Three-year-old can read - should I start phonics before reception?

[herbaceous]

My DS, four in July, seems to have taught himself to read. He's always been interested in signs and what they say, and now just randomly reads out cereal packets, road signs and bits from magazines.

This of course makes me think he's a genius. But as he's done it all by recognising the words, rather than via phonics, will he get confused when he goes to reception in September? Should I start introducing the idea of phonics so he learns the two types of word recognition in tandem? Or, indeed, should I stop worrying and let him just get on with it?

[camilamoran]

My son did this, but older than yours - he was already four and just started recognising words on signs, newspaper headlines etc. I was quite shocked as I hadn't bothered trying to teach him at all - he was starting school soon and everyone says boys learn to read slower than girls. Anyway, it didn't cause any problems when he started school - I am not sure he has ever learnt phonics in fact.

[AMumInScotland]

I don't think he'll get confused when he starts school, children are amazingly good at pulling in separate bits of information from different places and joining them up in their heads.

Don't get hung up on 'teaching' him phonics, at most you could talk about stuff like "things that start with b" (short sort of buh sound, not bee) to introduce the idea that each letter has a sound. But mostly, just don't worry!

[herbaceous]

Oh good. That's what I'd hope you'd all say. We do have a song we sing, sort of 'A is for apple, ah ah apple, B is for ball, buh buh ball' while dancing about, so I'll just carry on doing that.

It's was quite alarming at Christmas when he just read out every name in his nursery, then proceeded to read out signs like Liverpool Street Station and 'Please take your belongings with you' on the way home.

[Grammaticus]

Lots of them do this, honestly. Don't bother with phonics, just read with him and help him with the words he gets stuck on. A along as you use letter sounds not names (if you need to refer to letters at all) you won't confuse him.

[issypiggle]

play eye spy, sy something begining with ah, buh, ker (?), but i never pushed phonics then dd (3) pointed out the G on a sign by the lift and has never looked back. and can read somethings.

[MrsCosmopilite]

Early days for me yet, but DD (26 months) is showing clear signs of wanting to read. Loves stories, now points to words and says 'what's that say?'. She can recite many of her stories (about 10 different books) pretty well word-for-word, so she is taking it all in.

I'm hoping that it won't be a problem when she starts school.

Yes I know I'm being all pfb! :)

[herbaceous]

I'm totally PFB also. And do like a boast, not even a stealth one, that he could read numbers at 18 months, and letters by 2.

However, he cannot draw a single thing, or catch a ball, so I'll come to my cuttings down when all the other children catch him up in a year or so!

[MajaBiene]

If he recognising words he will probably pick up phonics intuitively so won't be confused when they are taught explicitly at school.

[simpson]

DD was like this at 3 (in nursery) and used to tell all the kids they had won the wow award each Friday as her teacher used to leave her piece of paper on her desk and she could read the names.

All I did with DD was to get books out of the library (phonics books "Run Rat Run" was the first book she read) and use Oxford owl etc and let her crack on although she was (and still is now in reception) all consumingly obsessed with reading. I would simply tell her a sound she did not know (sh, ch, er etc) as they appeared in a book and she got it straightaway. But we did go very slowly and at the end of nursery she decided herself she wanted harder books.