Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school What's considered reading?

Children may read books that are familiar to them early on because of the familiar context, which helps them figure out some of the words even if they don't have the book committed completely to memory. Despite all the talk about children having photographic or near-photographic memories, they are actually very rare. I suspect that it would be a rare pre-reading/early-reading child indeed who could recite from memory the complete text of all the child's favorite books without error, or even the hidden text of every page upon seeing the picture of the page. There's bound to be some reading going on.

When a child teaches themselves to read, really teaches themselves (no being lead at all by flash cards, Star Fall or a program of some kind) by being read to, watching your lips and listening to the sounds and asking lots of questions one phase at a time (starting with "what's that?" when pointing to letters everywhere and things, asking how things are spelled endlessly) watching some of these kids shows on PBS, they do break the code and I guess there is something more than just memorizing going on. I just always had people challenging me on it (mostly family) so I tended to play it down somewhat.

My DD’s experience learning to read was very much in huge leaps and bounds that I could not define. It does happen to some kids. Actually the older librarian where we used to go (his second career after retiring as a chemist) remembers learning how to read when he was about 3 1/2. He doesn’t know how it happened but he does remember the day when he could pick something up and start reading it on his own. He mostly just remembers spending time with his grandfather reading to him, asking questions here and there. Sometimes you read about slaves or other people that were kept in ignorance by a higher authority learning to read over time by seeing the cook reading recipes and other things, somehow linking the text to the speech. Some people are truly superb code-breakers.

We thought DD’d be an avid reader but she’s really not. It’s like she was more interested in the fun of breaking the code or so unhappy that there was this huge informational secret out there that she didn't know about and she couldn't take it anymore!

She’s still strictly in it for the information, or realizing that you should have a book with you if you think you’re going to need to wait, like going to the doctor’s office. She does love stories but she's not one of those voracious readers like a more classic gifted reader you'd think of.

The experience with me having a child who could read so early is part pride but part a big responsibility because I felt like I needed to shield her from more things at a young age and if she did have a chance to read a headline about kids killed in a car crash or something, her reaction really did indicate that she really understood what she was reading (unlike what the schools insisted she could not). There’s also the problem of the high risk of being bored to distraction upon entering school! And being sidelined for years in the classroom, stopping reading altogether to fit in...

Therefore, when I read or hear about people taking the lead in teaching a young child to read by introducing them to the process before they start asking about or taking an interest, I’m always very perplexed as to why they would want to do it.

No offense anyone!! LOL I think that, since I was considered a “late” reader, just on the verge of it becoming a big issue before I finally broke through, I don’t think there is any reason to rush into it.

IMHO as always.

I tried to make my kid think only old folks died too. He knew Pompa got very old and very sick and died. Then they had a "save the children commercial" on tv and he's immediately like, well then what's this?!

That's funny. Most parents on this forum probably have kids who don't let anything go undetected. It's the nature of the little beasts.

Dd had an avid interest in the written word from an extremely early age. By 12 mo. she would totter around with this huge DK word book --- one of her first words was "readabook" and it meant that she was going to plop in your lap with this book and you would read it to her.

We did help her learn to read, and here's why. She was a very tiny thing (<3rd percentile on weight) and in an effort to get her to stay in the high chair a little longer to eat, we looked for ways to amuse her. At some point (18 mos.?) she showed an interest in the writing on the cereal box and we followed her lead. It took off from there. By shortly after her 2nd birthday, she was a fluent reader as defined other posters here (reading beginning readers she had never seen before as well as signs everywhere ("No Parking, Daddy")). We did censor massively when she was little (but I did finally give in to the queries and explained the feminine hygiene product dispensers - "What does Tampon mean?" - in public ladies' rooms when she and her twin were about 4yo).

Now 12 yo, she has never slowed down on reading, and calls herself a "book addict." She routinely finishes off two substantial novels in a day and on occasion a third.

amylou my older sister was like your DD and my mother taught her to read before she entered school. My mother and sister both enjoyed it very much and my mother was so proud (my father too!)She has always been a voracious reader she sort of breathes in the books.

Since I was next my mother took the initiative to teach me too and I had no interest. There is a stereotypical image of early reader=gifted so sometimes when a child is the minority in a family of gifted readers the child gets the impression that slow to read=stupid, especially if the adults become frustrated. So I guess this is my "reading baggage" LOL

I don't want to give the impression that we didn't help DD learn. She was asking "what's that?" with individual letters under age two and if she asked us how to spell things we always answered her. But she showed the interest first and we just followed her.

She has some markers for dyslexia now (we are getting testing done) what might be called "stealth dyslexia" and I think that is one of the reasons she doesn't really love to read and tires of it more easily now. That's a downside of the spontaneous reading and reading ahead of peers some of things things have been covered up.

This story reminds me so much of my son as an infant. I remember one of my colleagues telling me a story about picking her son up at the daycare they were both at. DS was the last one left, and he was being a little fussy and difficult, and the daycare teacher couldn't find a way to soothe him. My friend looked at him and said, "Read him a book." The daycare teacher gave her a look like she was out of her mind, and she said, "No, I know this kid - try it. Read him a book." So the teacher got him a book and started to read, and it was instant silence. He listened happily to book after book until I got there. The teacher still comments on that day, and it's been three years since that incident.

I wasn't second guessing you, just responding to the question someone posted about why one might *teach* a child so young to read. We actually have a comparison child as well, dd's twin brother. At one point when they were 2yo, dh and I were so sucked into dd's reading vortex that we worried that we were neglecting a similar inclination on ds's part -- that maybe he just was not as effective at asserting as she. So we *did* try briefly with him, but it was abundantly clear that he didn't give a s*** about letters, so we stopped. He did learn to read at about 3.5 yo, but probably would have waited for kindy if it hadn't been for watching the example of his book-loving twin. We did think she was "the gifted one" (or a reading savant?), but time has proven us wrong. He has some executive function issues that she doesn't, combined with a strong stubborn streak, but is an extremely strong performer academically.

Yup! Dd recently declared she'll never need drugs to soothe herself because books do the job. I hope that stays true...

I never thought DS was reading if he was just reciting from memory.

I am a non-native English speaker, and my first language is mostly pictographic in nature. So I am surprised to see that most here consider reading starts when one can sound out words.