Mumsnet Talk

Just found out today that Dd can pick out her own name from a list, and recognise cat, gruffalo, mummy, daddy, mouse, caterpillar, butterfly, chocolate, cake, bike.

This is quite freaky for me as my eldest 2 didn't start reading until after their 3rd birthdays, although ds1 could read his name at about 2 and a half.

Is this a signifier of g-and-t-ness or is it more likely that It's sn? Seems quite unusual to me but perhaps It's run of the mill here.

Could it be because she's the youngest and is picking things up from her older siblings. My dd3 will also be 2 next month and I'm constantly amazed by the things she can do that neither of her sisters could do until much older. I just always put it down to her copying them.

Wow that is brilliant! Very early. However I was the same (flagged up as 'gifted' from a young age and a lot of that was because of my freakily early reading) but I did tail off a bit - always loved reading and was v good at English but didn't make it to oxbridge or anything).
I'd just encourage it if she's happy but don't make too big an issue of it.

dd could pick out her name/daddy and mummy from a list at 23 months. at age 5 she was on white band books. at age 5.7 she was assessed as level 2a(?) in her reading... (year one) (jsut as a guide) she is a very visual child though

on the other hand she showed early progress at maths, but has definitely stagnated.

yes it is freaky. but what it means, only time will tell. (which is bloody irritating to be told but enjoy it while you can )

Is she recognising the word as a picture shape, or really reading them? e.g. if you wrote cake and cabe next to each other (similar shapes) would she still be able to pick out cake? Not trying in anyway to belittle here, just interested! DS1 knew all his letters, and some digraphs by that age, but couldn't blend them himself until he was nearer 3. He is a good reader (could read Harry Potter by 5) but isn't G&T in any other way.

Lmao of course she's not blending - she's a baby! If we'd been hothousing her in synthetic phonics I wouldn't be so surprised about her recognising words. Re the shapes question: it's bound to be that as I can't imagine it would be making a connection with the letters. She can tell the difference between cat and nut though, so the shape recognition must be fairly detailed. Very odd. Her other talent is rubbing yoghurt in her hair so we won't be applying for mensa membership quite yet

Sorry, I didn't think she was blending, I was just wondering how much she was 'reading' e.g. was she recognising individual letters into patterns, or just general shapes - I do know some people who have thought their child could read as she could pick a particular word off a particular page of a particular book, but had no clue if that word was anywhere else.
It does sound like a fairly advance picture recognition though if she doesn't know the individual letters.

I think it is fairly common for young children to recognise words as a picture. Even children that are not gifted in reading may be able to do this. She is pretty young to do this still to this level.

DS1 was a very early reader and could read all phonetically built words at 3 by blending. He is 6 with a reading age of 12 and comprehension of 8/9 so is a 3b at start of year 2.

DS2 recognised more words by sight but recognising them as a picture but started school last month and is only just starting to remember all his letters and can blend very very easy words! He would recognise the words Star Wars, Anakin and Lightsaber though, lol!

Just let her do whatever she wants but I personally would be encouraging her to learn the letter sounds as you may be surprised at how well she does with that even at just under 2 (DS was 22 months and could recognise the letters at random too).

My DN memorised how words looked and got to the end of YR still on pink level as she couldn't read words without pictures on the pages as she was so good at 'guessing' no one realised why she was struggling on harder books!

Sounds like she's absolutely cracking at pattern recognition, which is a really handy skill to have. But kids like that still need to learn the alphabet, phonics, etc - otherwise they won't be able to break down the patterns and so won't be able to spell/write for toffee. I speak as one who did a similar early reading hack myself (as has DD1).

So even if she makes the transition to fluent reading before hitting school, is worth encouraging her to work on with the basics too. This may be a bit of effort since if she gets reading cracked way before many/most of her peers she may not be used to having to work hard at learning.