AIBU RE teaching babies to read

[Graut]

Sparked by a discussion on a FB group I am in for parents of bilingual children.

Someone was talking about how her 20-month-old was reading in two languages and my first instinct was a mixture of a) scepticism and b) feeling sorry for the poor little boy to have been hot-housed in that way.

But some of her arguments reminded me that I've been criticised as a parent for taking our babies to baby swimming (should 'let them be babies' and not try to 'force their development' and what have you). I've always felt that baby swimming is just something that some babies enjoy and if it helps their physical development then all the better (note that the babies in our classes are not actually learning to swim, it's just kind of like baby gym in the water with lots of singing etc). I found it annoying and unjustified when people accused me of being competitive about my kid's development or of pushing them when as I saw it, we were all just having fun.

This mother said her baby enjoyed learning to read and why delay learning for no reason. I still strongly think that earlier is not 'better' when it comes to reading and have no intention of trying to teach my baby (or indeed my 3 yr old) to read, but WIBU to negatively judge the practice of teaching babies to read? Am I just underestimating babies to think that they shouldn't be reading?

What a lovely post Hygge 💕

I feel exactly the same

My ds knew 25 capital cities by the age of three. It was pure word association. I started with one or two then got totally carried away. He knew some really obscure ones. It was a great party trick for friends and he loved getting them right. But he had no idea what he was talking about or what a 'country' was. He's ten now and knows Paris at a push....he can't even remember knowing them.

Astronaut - I have a friend whose almost-2 child could tell a tibia from a fibula, and was similarly a big hit at departmental parties.

Hippos Go Berserk sounds great. We swear by Barty's Ketchup Catastrophe in this house.

20 month olds cannot read, she is ridiculous

Mine could. Conversely she was well behind her peers in physical development.

I didn’t hot house her in any way, she just (and continues to!) love books and because she couldn’t walk until after 2, spent a lot of time sitting and looking at them.

I do always wonder why there’s such a stigma about stuff like this. If you have a kid that walks at 8 months nobody bats an eyelid, it’s all part of the normal range of development.

Yep, I was reading at 2. We have videos of it. I remember very clearly my first day in a new school when I was 4 and wondering why I was being asked to look at words like ball with this woman's silly finger pointing at them! DM was a teacher so she taught me after I kept asking what words said and then amazed her by remembering them. I was reading books like the famous five to myself by that stage.

Long term I have always been a huge and very fast reader. Other than that? I'm bright enough but no nobel prize genius. Other kids soon caught me up!

But reading at 20 months? That sounds more like a combination of memory and repetition and a tiny whiff of bullshit to me.

That website is definitely all about sight word recognition. So, not reading in fact.

X post looking at your later post, this mum does sound a bit batty. Early years are very impressionable, for example with languages the earlier they start the more likely they are to speak like a native. But it sounds like this mum has interpreted that as school them in everything before 3 to bring up a genius which is nonsense. On the other hand it could still be she's got in that muddle by having a highly gifted child who drinks in any learning thrown at them and asks for more. Have you looked at these videos to see if baby really can swim, read etc?

WIBU to negatively judge the practice of teaching babies to read? Am I just underestimating babies to think that they shouldn't be reading?

Yes and yes.

I was taught to read when I was 2. I loved it and spent many happy hours lost in my books. I was always top of the class in English and went on to a career in publishing.

All thanks to my brilliant parents who taught me to read before I started school.

I could read at 2 years and 9 months, and I culd write too, and draw pictures for my mother (I know how old I was because my mum kept and dated the card I made her). She claims she taught me to read in self defence because I wouldn't sleep.

I have had a completely mediocre life. I have a mediocre clutch of qualifications and a mediocre cv. i am, in fact, a monument to mediocrity.

But still, I did read at 2 years and nine months old and I have adored reading all my life. Much good that it did me in the long run.

Hygge, that's not at all what I was talking about. I read TO my babies as well and certainly agree with fostering a love of books. You say you didn't have a programme for teaching your child to read early so you are not comparable.

