Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school reciting Alphabet backwards?

I need a little "gifted milestone check". My younger one just turned 3 yesterday and for the last couple of months he hasn't been doing anything too wild and crazy (other than we know he's been reading a lot on his own, which is wild and crazy of it's own, I guess ... since he started doing that around 2.5)

He used to LOVE the alphabet and the alphabet song until in the fall I sang him the ABCs at a hospital ER room to calm him down (I used to use it for calming him down a lot back then) and he started associating it with "bad" things happening and would not let anyone sing the song around him afterwards and not even Twinkle Twinkle because of the melody. He still would sometimes show he knows the letters and sounds and all but pretty much had moved past that. Then, earlier this week suddenly went from severely speech delayed (talking on a very limited basis and mainly one word) to speaking in full sentences, basically overnight. He still prefers to be quiet but then out of nowhere says a sentence when he needs to / feels like it and then goes back to being quiet. Yesterday, I overheard him singing the ABC song again and today he was walking down the kitchen saying the Alphabet A through Z going in one direction, turned around and started Z through A going back. Pretty much the same speed and ease as A-Z. He made one mistake, realized it right away, went back to the previous letter and did it right all the way through A. I was floored. I had serious trouble keeping up with him to see if he does it right ... my method of checking was flipping the letter pairs to see if they go correctly (hard to explain but I'm sure you know what I mean). But he went so fast and fluently I just couldn't keep up.

I'm sure it's a pretty normal thing for kids on this board, or at least for those who have interest in letters and reading but just wondering at what age did your kids start doing this?

He also showed me that he really IS somewhat off the normal development curve when he beat his speech therapist at a word bingo game that I have on my cell phone. The game says the word he's supposed to find on the bingo card and he was faster at it than the therapist This was the first time I ever heard her say "you are right! He really CAN read!"

Oh, and wondering if anyone might have an idea of an android app or Kindle app that would be a good dictionary / thesaurus for a child but one that would read the content to him. We have a Vtech V.Reader system and his favorite part is browsing through the Vocab for the books and having the words spelled to him and then it reads the definitions of the words. So I am trying to find something that would work in a similar way? Since he just turned 3, maybe it's time to start prepping him for a spelling bee since he loves his words so much??? lol

Z-Y-X-and-W,V-U-T-S-R-and-Q. P-O-N-M-LKJ-and-I. H-G-F-E--DCB-and-A!

Hilarious fun. I think our son was about the same age when we first heard the reverse ABCs on a Kiddie CD. After that, it probably took a few months for that song to get bumped off his internal playlist.

(If I ever get pulled aside for a roadside sobriety, I'm passing that "backwards alphabet" part for certain.)

As for improving vocab and spelling, I bet that your son will benefit most by simply continuing his love for reading.

ha! I've never heard the alphabet done that way! lol We don't have any songs that would have it. When I watched him do it, I could tell he was "seeing" the alphabet in front of his eyes and basically reading it backwards.

I'm just wondering about the thesaurus / dictionary apps because he's been through the word lists he has in the V.Reader so many times, he's getting bored with it but clearly enjoys the words. So I want to give him more options to move on to. ... Quite frankly, I'd prefer for him to finally learn to eat using utensils rather than his hands before learning any more words but he has other plans ...

My son was 2y8m when he started reversing ABCs. I have also wanted to give my son a dictionary to read, as he remembers everything, but I worry about inappropriate words. Is there an app that solves that problem? (I am not hip to technology :P)

I don't know if it would solve that problem--but I love the Montessori crosswords app.

My ds started doing the ABC reversing sometime between 2 and 2 1/2. He would sign and sing the letters at the same time. He probably did it for a year before he got bored with it. I don't know any apps as he is now 13.

I do remember he had a toy that would pronounced the words if you spelled a word correctly or just the letter sounds if it was a nonsense word. He could sit all day punching in letters to figure out new words. It was like a game or a challenge to him to figure out as many words as possible. He learn a huge number of words and could decode any word after a few months with that toy.

Maybe there is a similar app.

Thanks, deacongirl, I'll check it out

Our DS10 did this as a toddler. He would write the ABCs in a circle on the driveway, go around clockwise and sing them forward, and then go around counterclockwise and sing them backward. (Done frequently enough that I can still do it.)

The tune in our family concludes with "Now I know my Z Y Xs, Please don't go and move to Texas." No offense meant to Texans, just couldn't think of anything else that rhymes with "exes."

Messing around with Scrabble tiles is a nice way to build on this interest.

DeeDee

What about checking out picture dictionaries from the library? Then sit and interact with him and the book in short spurts. Then when he sits with them by himself he has the pictures to remember your going over the words with him.

Used bookstores are great places to find piles of picture dictionaries.

He won't do books with us. In 3 years I've only been able to sit down with a book with him twice. He's just too darn independent! I still don't get how a kid that has never been read to could pick up on reading at 2.5 years old? But he just did from TV and Leapfrog games. I did buy him couple picture dictionaries but since he won't let me read them, It doesn't work, at least not for now. And they are too advanced for him to read them by himself ... actually who knows. We have no idea how much he can read on his own. We just know he does.
He's unfortunately hooked on electronics . I'm hoping I can find something for Kindle Fire since that's what he likes to use to read books.