Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school My intro and a question

Hi. I'm Cara and stay at home with our 22 month old son. I hope it is okay that I am posting here. I don't really know where we fit in.

While I don't think he is extremely gifted, especially compared to some of the kids I read about on here, we feel he is above average in some areas. I don't like posting on my favorite parenting board because others talk about how bad it makes them feel when their children don't do what others the same age can.

I'm a first time mom so I don't know what is normal for his age. But many people have commented on his verbal skills and letter knowledge...other parents, friends who work in early ed, church nursery workers and even total strangers. We adopted so I don't know his family history as far giftedness.

He has a huge vocabulary, puts together 3-4 sentences and has a great memory. He can hear a word once and remember it much later and in different contexts. For example he found a pinecone once during a walk and weeks later pointed out one carved into a coo coo clock.

He is obsessed with letters and has been for a long time. Even as a baby he would touch them if someone was wearing a shirt with writing on it or point to them in books, etc. He knows all the names and most of the sounds. He will ask for the 'alphabet' which means he wants to watch videos or play games about letters. We thought he was saying 'elephant' for a while so we would find elephant stuff and he would get mad so we know he doesn't just want any video. Everywhere we go he identifies letters on signs, packages or whatever. He doesn't always do them in order which makes me think he doesn't realize they go together to make up words.

My question is what, if anything, do we do now? Do we start trying to teach him to read? How would we even do that? I don't want to push him into anything he isn't ready for, but I don't want to hold him back either if he wants more. Or is this all normal development and we don't need to do anything special?

Thank you all for taking the time to read this. Please let me know if another forum would be more appropriate.

Cara, this sounds a lot like my DS4 was at this age. Try showing him the alphabet stuff at starfall.com and see if he likes it. That's the site I credit with teaching DS4 to read (he was about three and a half, I think).

Our next step from there was Letter Factory and related videos from Leap Frog, which our DD kept watching even after she was already reading. They show how letters make sounds, and sounds build into words, in a way that our child, at least, found very engaging.

This is why you belong here

I second the Starfall.com recommendation - my kids loved that too. Your DS will likely pick up on the reading concepts if exposed.

My DD loved board books and was constantly bringing them to me (before she could walk, even... she'd have one hand on the wall for balance and the other one would be holding a book ) She'd "make" me sit for hours (she was obsessed by it all): she'd point at words and I'd say them. We'd also sound out letters. Another neat tool is the Word Whammer (I think by leap frog... it's not on their website anymore but you might be able to find it on eBay). The child plugs letters into spaces (three of them) and the toy sounds out the word that they've made. My DS loved that one.

The best toy/tool was our magna doodle... SO cool... I'd write letters and she'd say the sounds, and then I'd write small words and she'd sound them out. For example, I'd write "cat" and then erase only the "c" and replace it with "b" etc. Then she'd take the pen/stylus (whatever it's called) and try and copy the letters. The magna doodle is easier on their little hands than paper and pencil. She was obsessed with that too.

The only word of advice I'd offer is that make sure you just keep it fun at this point. I know that seems like a no brainer, but it's easy to get caught up in the self imposed pressure of "I must maximize his potential." I'd say definitely expose him to reading, but if he's not interested, just let it be for now. Definitely keep the exposure there (keep lots of books around, let him see YOU reading, etc), but don't attach any pressure or expectations to it

My child is not much older than yours and was the same way in terms of learning letters/sounds and recognizing words at a very early age. I realize I'm posting this on a gifted forum but I don't think my child is unusually smart and I think it's probably very common for 1-year-olds to pick these things up easily given how much exposure young kids have to words and letters in the environment and books.

I do like to teach and in terms of teaching reading, I recently read a book that focused on the importance of writing in learning to read so in addition to helping my 2-year-old learn to sound simple words out with fridge magnets and recognize words in books when she points them out and asks what they are, I have put a little more effort into teaching my child how to write letters when she is playing with crayons. However, we just do this when she shows interest and it's a small part of our day.

I found it helpful to learn about a variety of milestones (fine motor skills, gross motor skills, cognitive) to get ideas of what kids the same age or a little older should be doing and when I want to teach DD something I try to focus on age-appropriate things that she hasn't mastered yet like learning to cut with scissors, learning to clap to the rhythm of a song, learning to ride a tricycle and more developed pretend play. I enjoy teaching my child and I do try to teach reading but it's not a very big focus at this age because although DD is interested in words learning to read is not something DD is begging for right now and she has so many other things to learn.

Leapfrog books with the tag pen. Both my boys love (d) these. Those books not only read the words, but has word building games. The pens are more durable than they look. The first one we bought was 5 years ago and still works well!

Your son sounds very much like my DS at that age. I agree with the previous posters suggestions: starfall.net, Magna Doodle, and the Leapfrog magnet toy:. http://www.amazon.com/Fridge-Words-...4510370&sr=8-2&keywords=Leapfrog+magnets

I think you should just follow your son's interests. While my DS was interested in letters, I bought the Preschool Prep Sight Words dvds, and he loved those. He also really enjoyed watching the show, Word World. Then, all of a sudden, his interest in letters waned, and he switched to numbers/math. Now, at age 4, I think he is probably more advanced in numbers/math than phonics/reading (he is not reading--at least not that I am aware of; sometimes I do not know what he can do until I observe him in his room when he thinks I am not looking :-)

Anyway, welcome! You are definitely in the right forum. I do not post or ask questions often, but I have found this forum very welcoming and helpful.

Thank you all so much for being so welcoming and helpful. That can hard to find online, especially in the parenting world.

We got a Magna Doodle last night, and he loves it. He has trouble coloring because he doesn't push hard enough to see his marks or something. His face lit up when he used the Manga Doodle so that alone was worth posting.

Like I said, we aren't sure where he falls in the average, bright, gifted scale, and it doesn't really matter. We will just follow his lead, challenge him a little and most of all let him enjoy be a toddler. I never knew little kids were this much fun or how much we would learn from him.

Another vote for Starfall. My DS adores it!

And...welcome! We're delighted to have you join the discussion.

I just wanted to give a quick update.

This morning he sounded out 'car' his first word! We have been taking things slow and following his lead as suggested. Lots of reading including the occasional BOB book, Starfall, letter magnets, Super Why and the Magna Doodle, which is what we were doing when he 'read' today.

He is also counting objects like toys up to 5. I didn't realize this was a big until my friend with an early childhood degree about fell over when she saw him do it. Of course she works with disadvantaged 4 year olds so her frame of reference may be a bit off.

But once again, I just wanted to say thank you to you all for your excellent advice and support.