Our early readers� experiences didn�t translate into extraordinarily precocious reading skills or interests as grade school students or as teenagers.
Our ds could count to 100, say the alphabet, and more importantly identify all letters and numbers to at least 100 by 12-15 months. He sight read like crazy before the end of his first year on, but didn�t seem to practice sounding out words. I considered this more recognition than reading (at the time), but he did �read� a lot as a preschooler, mostly to gain information rather than to enjoy a story. He spoke conversationally, in complete sentences, before 14 months. When he started part time daycare at that age, the teachers� reactions clued us in that he had unique verbal ability.
Now at 13, his strongest area is science with math as a close second. Phonological decoding is weak, but once he learns a word, he remembers it so his vocabulary is still advanced and his intelligence is apparent when he speaks. However, I really have to say that what he talks about is always more telling than how he says it. Anything science and engineering related are always his favorite topics of conversation.
