I do think my DS2.6 is "reading" at his speech level ... which is very simple. He's speech delayed and only speaks in words. More in terms of labeling objects, characters, animals and few verbs. He started sounding out words 2 months ago starting with words like cat, hat ... from then he's moved onto animals like kangaroo, zebra, octopus ... he uses his own mix of phonetic sounding out and sight recognition from books, tv and other sources around him. He doesn't like to have books read to him and prefers to go through them himself. He doesn't read in sentences ... but he doesn't speak in sentences either. His reading is strangely in sync with his speech. He knows the meanings of all the words he can read and he doesn't read words he doesn't recognize. That is why I think he is truly reading though in a very simple manner. I have actually started our own speech therapy with him where I write new words for him, tell him what it is and then he remembers the written word and adds it into his spoken vocabulary. We don't practice reading or anything like that ... he just brings me his magnadoodle when he feels like reading and wants me to write words for him so I do and he's happy
. If he continues this pattern, he'll probably start reading real books pretty soon after he starts talking in sentences.
