My just turned 3 year old can read and write

[Rockean]

This isn’t a brag post, although. I’m pretty sure it’s going to come across like one.

My son just turned 3 and he can write his name, write basic/familiar words that he can sound out (the letters are recognisable) and he can sound out words when we look at books together. He loves playing with his magnetic letters and puts them together to create words, he can tell me what they say too.

He’s taught himself this through watching Alphablocks and reading books with us since he was tiny, particularly a phonics book that had all the sounds and alphabet written out with pictures of each letter of the alphabet next to them,

I’m just wondering if this is unusual?

He also doesn’t really play with toys, even though he has plenty of them, he'd much rather look at books and line up his alphabet letters or make words out of them. He’ll also sit with his magma doodle or white board and pen and just write things out. He’s done it at soft play when other kids are playing and I’ve bought his magma doodle.
I want him to play with toys too and I try to encourage him, but obviously I don’t want to discourage him from the books/letters and phonic sounds , but equally he’s going to know much more than most of his peers when he starts school, so I’m worried it’ll be boring for him.

With him been great at reading and writing. Please ensure you teach him reading comprehension. Example. The dog sat on the mat. Ask him where did the dog sit and get him to write it.
Biff and chip went to see floppy. Floppy was running. Ask him what was floppy doing? Or get him to read the question and Answer it himself. As well as who went to see floppy. My dd always read amazing from 5 up but my god reading comprehension was poor

I could read & write before I started school. When I got to high school, they told my parents that I was the most proficient in English that they'd ever seen.
Sadly nobody told me this! As my academic abilities in all other areas were lacking due to my health issues, I let my education fall by the wayside. I wouldn't have done, had I known what the school had said and therefore been able to recognise my apparent skills(!) but that's another story.
My point is, some kids just get it - really get it & enjoy it more than most.

My 6yr old is good with numbers 🤷🏼‍♀️

With a clever child, and involved parenting I’d say it’s fairly common. It’s great, but not shockingly unusual.

Derbee Fairly common for a just turned 3 year old? An older 3 year old maybe but even then I wouldn’t say ‘common’. A year at 3 makes a massive difference. I am currently seeing lots of 3rd birthdays among my daughter’s nursery class. These children are no where near reading and writing as the OP describes. Lots of them will be giving it a good go once they’ve been in pre-school but they’ll be closer to 4.

Seriously it happens but in no way could you say it's fairly common! I say that as someone who has taught reception in a range of schools.

I could read at 20 months (it was the 70s and my mother was a competitive hothousing flash card maniac). It really didn't cause any problems later and I was never bored at school. I just liked reading and there are always books to read.

@Bunnycat101 @MyOtherProfile we can only speak from our own experiences. OP’s child isn’t reading novels, he’s reading basic common words. It’s fairly common in my experience for a 3 yr old to be able to write their name, and recognise a few basic words, and play with letters to make those basic words.

I could read and write at 3. I picked it up and my mom encouraged it. I did skip a grade in school as a result (this was in the States). I’ve not been diagnosed autistic, and I still love to read and became an academic. On the other hand, I have zero athletic ability. Everyone is different.

I could definitely do that at 3. Genius-level IQ with stellar academics. I remain intellectually very advanced and am a quick study.

Emotionally, however, I was always behind. Competitive parenting, resulting in anxiety and self-criticism have held me back both personally and professionally and seriously compromised my mental health.

It doesn’t sound like these are pitfalls for you OP: but they are matters, of which to be mindful in the hyper-competitive world in which we live.

It's very unusual, op. I've just googled hyperlexia (I hadn't heard of it until this thread) as I was a precocious early reader, and it turns out my 7yo dd is too (Ed Psych assessed her as 2 years older than her age for visual memory and ability to decode words). She's currently being assessed for neurodivergence, as we've had the accompanying sensory processing issues and emotional dysregulation. Her eye contact and social skills are excellent. Something for you to keep an eye on with your ds - sometimes with ASD the lack of eye contact and social skills is a bit of a red herring as we learn more about the condition and how it affect children differently. Your ds's ability to decode words sounds brilliant, but just watch that his comprehension keeps pace.

I'm a primary school teacher of nearly 20 years, and in that time, I've only known of 4 children who started reception able to read. And all 4 later went on to get diagnoses of Autism.

I could but my big big sister was doing her teacher training when I was tiny and we are a family of bookworms. I started school when I just turned 4 and could read and write. High IQ, but the IQ tests are just patterns to me and that’s how my brain works.

My parents were definately not the hothousing/tiger types and didn’t really pay much attention to my education (or me).

And no, it certainly didn’t do me any good.

Zombie post

Haven't read the thread. Yes it's unusual but also it's normal. The best thing you can do is treat it as such.
Encourage other activities.
If he doesn't want to play with toys find things he does like. Playdoh? Baking? Maybe look at tuff tray ideas and books to go along with it.
Get him outside as much as you can, look at trees and plants, balance on logs , nature hunts etc.. The more you encourage his gross motor skills and him to explore his physical world the better.

Zombie post from 2021.

The kid is probably working on his doctorate by now…

He's almost certainly hyperlexic. Some kids are. Apparently I self taught myself reading by following stories read by my mum and following the letters and decoding the shapes of letters. I went to kindergarten at four, read quite fluently at five and was three years ahead on reading by six. I changed schools, so it was tracked.

It’s good to see so many children can read at 3, as I would’ve have said this is quite unusual!

Your son sounds brilliant by the way!

None of mine have read aged 3. That's impressive.

My 3 year old at the time was similar. However she was learning it all through lockdown when she had me one on one. We had to shield and I was heavily pregnant so we'd often walk the 10 minutes round our estate looking at road signs or car registrations and saying the letters / numbers as I couldn't physically do more. She was ahead of her peers when she started and is ahead of most of the class with her reading. However she is far from bored and loves school.

I went to school at 4 fully reading, DS went to school at 4 barely reading, DD was like your son.

Some kids pick words up quickly, some don't but in general they all catch up to the same standard...