) and she even read a simple reader (mostly) by herself.

She's pretty impatient, so I think recognising words without needing to decode them makes reading easier/faster/less work/more enjoyable for her. Now the question is should I push her to learn more words in the hope that it will increase her independence/enjoyment of reading, or back off. FWIW, my 'pushing' means spending about 5 min a day with the flash cards while DD4 huffs and makes a bored face, and there's usually some form of food bribery involved...

What does she like? Use that, and you can be creative.

Does she like games? You can make thousands of games out of words. My boys got a Bingo-type game with reading words given for a birthday. You can even play a game that she "keeps" every card she gets right and you can challenge her to get more cards than you.

Does she like treasure hunts? Make notes for her to read. We did this with our kids learning a second language. It was like "Bring back three balls." My oldest loved that game, and all we needed was post-it notes and a pen.

Do you visit the library and let her choose books? You may find that she really likes princess sparkle books or non-fiction weather books. You may find her passion.

I wouldn't push flash cards if she doesn't like them. There are way too many fun ways to teach a four-year-old.

Great ideas DianaG, thanks! DD is very competitive, and also loves treasure hunts, so turning it into either a competition or a hunt might work. Having said that, she's not easily fooled and if she suspects I'm just trying to get her to read it would be just as 'boring' as the cards

I asked her this morning if she would like some new books, now that she's 'reading', and she said yes (win!) asked for books on bunnies and the PJ Masks. So hopefully we've turned a corner now.

I made up some flash cards of my own and stuck them in the middle of the deck, to surprise DD. In order, they read: Daddy. Does. Smelly. Farts. DD nearly peed herself. And when we finished, she asked to do the cards again. Winning! Hehe.

My interpretation is a child is reading once they transition from decoding individual words and begin fluently reading sentences. My definition may be skewed by my oldest child reading books (dr Seuss level) by the time he turned 3. I probably didn't fully realize how strange that was until he got a bit older and we would pull up an old video. My middle child seems even brighter, but isn't as fascinated by letters/decoding. He is 3 1/2 and I wouldn't consider him to be a reader, despite his ability to recognize many words and spell names that are important to him.

When I would judge against a milestone chart, I'd use my definition of reading. If I'm talking to another parent, I accept whatever their definition may be.

This just made me laugh out loud and text your post to my husband.

*tips hat*

In our case, all three of those things occurred within a few months (age 6).

So...yes?

What a special moment Portia

DD is 3Y8M. She used to love to be read from her crawling days until she turned 3. That was the time she started Pre-K3 at a Public school.

Since starting school, her interest in books has become very selective. (I don't know if correlation = causation for this, but this did kind of coincide). She has since designated for herself specific times when she’ll choose to be read to – those also happen to be the times when she prefers to sit in one place for atleast several minutes. Breakfast, drinking milk, while on bed just before sleep etc. She’s a high-energy kid and generally wants to keep moving around all the time.

From what we’ve understood of her, she seems to be more visual than auditory. Phonics don't interest her. But visuals do. She once asked me (she was 3Y2M old then) what the sign on our apartment lobby said, and I read it out for her “Please do not sit on table”. Her first response “Where is THE? Shouldn’t it be Please do not sit on THE table?” (She's highly intolerant to others' grammatical and pronunciation mistakes) And since that instant, she could read the individual words in the sentence wherever she came across them.

Her latest interest is identifying cars on the road. She asked me a few weeks ago what the H symbol in front of a car in the parking lot meant. I said “Honda. It’s the brand of the car. Every car has a symbol which tells the brand of the car.” She asked me to take her around the parking lot and tell her the names of all cars by pointing at the symbol. Now, she can pretty much identify any car on the road from its logo.

Visuals, symbols, geometric shapes, signs, marks seem to fascinate her more than plain words. If words were a part of any of those, they get registered permanently in her. If not, she either chooses not to read, or chooses not to remember.

With her new chosen pattern of reading, she likes to read books which have an intense visual message. She’s currently obsessed with Fire Ants – from the Nat Geo Kids Ants book. She sometimes randomly picks the book and asks us to read just the page on Fire Ant. Needless to mention, she sight-reads the content of that page and a few other such pages.

I’m just inclined to stick with her lead on how she wants reading to happen. She seems to have her own method and her own pace of reading. We keep getting her books that we think may interest her. Sometimes she just picks a new book and tells us “I don’t like this book.” We have no idea why. She mostly chooses not to explain when we ask. But there are other new books she instantly takes interest in.

Kish's comments regarding her DD being a visually-motivated reader sound like my DS as he was starting to read. He seemed to go through a phase where symbolic decoding--be it car logos, corporate logos, letters, or numbers--was extremely intrinsically motivating. During that phase, he figured out how to decode CVC words and began reading simple picture books, like the Maisy books by Lucy Collins (so 1-2 short sentences per page), and he went on an arithmetic kick.

His interest in reading basically flat lined at that level for 2 years, and so I didn't push any progress beyond shared reading for fun and a few word games (with lots of word whacking!). It seemed like he felt satisfied and didn't see a need for more progress, because he didn't have the fluency or speed required for him to read books at interest level.

Almost 2 years ago, I began working with him with an OG system as part of our homeschooling, but found he didn't need direct instruction and could just progress through phonetically controlled readers. The OG system didn't last long, and he plowed through the books quickly. At that point, he could read more text-heavy picture books (e.g. Berenstain Bears, Franklin, Curious George) and simple chapter books (e.g. Mercy Watson, Magic Tree House). However, he still lacked the automaticity required to read at a pace and fluency that would allow him to simply read for pleasure. It was still "work".

For the last 6 months or so, DS has been comfortable reading pretty much any simple chapter book up to about a grade 3/4 level, and he can comfortably read a chapter or two at a time with changes in inflection for different characters. However, he's still not intrinsically motivated to pick up a book and read it independently in his head, so we alternate chapters aloud. I would classify the next stage of reading as being 100% independent, child-motivated silent reading. As DS is a very competitive child, I could see that happening sooner if he were placed in a mixed-age classroom with children a few years older than him.

In a nutshell, I'd say that many things count as "reading", but it's just a matter of the degree of automaticity, fluency, and intrinsic motivation of the child. The conventional reading steps probably apply to GT children, but some phases might be quite short-lived, occur much earlier than is typical, and phases might overlap.