By all means read to the child with a book where they can see the pages. Do that from week zero.

That website is definitely all about sight word recognition. So, not reading in fact.

So do you phonetically sound out every word you read? You must be a very slow reader!
In fact proficient readers have built up a visual dictionary of words in a specific section of their brains. So yes, you recognize the words. That is reading.

My DS is now 3 and can read fluently both sight reading and sounding out unknown words. At 20 months he could recognise quite a few words and string together 3 letters. We did not teach him using flash cards! When he asked what words said we told him and he just picked it up. Apparently I learnt the same way (although later than that) but am not a genius or anything -about average or just above?

We are not bilingual but last year he started learning Italian after hearing some my mum was trying to learn. At that age they just absorb so much!

I try to avoid talking about his abilities as I worry that people will think he's been pushed. He can spell words and type them, reads whole books (when interested), recognises three digit numbers and adds single digits.

i could read at 2.5 in 2 languages and i was considered a bit of a child prodigy back then. shame i discovered vodka when i was 15 but 20 months? i don't understand how that is possible.

I guess that I would just be interested if someone was saying that their kid was enjoying it. But a lot of this is parents feelings or hopes too. Having said that, hyperlexia is when a child learns to read by themselves very young, sometimes an early sign if autism if comprehension poor. As my friend had.

And having now gone back and RTFT DS is currently learning capital cities and flags of all the countries. He asked for a book on flags from the local library and they gave him a huge encyclopedia! Has kept him very busy. He now questions us on the capitals but I can't remember as many as he can and get very muddled with all but the most distinctive flags.

And Hygge that's exactly the same for us. I read to him as a baby, every night - picture books, touch-books where you scratch and sniff, just loads and loads. He'd sit on my knee all fat and squashy, smelling of milk and listen to my voice and coo and point. It was absolutely to foster in him a joy of books, the smell of a new book, what's on the next page.... He loved Peekaboo books etc. It was a lovely way of ending the day before putting him in the cot etc - it was a big part of our routine. I so needed it as well as I was a lone parent and knackered permanently.
His favourite was Ten in a Bed. We used to line up ten teddies from big to tiny then fling them across the room one at a time.
Today, he absolutely loves reading. He reads every night, his spelling is amazing. His maths isn't so good though. I have no idea if it will last when he gets older - the love of reading. I hope so.

My kid was thick at primary. At secondary they called me in because his CAT score was the highest they had ever seen. Go figure.

He obviously wasn't thick at primary petrol ! One-size-fits-all education often doesn't suit the brightest. What a sharp cookie.

My son was very interested in being read to when under one, at 18 months he was picking out words in the books we read, and then I realised he could read some words on advertising boards, so I labeled 'door ', 'window', 'table' etc. in the house, and read with him, when he asked. We went to a toy shop and I let him choose a dinosaur, from a selection of little plastic ones. he said 'I want the stegasaurus' and picked one up, when I asked him how he knew which it was, as I didn't, he told me he had read it in a ladybird book his granny had bought him!
I realised he could read quite well, he was just 2 years old and had just gone from learning to talk , to learning to read, without any hot housing or pushing from me [other than the labels]. He is now 42 and not in a high flying job or spectacularly brilliant in any way, I think it was just a learning window which circumstances maximised. I didn't tell anyone except family, as I was fearful of the kind of responses which are on here. A friend called unexpectedly one day and was astounded to hear him reading out loud, and asked 'when is he 4', I had to admit that he wasn't yet 3.

Unlikeyastronaut..... I was being a bit naughty! My point being children and indeed adults develop and change. I feel so sorry for the kids and now babies!!! Share a book, yes. But learn to sit nicely and read. No. It's all wrong.

Oh lordy hyperlexia and s now a thing!! Hypermoma more like.

I love ‘Hippos Go Berserk’ it always made my youngest giggle with anticipation before we even started reading it

Petrolpump, hyperlexia is a thing and always has been. Your personal ignorance won't make it go away and stop bothering you but feel free to sneer, you're only making yourself look dim.