Something my daughter did recently got me thinking about how self-taught readers teach themselves how to read.

We were reading a story, and for various reasons related to T rex fossils, I was calling the main character "she." My daughter (still 3 then, 4 today!) corrected me and told me that the dinosaur was a "he." I realized that she must have been looking at the words as I read them and saw "he" where "she" should have been.

My kids aren't self-taught readers like many of yours are, with the possible exception of my daughter, who started before 3 1/2. She started earlier than the other two and never had to be taught how to read. She could just sound out simple words. The day care place had taught sounds, and she must have figured out how to put them together.

So now I figure that at least some self-taught readers follow along with mom or dad during story time and figure out the letter sounds by hearing the words and working out how the letters sound.

Does anyone else have thoughts about this idea? Pardon my slowness if you all figured this out ages ago....

Val

Last edited by Val; 08/28/08 05:10 PM.