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

My son spoke early - at 6mths. He knew his alphabets at 9-10 mths. At the time, we had a felt wall-poster chicken with 26 pockets for each of the alphabets. His nanny (DH and I were working so much then, we had no idea that having a talking baby was special or different) showed me he knew how to put each letter back if you called it out. He was sight reading shortly after (could read out any page of Richard Scarry's Mother Goose, so it had to be by sight!). I think he learnt to put the letters together after 2 years old.

This is terrible - it took two nursery teachers to convince me that he was unusual at age 4, and that's when I started reading up about GT issues.

We thought our son was reading when he was 3. He would "read" Dr Suess books letter perfect (even if we had only read the book together once). We started pointing out individual words, which he couldn't read, so we realized he was memorizing the book. He was, however, really reading middle of 2nd grade (400+ lexile), at least (teacher stopped testing at this point) when he started Kindergarten. He got him moved to fulltime gifted program, but I wish we had accelerated at that time also. He spent 5 years bored in school before he was finally accelerated.

I didn't have my child evaluated, but he did learn his letters and number shortly after turning 1 and was obsessed with them. I was a little concerned about autism and hyperlexia at one time. We filled out an Autism eval. form and he didn't fit. His ped. told me he believed he was gifted. He started reading sight words at the end of his 14th month. He is now 2 years 3mo. and is reading books and speaking in up to 9 word sentences as well. He asks all kinds of questions about everything. He has a very vivid imagination. It's very entertaining to watch him playing with his stuffed animals, Little People, etc... He gives his stuffed animals different voices and they actually have conversations with each other.
My child hasn't had the tantrums other 2 y.o. children do because they can't communicate. We communicate very well and when I ask him what's wrong, he tells me. Good luck in finding resources out there for a child this young. I have found nothing. Don't worry.

I haven't read all the replies - by my DS (now 6) was an early reader. It's hard to pinpoint when he actually read, but there were weird things like at about 18 months he had "memorized" all 23 titles of a Beatrix Potter mini library we have and could tell you what they all were (by the number listed on the spine - even without looking at them). He definitely knew all his letters and was "reading" some simple words (cat, hat, his name) by 24 months, and then by about 3.5 I'd say he was fluently reading things like "Henry and Mudge". He also has a crazy math thing going on - and that was actually what stood out to us (perhaps to the oversight of the early reading). Before age 3 he was skip counting by 20s, skip counting backwards by 3's, had memorized all the squares from 1-12 (thanks to a book that we read to him two or three times tops), and now in first grade is easily learning algebraic concepts, division, fractions, etc.

He sounds so much like my son. My son took a slightly different route in his early learning. At 11 months, he took to spending hours in front of his playschool easel learning to write his alphabet. He was reading fairly well by 18 months and then like many others discovered math. His reading skills are high school level (at least) but math and science light him up! He is extremely intense and has single minded focused to the point of craziness! When he decides he's going to learn something, he does, it doesn't matter how long it takes or how many people he has to annoy to get the answer, he will.

At the age your son is now, I signed him up for Time4Learning on the computer. Bad mommy using the computer for a babysitter! But honestly it was the only way to keep up with him. He wanted to know everything, completely insatiable. Enjoy the ride!!

That's wow even for this board. Enjoy him! Does he already curl up with a pile of books and get found hours later? This is to be encouraged :-) My main advice would be to make sure that he has a place to play and read away from you (his bedroom, for example) and that it's comfortable and that you encourage him to use it frequently, e.g. by having a "quiet time" each day when he has to be there (awake!). The intensity is easier to cope with if you get regular and predictable breaks, even if they're short. (Is he napping still? even if he is, he won't be for ever, so you may want to avoid having his nap time as your only time away from being "on" for him, for your sanity's sake.)

I can't remember whether you were in the thread where I was advising getting a chunky basic calculator for a young child, but this might be something he'd enjoy. And plenty of books, including ones that are too hard for him to read right now but have good pictures or whatever, and not forgetting all the usual 2yo stuff, of course!

Sounds exceptionally and profoundly gifted. My 2.5 y.o. (will be 3 in Nov.) reads at a 2nd grade level and does many gifted things, like knows his numbers to a billion and the names of many dinosaurs I didn't even know existed, but your child is way, way beyond that. Wow!!!

That's one thing I enjoy about these GT communities... no matter how off-the-charts one kid is, along comes another... wow, wow, wow.

That is just amazing.

I have to comment because I read your son was 22 months. I have a daughter who is 22 months. She is nowhere near reading though. Hah! She does however love to talk. She has perfect pronounciation and loves long words. She just loves words. So, the states are a fun hobby of hers, too. But, I don't even think she cares what they actually are. She just loves saying there names. She is the same with dinosaurs and planets and number and shapes and body parts... I could go on and on. If you tell her a word she holds onto it.

I wish she would want to learn to read, but nope. I am stuck doing all the reading. She has known every letter no for so long it is like she doesn't care anymore about them. I am trying to get her excited about them again by going over there sounds. I wish I had done that in the beginning, but I actually was trying to tone it down at the time, because it was so unusual. She was like 15 months old yelling out letters everywhere. Other moms were making me feel bad.

My daughter also is go go go. She never wants to stop. I like your ideas about tiring them out. I am going to take her swimming tomorrow.

What we like to do is go to the museums. we try to go every other day. She loves the natural history, aquarium, and zoo. She is like another child there. It is so funny because she doesn't get much out of the playground. She'd rather go to the museum.

But, of course you know, PMc, that all children are gifted... and that when you quit hothousing your child like this, he'll level out around the third grade... so you don't need to do anything special. Just let him be.