Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Teaching a toddler how to read...

I never felt like I was teaching a toddler to read. Instead, it felt like I was just waiting. All those pre-reading skills seemed to be automatically actuated by her prodigious complex language development. We just took advantage of that and it payed off. YMMV. We waited for her to become interested in learning how to read. And, then we waited for her to become interested in reading books. But, the skills seemed to be already there. And, the phonics versus whole language-- We never really had a say in the matter.

In our case, I felt like it was early complex language development and temperament that allowed her to sit and enjoy books for hours at a time, which in turn helped advance her language even more. And, I think it was her desire to understand language that instigated an obsession in figuring how to read (phonics), although not necessarily to read books. She was not reading books until she evolved into an whole language reader, which seems to be really typical for kids with advanced vocabulary and comprehension ability.

It really was/is this positive feedback loop. Now, all we need to do is keep her enamored with books and not sour her on them by pushing. None of this was anything I would have ever predicted, but we just trusted her and kept it positive.

La Texican, that is it. He will not go to bed without doing at least 40 minutes of reading and workbooks at night. He will point to the book he wants to read or work with and I follow his lead. I would agree then, that would not be me hothousing.

He also asks for "Sam the Ant" (Reading Eggs) and "Backpack Bear"
(Starfall) during the day.

When I spoke with Bobbie from the GDC she said that if the intelligence is not there it doesn't matter how much you work with your kid at this age. They won't get it. I guess if DS wouldn't have an interest and be clueless I would for sure not push him.

I have to agree with Ultramarina. Besides, the Montessori books like Deacongirl linked to say the exact opposite, that teaching academics during the absorbant window of childhood before Kindergarten is actually a great idea. I don't have a Montessori or a Waldorf option, so I winged it.

My son just mixed this Waldorf form drawing lesson withthis Singapore math lesson to make this drawing which defeats the purpose of both lessons... It doesn't have the neat mindfulness of the Waldorf forms OR the equal sizing of the cuisinare ten block rods. Oy hee hee. What can you say. We're teaching kids not robots so it's not an exact science.

Eta: scroll over to the 10th frame on the waldorf form drawing lesson or my Post is messed up. The excercise looks like the "more bars in more places" symbol.

This is a very interesting topic. I have a 2.8yo girl who is very creative artistically and musically. And while she loves to be read to and enacts entire books such as jungle book and rumpelstiltskin, she has shown no interest in reading. She knows all uppercase letters- I don't exactly know how. She also loves to play silly word games like she will say, But, cot, and pat and get quite a giggle when I say ton,ton and ton ( btw the Patton is actually pattern). But like I said she is absolutely not interested in the written word. I am the kind of mom that believes that getting "ready" for kindergarten is absolutely ridiculous. I am also opposed to using flash cards. So I have not even tried to teach her to read. However, we do have tons of art material, musical instruments and puzzles lying around for her to use at her pleasure. So we try to provide a stimulating environment where she can choose. To be honest, my dh tells me that I am too loosey goosey with my parenting. I guess we all do what we know to do.

My perspective on this is slowly shifting (which I guess I could say about just about everything, but ya know), lately, I've noticed that a certain kid can and does read, very phonetically, here and there. But attending to the project takes a lot of effort, and therefore requires significant motivation, and this is not a kid who works well with extrinsic motivation.

So, DS3y knows how to read, but is not a reader. It's just not worth the effort to him to do the act of reading, and it won't get easier until he starts practicing. And he won't practice untill he decides to for his own darned reasons! And I think that's just right for him. A kid that likes extrinsic motivators, or (case in point) requires communicative access would be a really different situation. Like, a REALLY different situation.

On phonics vs whole word: My personal experience is that whole world should flow out of phonics, whereupon it becomes the expert reader's shorthand, but not er method. My experience with my kid is that he requests phonics often, but never whole word approaches EXCEPT for saying "what does that say," which is more of a whole text approach than a whole word approach! When I do catch him having read, there are often artifacts from his having sounded things out, in particular, a more "correct" pronounciation, which sometimes becomes permanant, and which I would very much like to kiss if I could find a material form to kiss.

