To think people generally assume an early reader has been hothoused?

[Dinosforall]

I've recently spent some time on threads about DC learning to read early as DS has really taken off with it before starting school. I often see 'obviously kids who read before school have been hothoused.' Is this just something people say, or will that be the general assumption? (He hasn't been, he's just picked it up, alongside some early phonics activities at nursery.)

Obviously I know bragging about DS' reading ability wouldn't win me any friends in RL, but I'm not going to pretend he can't if it comes up.

I literally don't know anyone who cares

DC1 taught DC2 loads and it worried us because we’d been told by teachers that they often waste a lot of YR time unteaching what well meaning parents have done. It’s very difficult though when your child is keen and picks it up easily.

Your child won’t be the only one and usually those that can’t read at all are pretty much at the same standard by Easter. It really is amazing how quickly they pick it up at school.

Kids are all different. My DB loved maths and was innately using maths and fucking geometry while we played as kids (it took mum ages to realise what he was doing). I started reading Ladybird books by myself when I was 3. My other DB however hated anything academic but could give him a toolkit and he could fix / build anything; give him an instrument and he would play it by ear. It’s unfair when people say kids have been hot housed just because they pick something up earlier than other kids.

Me neither. Most people are focussed on their own kids. Now mine are older I cant remember when they learnt to read, it's a bit like learning to walk. At the time it seems important but they all get there at different times and it isnt really a reflection of intelligence.

I picked reading up really early, and I still love language and how it works. My mum loved reading, and her mum before that, etc etc, so she used to read to me all the time. I just picked it up easily.

She did push me to do other things early though, but mainly because she didn't realise that an 18 month old didn't need to be able to stack 10 blocks at once, or count to ten or whatever. She'd mis read some information and so taught me what I "should" have been doing at 3

I don’t think other parents really give a great deal of thought to it do they? When my children started school it was quite clear that some were able to do some things and others not but I assumed that it would all level out, and it has.

If it's ever come up with my daughter, ppl have always accepted that she did just teach herself, with no suggestion of hot housing.

I'm also a teacher and used to come across a child that could read before Reception every couple of years or so. It was quite obvious where they had an interest and had just picked it up. I had the odd child where they were being 'hot housed' e.g. parent bought the whole reading scheme and went over the books in the first level so often their child memorised the books and were cross when we didn't just move her through several reading levels (we'd realised she couldn't read the same words in any other context other than that specific books).

Lots of children learn to read before school, two of mine did - just by having the same books read to them many times, they began to memorise them and then to recognise the words on the page, and read independently. My middle dc spent more time looking at the pictures & didn’t start to read words until she was at school.
She is now a teenager & her school results are extremely high - much better than her older siblings’ at the same age, so early reading doesn’t signify anything about future achievement IMO

I find myself feeling judged about this too. My daughter taught herself to read to the standard of around a year 2 child before she started nursery (she was 3 and started nursery just before 4). She is in year 2 now and miles ahead of the others in her year and most of the children in the school. She just loves reading though and spends so much of her spare time reading, wanting to buy books, going to the library and wanting to write her own stories. I have always taught her that the others will catch up to her in time and never to judge others on their reading, in reality she just wamts others to have her passion and would love it if her friends read the same books as her. Some of the parents I feel judge as they seem to think it's a competition, whereas in reality it's just that every child is different in their passions progresses at their own pace.

DD had finished all the Harry Potters alone by the time she was 7. My best friend's DD had a book published (!!) at 9.
I think good readers are actually more common than most parents of good readers would like to think.

V early reading is called hyperlexic I think. I was a v early reader but also likely autistic....

Surely no one gives a fuck about this? DD starts school in September and can read a few words and write her name. She has an interest which we have encouraged but certainly not pushed. If anyone asks I'll just tell them the truth

Many children learn to decode phonics before they go into mainstream. This is not an indicator of reading ability. Teachers will be looking at inference and comprehension too.

I had a good pre-school reader who is 11yo now. Because he's old for his year he had a whole two more terms of 4-5 days per week in nursery than my summer born DD did, and his keyworker started him off with reading with my agreement. School didn't bat an eyelid so far as I can recall, they just moved him up the bookbands when he was ready.

He seems to genuinely enjoy reading now, he probably did have the interest to begin with and so picked it up.

I don't believe it does necessarily level out. Those who have a natural ability in maths or English, for example, also progress

The only children I know who could read (more than the odd word) before starting school were definitely hothoused - their parents spent lots of time teaching them so they could be ahead when they started school.
I do accept that some children might pick it up themselves, but even then they must have some stimulus - a child who's never been read to, for example, is probably unlikely to spontaneously start reading themselves.

I hadn’t heard the phrase hot house before so I googled it.

My son is five in June, he can read fairly well with comprehension, he was reading the likes of Mog independently at three. We have a bedtime story every night and sometimes read a book together when we get home from work/school. But I haven’t actively tried to teach him any phonics etc.

We got told off by the reception class teacher, because ds1 was reading before he started school. It wasn’t us, it was the nursery he went to that taught him. He had a natural interest in books and reading so they followed his lead. The ‘difference’ was just how they taught it. The outcome was the same. So 🤷🏻‍♀️Who cares.
However, although the was reading and had finished the Harry Potter books at 7, it didn’t mean he was a genus! Reading was just his thing. Maths he struggled with. But I did find that people had that expectation of him as being really bright just because he could read and understand what he was reading.

Went would you read all the Harry potter books by the age of 7? What would a seven year old get out of the later books?

One of our sons could read really well at 3. Definitely not hot housed (I could also read at 3 and wasn't).
He's now a bright young man, but definitely NO brighter than average. I don't think early reading is that outstanding nor do I think it's indicative of anything other than being a reader.

Plus no one actually cares what age anyone else's kids read at do they? I know I don't.

We've always read to him (not unusual), and when it became apparent he knew the alphabet I bought some Songbirds phonics books and he just read the first one out. We didnt work through them systematically though as he was more interested in me reading them to him.
I know he's by no means unique, a friend has a DD who is also reading at the same level (around Y2).

I have never come across it. My oldest son could read at 3 and a half. He’s in year one now and he can read well above his age. He wasn’t hot housed as such, but I suppose because he enjoyed reading, we did spend a lot of time with him reading before we had subsequent children. He often asked ‘what’s this word, what does it mean’ etc.

I didn’t teach him phonics or anything like that though just basic word recognition.

My youngest son taught himself to read very young (well, with an online game he played when he was 3). I had one friend who was upset by this. Our boys were born on the same day, so I think there was a bit of comparison when they were little. They are both 16 now and it made no difference in the end. My son is an average student, who actually HATES to read now. Her son is above average in school. At the time I'm not sure if she thought we were "hot housing" him, but we were not. It was just something that he caught on to quickly when he was little.

I feel so sorry for the kids who have raced through Harry Potter by 7. They’re such good books but no way can a 7 year old understand the themes and sadness and the general story at that age.

Why rush when there are so many great books for that age?

You don't need to feel sorry for her, ta.
She read them at her own pace and has since read them about another 4 times. No rushing. No pressure from me.

That said, it's hardly The Decameron or Proust.