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.

My dreams aren't visual- I'm aware of moving & other senses but no pictures
if I think about something like a tree I have a sense of how it moves in the wind , the texture of the bark & sometimes how it smells
If asked to visualise colours for red I can smell the metallic smell of a post box & feel how cold it is, etc

Interested to read about the superrecognisers, I'm very faceblind (struggle to pick my own children out in photos, a regular acquaintance started wearing a wig occasionally & it took me months to realised she was the same person🙈 ) & assumed this was part of having no minds eye.
I am weirdly good at recognising people from a long distance by how they move & if someone speaks before I see them I usually know who they are.

I have always read fast. At school I was a couple of years above for reading. I’ve always been very immersed in books. Yes I’m reading but I don’t really see words I see a film in my head.

I have average intelligence (well maybe a bit more) but I mean I’m not some super bright genius. I do have some slight autistic traits but nothing that affects my life.

English literature at school used to drive me crackers. On a Monday morning: "This week we are going to read the first half of Chapter 1 of Jane Eyre and spend hours talking about it and dissecting it to death".

Sorry teacher, I took it home on Friday and read the entire book. Next.

Me too. I actually got detention for telling someone the ending to Kes!

Me too! Did an exam for work, it was supposed to be 2hr 30m, I was done in 40 mins and that was with reviewing my answers. I gave it to an hour but even then the invigilator thought I was trying to leave because I was having some kind of anxiety attack and took some convincing that I wanted to submit my paper.

I got told I had an attitude problem because I was extremely bored listening to slow readers in class when I'd read the whole thing immediately, so I'd stare out the window.

God me too @SwallowsandAmazonians . Between the ages of around 11 and 16 all I really did was swim train or go to school and there was a lot of “dead” time travelling to galas or bus rides from training. As a result my reading appetite really was voracious around then. I couldn’t get enough books so a new one in Eng Lit would be read within a day or so.

"Not sure if he scrolls faster than his peers" 🤣🤣🤣.

Yeah I read very quickly. I had speech but not language problems so I learnt to read internally before out loud.

She might get a bit bored in school sometimes but otherwise it's part of normal variation I guess.