Oh dear, I just re-read that. I'm in an interesting mood tonight. Sorry

on 18 month old non-verbal kids: DS3y was labelled with an expressive language delay at 19 months, we declined treatment. At 23 months, he was re-assessed as having the verbal output, not including articulation, of a 4 yr old and the same speech path recommended therapy to drag his articulation up to a 4 year level, because he was showing signs of problems seen in 4 yr olds with articulation disabilities. Erm. Wait and see. If yours has good receptive language the stats say you have a very very good chance of seeing the same pattern we did.

If the child is bringing you the flashcards it's much worse not to provide her with the "instruction". At such a young age it's all about them leading. If you're sitting them down and pushing it on them it's not appropriate...at that age.

I'm no expert but my DD's schools have not emphasized phonics and I think that's really bad. Even the smartest kid/person needs this skill at some point because the words get harder and harder!!!

Her singing is also advancing a bit more lately and she's experiencing singing in other languages. The instructors teach the kids by sound (they also see the word in the foreign language, and either the meaning is explained to them verbally (one group) or the English translation is there beneath the foreign language (another group) and it is explained to them the letters or blends that sound different in x language than English. Then they practice one little tidbit of a sound at a time, put the flow of the word together, then add rhythm and then the music.

This probably sounds like "no, duh, how else would a person learn this?" but DD's never, ever had anything so rich at school in English. Phonics has never been a focus at the two schools she's attended. It makes me very supportive of phonics!

I am with the camp that says "give your child what he asks for/what you know he likes". My child brought us books for us to read to him, constantly. So we read them. As a little one who had figured out the alphabet, he loved those chunky little block books that come in a box, each has 4 words per letter and a picture. "A" is for apple, "A" is for anteater, etc. DS would read those to us and he loved them. He liked all the Alphabet books too - after he had us read them to him over and over, he then took over and "read" them to us. He also had those Leapfrog magnets that form 3 or 4 letter words. He liked those too. But his real passion was road signs, ha ha. When he was 2, he loved road construction because he would read the signs he knew and learn new ones. When I went to buy him his own first book to read, I found a great one called "i read signs". By the time it arrived, he had already figured out the reading code, but he still liked the book.

As for hothousing, I personally think it's hothousing if a parent sets out to formally teach a toddler something academic before he showed signs of wanting to learn it. Obviously, we are teaching our children things every moment of their lives, but the purely academic stuff I think can wait until they show us they're ready. (But I'm speaking of toddlers now - when they're 4 or 5, I think that's a good time to get learning.)

Btw, I got distracted by my Waldorf mutterings. I have several thoughts on teaching toddlers to read, as I had two toddlers who expressed interest and who I offered varying degrees of instruction to.

--Don't develop any particular expectations even if you see some big interesting developments. DD had a bunch of sight words around 18 months, could sound out around 3, but didn't actually read till almost 5.

--Be careful not to give this activity more value and excitement than any other exploration you'd do with your kid, from chalk to ctaching bugs. Let the kid lead. Then you'll not have to worry about hothousing, if that nags at you.

I agree, though it's probably self-serving. DS6 learned to read early after indicating continued interest. He did a lot on his own, but he also did ask for help/input too and I did teach him somewhat. I remember that we bought him "Fridge Phonics" and some other things, including these wonderful Phonics Made Easy flash cards. The main event was always reading to him, though.

My DS was always so motivated to learn and read. He's a very 'academic' kid...loves flashcards, workbooks and learning toys...and books of course. My family criticized me for pushing him - they never understood (at first) that it was child led. I had to push my ds to have what I called 'imagination time', crazy! Now they get that DS is just this kind of a kid. My DD2 seems to be slightly more balanced with academics and free-play. She taught herself to count to 20 (have no idea where she learned that). But doesn't obsess over letters the way DS did. Thoughher vocabulary is amazing. She loves to go through DS' old flashcards and name the items (even obscure things like umpire and coral)...do I just go with her stregnths instead of making her into her older brother. It's fun to see how different they are!