My child can read really quickly. Is this normal?

[OneBusyPinkRaven]

I’m not meaning this to be a braggy post. I’m just curious. I’ve been noticing how quickly my youngest reads books and the lack of stumbling over some long words that I’d have expected at her age (just turned 9). Her understanding is probably age appropriate, but I was curious about the speed.

I did a little test out of interest and we both read the same page of her novel at the same time. She was finished in about 2/3 of the time it took me, and then was able to accurately tell me about the text. The speed was such that it doesn’t make sense in my brain. Is this normal? How is she doing this? Sorry I know I sound ridiculous and appreciate reading doesn’t come easy for many kids, so I don’t mean to offend anyone. I’m just curious about how she is able to do this, and at only age 9.

I was left handed until I got told off by a teacher because my handwriting was bad, so learned to write with my right hand instead. I had a terrible time with left and right. Always used to get soaked when I turned the tap 'off'.

I used to read Readers Digest 'You and Your Rights' for fun when I was about 9. It was a massive book and I'd read it over and over again, right into my teenage years.

Yes, I once highlighted every spelling and grammatical error in a book and sent it back for the publishers I was so incensed. They sent me a book token for the value

I could read and write at 4

I’m a super speed reader, full comprehension and absorption even very technical documents. I can read upside down significantly faster than others read normally and can read in the mirror at ‘normal’ speed.
its just one of those things, and fwiw I have excellent visualisation

I have a 9 year old who has read well since Yr 2. His spelling is also strong, he has a great memory

What they picked up was he was reading well but not always able to tell you what the inferences were of what he read. So yes, brilliant reader, are they interpreting meaning/able to put things in order/ tell you what someone in the book might have felt and look beyond the words.

I’d say by that age I would expect most reasonably bright 9 year olds to be able to read pretty quickly and not stumble over any words really. It’s probably more likely that you are a slightly slower reader. It’s nothing to do with your intelligence - for example my husband has dyslexia and is also a very slow reader, however he is a very very intelligent person, with multiple post-graduate degrees and the highest possible scores at a level.

I can read very very quickly, as can outlet children - we can almost just look at the page and absorb the information rather than actually reading every word. I can’t really explain it very well. However I would say that whilst I am reasonably intelligent, I am less so than my husband. But better by far at reading and spelling.

I’m a bit peeved as I did the test and scored on 580 wpm with a 100% comprehension score.

So I’m merely ‘fast’.

I am a teacher - can feedback to a whole class in a ten min stroll round. The kids love it - gets tons of feedback and I love it as they can write it down! Saves me hours…

Doesn’t stop me not proof reading or typing without my glasses on though!

I've always been a fast reader.
When we had free reading sessions at school I'd often get through a full book.

I do visualise it in my head though. Very much so, and add my own imagination too.

I've just done the speed reading check and got 1365 words per minute and 100% comprehension, which is faster than I expected, but I wasn't trying particularly to be fast.

I read really fast, but my daughter has always devoured them. She was 9 when the Harry Potter book series started. Each time a new book was released, she had it first, then me, then DH. Fastest to slowest reader.

How did people find out they are aphantasic? I’ve never heard of it before.

I’m an average reader and often get totally lost in my imagination whilst reading, which means I forget what I’ve just read half the time. So I’m always having to go back over things.

I can’t imagine not picturing what I’m reading. Does it mean you don’t imagine things in general, like not daydream? Do you have dreams at night?

It sound more like you are a slow reader.

Most likely she is speed reading, but rarely it could be an eidetic memory.

Ooh that’s interesting I’m also a fast reader and I also can’t picture things in my mind. I didn’t really realise I was strange in the respect until I was about 30 though!

I am also a super fast reader. I can read and process huge chunks of text at once. Probably autistic, not aphantasic but I am a ticker taper - a kind of synaesthesia where I see words when I think or say them, though my ticker taping is less pronounced than for some. Btw hyperliteracy - reading v young without being taught - is often a sign of neurodiversity (I know this is not what you are describing).

I only found out in my early 40s. I didn't know that everybody wasn't the same as me.

Its hard to describe. When I think of my DC I feel their image rather than see them like a photo. If I imagine a picture of a flower, the colour and textures are a sense - I can describe it but not see it.

I can speed read and think I'm quite far along on the face blindness spectrum. Being asked to hand out marked papers in school to the rest of the class was a nightmare. Also once I failed to recognise a sibling immediately when I saw them completely out of context I another city. There was a good 45 seconds when I was wondering "that person in a hoody's waving at me where do I know them from" until I realised we had grown up together.😔
I learnt to sort of "revise" faces. As in make a really conscious effort to learn specific facial features of people and link it to their names and then run mentally through a checklist when I next saw their faces. It amazed me that it came naturally to other people. And isn't much good out of context because I have to work through a mental checklist to work out where I know them.

I've always known I've been a pretty fast reader, helps with exams as can get through things more quickly.

Now I find it vaguely embarrassing, most recently did a multiple choice exam for a work qualification, you could leave as soon as you were finished. The test was 40 minutes, I did it in less than 5 then waited a few more minutes so I wasn't leaving quite so ridiculously early!

Me too. I don’t read as much now, but I was very much faster than my peers.

PS Have only fairly recently realised that I have aphantasia and feel cheated! I had no idea at all.

I was able to read exceptionally fast and from a very young age OP.
It’s probably not as uncommon as you think, although I am most likely neurodivergent (just don’t really care to get tested).

My mum taught me to read when I was 4, before I started school. She said it was in self-defence, as she loathed reading me Rupert Bear! By your daughter's age I was reading Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Conan Doyle (not bragging, just because those were the books we had at home) and had pretty much exhausted our local junior library. Some people just naturally read fast, I always have. When I'm choosing books, say to take on holiday, I will take the length of the book into account, as I'll read a short book in a couple of hours or less.

For me it was trying that sort of meditation where you are asked to picture/imagine a ball of light that moves along your body or picture a flower and I just can’t do that. I can think about these things yes but I can’t picture them. Then I came across the concept in a book or something then I spoke to a friend who is a psychologist.

It’s hard to describe. It’s not like I can’t think about and know what my daughter looks like or my house or my favourite dress. I can, I just don’t see it like a picture. And I think other people do?

I'm a very fast reader, always have been. By the time I was 9 my parents were tearing their hair out with trying to keep me in reading material! I read the newspapers from cover to cover since I was 6 as something to read. I even read my mum's mills n boons books lol (my parents had no censorship back in the 70/80s 🤣). Even now I read around 65-75 books a year. When I was a bit younger sometimes I would be reading up to four books at a time. I read 9 books on a two week holiday once and I can still fit in a book a day sometimes if I'm not working. I process words very quickly, I'm a whizz at quiz shows (I hate the slow paced ones, drive me bananas). Just one of those things people are good at I guess..

I was able to read upside down at 3 my family used to have me do it for relatives. I speed read and scan read and easily could do 7 books in a week in holiday. Not sure if I picture things as never actually thought about that so that’s interesting. I definitely hear languages or at least what I envisioned the language to be.
quite good at navigation though have to be as hubby is hopeless 🤣