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.

Now, on trains, I see mum with her face stuck in her phone and the kids causing chaos around her. These children are slow to learn and end end up with parents who say they must be on the autistic spectrum. They have really no idea that they are shit parents

That’s bizarre. The kids I know with ASD we’re super quick to learn and extremely academically advanced. The ones that seem slow to learn with disengaged parents, not only generally wouldn’t have autism but parents who are not even bothered with investigating it let alone claiming it.

I had one very much as OP describes and they have ASD (didn’t know it at that age though). Being academically advanced was really beneficial in a way as they essentially shut down completely for the first 3 years of school, so already being ahead and then having the ability to catch up really quickly and get ahead once they finally settled in was a godsend. Didn’t solve all the other issues or the drama when it came to non-academic activities but at least the core literacy and numeracy was under control.

My parents and older sister tell me I used to read the newspaper at 3. Obviously I don’t remember. I had a reading age of 14 at 9 but only got two C grades at English GCSE. ( didn’t really put the effort in tbh)

It’s great he has an interest it’s a little unusual but some children do seem to naturally grasp these things early. ( worked professionally with children all my life) But he is still young and has school ahead of him yet. Keep offering varied activities and life skills and promoting other areas of development.

My dd was similar. But that has levelled off now she’s 9.

I wouldn’t worry about school being boring. Reception will be about socialisation.

There is a massive difference between a just turned 3 year old and a nearly 4 year old. Technically mine could do that at 3 as a summer born about to turn 4 and go to school but would have had no chance at 3y0 months. She exceeded all of her ELGs bar writing so reasonably bright. I was reading before starting school but that progress came as an older 3/4 year old.

It is not at all usual for a 3y0 month child to be able to do what yours is in the way he is. Many 4/5 year olds in a reception class will be on wordless books at this time of year or finding satpin books a chore. That is much more ‘usual’ than just turned 3yos teaching themselves to read.

Had a reading age of 18 by the age of 9

There isn't such a thing as a reading age of 18.

@Flufferty

It sounds pretty standard

🤣

No thats not usual. I look after children, I've worked in nurseries for preschoolers, that's really quite unusual and anyone saying otherwise is being disingenuous.

@Orangejuicemarathoner

Its not unusual for a child to learn, if he is exposed to it.

It is unusual for a 3 year old to be exposed to so much alphabet at this age - many parents wouldn't want that.

Just think, if he was deaf, he would be reading and communicating with sign language now; visual language isn't innately any harder than aural language, its just we don't tend to hamper 3 year olds with both

I'm curious as to what you mean about d/Deaf children being able to read by 3 years old. I'm a Teacher of the Deaf and being able to sign does not mean you're also able to read.

My ds had no interest in reading and writing and was probably the only one in his class who couldn't do any when he started reception. They does seem to be a huge variation at that age in development and ability. I'm probably biased but I actually think my ds is quite bright but he is very practical, this is just not where his interest currently lies. He's now 5 and is fine but there is still a huge variation in his class. My nephew on the other hand was honestly reading fairly complex books at 3, I couldn't actually believe it. He was sounding out the phonic sounds on car registrations when he had just turned 2. He is still bright but more in line with others his age at 6 and no special needs that we know of. I would encourage your ds if he is interested in that area but also pursue other interests. They spend so much of their school life reading and writing.

He sounds very like my child at that age, he ended up being diagnosed with autism at age 6 and as he’s got older the differences are more obvious. Here is my thread from the time

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gifted_and_talented/1703859-What-was-your-gifted-child-like-when-they-were-2-3-years-old

I also posted a similar thread on Sen board called what was your autistic child like at 2-3 years old.

He sounds like a very bright little boy. I don’t know many 3 year olds that can read and write very well. They tend to all catch up with each other in the end though.

@JulesRimetStillGleaming

Why do you want him to do things that he doesn't appear to enjoy and discourage him from things he does enjoy? That's a genuine question.

I'm autistic. He might be. He might not be. But if he's happy playing in his own way, I don't see why you would want to change him?

