Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Anybody have a boy who learned to read very early?

This is interesting, I have never heard that early reading would predict mathematical ability or toddler girls would be more likely to read early than boys. Anybody have a reference. I would love to see it. How rare it is to read as a toddler? This board certainly gives a very biased point of view

Your son seems definitely very bright. It is great you have found so many professionals to help you. Good luck!

Not that early! Before he turned two, my son did things like ask about the difference between question marks and exclamation points and pick out the letters "m" and "a" when I asked him how to spell "mama," but I didn't realize he was reading until he was 2 1/2 and I caught him sounding out words in the newspaper at breakfast. When he started kindergarten at 4 1/2, his teacher formally assessed him as reading at the end of 4th grade level (she didn't test any further). He's 5 now and probably reads at at least the 6th grade level.

I have seen an article linking early word decoding to math ability, but I can't remember where. My son is not nearly as precocious in math as he is in reading, but he has taken a sudden interest in numbers just recently, wanting to discuss, for example, the difference between 1,000 and "ten hundred." He's also doing simple multiplication. I have no idea whether this will turn out to be a full-fledged math spurt, or merely a blip.

Hi, my DS began reading easy readers at 2 1/2. He's 7 now, and in 3rd grade. He continues to read above grade level, although he doesn't appear to have a strong interest in reading. I don't think he practices reading much at all, actually, but appears to learn new words by osmosis.

He has been tested and his IQ is in the highly to profoundly gifted range... >99.9%ile.

It will be fascinating to watch your little guy develop! Keep a record of what he's doing (maybe home videos?)

Hi Oli,

I have read that also about reading early and later math ability but I do not recall where I read that. I went looking, didn't find anything whatsoever to back that up, but did find a study theorizing that ability to retell a story at age 3-4 predicts math ability two years later. Specifically the ability to relate the different perspectives of different characters and link events in a story. Vocabulary wasn't related.

http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~doneill/papers/Storytelling%20and%20math.pdf

Polly

Hi PMc,

Sorry for getting off on a tangent before putting in an answer to your question -- my DS is 2.7 and at the level of reading easy readers. He did not read as early as your DS (15 months is truly exceptionally early), he was a late talker and perhaps half of his first "words" were letter sounds at about 18 months. He was reading a few words at about 20 months and fell in love with starfall, and seemed to learn to read from that, and now reads easy readers about 2nd grade level. I had assumed perhaps he would stall out at the level of recognizing single words and just wait a couple years to understand sentences but that did not happen. Then I assumed perhaps he would stall out at sentences with just short words but he pretty easily now reads words like deinonychus, thoughtful, etc. Beyond helping him navigate through starfall we provides barely any instruction. A few moments of fun games like, "can you find the word mommy?" if that counts.

He did stall out some in his drive to read after he had conquered the method of it - he understandably prefers to have mom or dad read to him for the cozy feel of that (and we enjoy that too of course, in moderation but not for multiple hours a day as he used to request). Now if we are busy he'll read to himself and seems to feel good about it. I'm happy for him that he has a way to entertain himself (and he needs a lot of entertainment).

There's hype about hyperlexia (a semi-professional early intervention assessor mentioned it to us at an evaluation for his late talking) but it's a very specific diagnosis that is unlikely (keeping in mind I'm no professional in the field) to have relevance to your DS. Seems like reading early is just par for the course for some bright kids.

I have a hard time getting a sense of the incidence of early reading, whether its just uncommon or is vanishingly rare. The incidence certainly seems to have increased over time perhaps with children exposed to more literacy-related materials. I can only guess though that at 15 months it's vanishingly rare. Many children of the people here on this website read really early and yet I know of no one in my community who has an early reader (except when they say early and mean 4 or 5 years old). Virtually all actual research on "early reading" refers to children able to read some words by kindergarten, there's not much to go on except anecdotes here.

Polly

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.

My son started sight reading at 14 months. He'll be three in a month, and this is how it's progressed so far:

A few months after he started sight reading, he started sounding out simple words, then more complex words. He would read books like Go Dog Go to me. (We could tell that he really knew how to read because we could hand him a new book he'd never seen, and he could read it.)

Now, at two and eleven months, he likes to read picture books to me and also by himself. He can read pretty much anything and will attempt to sound out unfamiliar words. He reads about like a first or second grader.

Of course, he still has the life experience of an almost three year old, so we select his reading material accordingly.

And I forgot to mention:

The early reading has led to other interests like spelling words (using blocks or foam letters) and foreign languages. Seems like an interest in decoding in general.

DS read early, but he was a hider so it's hard to say exactly when.... 3ish maybe? I know he had at least a couple words before then, but around his 3rd birthday was when he seemed to put some effort into it (all the while insisting he wasn't...) and he was fluent well before 5.

He's still a voracious reader at 10, but his main strengths are in math and science. Early reading hasn't translated into anything like good spelling, but he writes reasonably well (if the topic is interesting). I think the common thread is logic... His early reading was like working out the logic of letters and sounds, his math strengths are logic strengths (not, for instance, notable speed or fact recall....) and his science ability is almost entirely in experiment design and analysis, having never memorized names of dinosaurs or planets or anything like that. So it kind of makes sense that the early reading skills might be related to later math... although I think there are other routes to early reading that might not be logic/math related.

I understand your fear, because I experienced the same with my ds3 now almost 6 year old. As a baby he had many ear infections and couldn't hear well most of the time. He began speaking at five months, but he would speak for a month or two, then regress. I read a LOT to him. I showed him flash cards saying each sound slowly and clearly; I was trying to get him to talk. Ds2, two years older, began reading at 2yrs, 3months, and I taught phonics to him with ds3 sitting or nursing on my lap. One day, he was 23 months, he picked a homemade phonics book that belonged to ds2 and read every word, 460! From then on, he read everything he could get his hands on, provided the font was large. His pediatrician became concerned with his behavior, he wanted to read and count all the time, and played very little with other children. With close observation, we decided he was fine because he was emotionally responsive at home. ds3 took time to socialize well with other children, basically after his hearing became normal; by age four. Anyway, he is almost 6 now, and he reads at a seventh grade level, though we use reading comprehension at a sixth grade level. His math ability is also excellent, we use Singapore math, and he is currently doing 4a, we supplement with ALEKS, and he is social, active in sports, and a well rounded child. I advice you to observe his social responsiveness at home, and if it is normal, then don't worry! Also, read to him and let him advance at his own pace, no matter how fast! As a side issue, my ds2 learned to read after 2, and he was tested by Sylvan at 7yrs, 4months. His reading tested at a ninth grade level, and his math at the 12th. He was given form 20, which is the same test given to tenth grade high school students. I'm homeschooling my boys and they seem to complete a school year every 3-4 months.