It is good to practise different types of play to give a wide knowledge and skills basis. If for example someone doesn’t like using scissors it is important to incorporate some fine motor activities to promote those movements to be able to use scissors later on. We wouldn’t say when children are older that if they don’t like maths they don’t have to do it. Children should have access to a broad curriculum from early on and even in early years they will be encouraged to undertake creative, scientific, mathematical, literacy , social etc tasks to develop those skills . Looking at the way he plays and translating that to other curriculum area through something Ike Schemas can be a way to develop these skills in a fun way and it can be fairly easy to do.

Here’s my old thread from Sen board

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/1702180-if-your-child-has-autism-what-were-they-like-when-they-were-2-to-3-years

I don't think these skills are usual for a just turned 3 but in the range of normal. As PP have said, he could be bright, he could be peaking early or he could have something else going on.

I have a 4.5 year old who has just started reception. We celebrated that he was able to sound out and blend the word 'zip' yesterday and he is nowhere near being able to write his name. His only party trick is knowing the 10 times table but I suspect he has memorised that from watching Numberblocks.

He's going to be Sonic the Hedgehog when he grows up anyway so it's all good 😊

My daughter could read and write before she left nursery. She was way ahead of her peers and they had to get books from year 2 for her. She's now 17, has stopped talking pretty much completely, and has been diagnosed with autism.

My 4 year old is only just beginning to write her name and recognise letters, and to be honest, I'm bloody grateful.

He sounds fabulous. My 5 Year old can’t spell any words or read. He can write his name with encouragement. My youngest is almost 3 and can’t do any of thing things your son can!

I might start getting them to watch alphablocks

I could read and write at 3 and the nursery started me on the school reading programme before I was in reception ( Billy blue hat - I'm ancient)
Sadly I did not grow into a genius doctor or physicist, I'm an out of work travel agent lol
I still read about a book a week though

@Happymum12345

He sounds like a very bright little boy. I don’t know many 3 year olds that can read and write very well. They tend to all catch up with each other in the end though.

I agree that he sounds a very bright little boy, but the fact is, they don't all catch up in the end. Many children leave school with only basic reading skills. Generally because of ability or uninterested parents. We are not all born with equal capacity.

I started school when I was 3 and could read (feb baby in Scotland) my favourite book was Winnie the Pooh (I still remember it was a lovely red covered hardback).

From a family of bookworms. Didn’t so me any... good!

My dd could read at two and we suspect she is on the spectrum. She is exceptionally bright. An A at 15 in a year ina brand new subject. Then all 9's and GCSEs and two A and an A at A level.

Tbh I'd rather she had had slightly less good results and less emotional issues.

Though telling the nursery staff that the moon was a crescent moon was a bit of a moment.

To all the PP trying to knock the OP by saying ‘it’s pretty standard isn’t it’ and variations of that accompanied by the annoying emoji people use - you must know it isn’t really otherwise why would they have to teach writing and reading to at least 85% of children when they start school?

In an A level at 15.

My daughter learnt to read just before she was 3 and write not long after, she was using magnetic letters to write things. Although she could read and write she was non verbal and remained non verbal until she was 5. My dd has ASD and suspected hyperlexia (not diagnosed here). She’s now 15, I can’t say learning to read and write early has helped her, she’s great at maths but struggles with most other things, most of her peers caught up with her by the time she was 5.

@JulesRimetStillGleaming

Why do you want him to do things that he doesn't appear to enjoy and discourage him from things he does enjoy? That's a genuine question.

I'm autistic. He might be. He might not be. But if he's happy playing in his own way, I don't see why you would want to change him?

Because we can't only do the things we like in life or only follow our own interests. Imagination and creativity are as important as maths and English. Learning to ride a bike\ swim etc are just as important. .

I taught myself to read and write at that age. Aspergers runs in my family. Kids with asd can be very social especially at that young age, my son was, it wasn't until heading towards secondary school age that it became more obvious. Sensory issues and lining up letters/not being interested in imaginative play could be red flags too. I'd certainly keep a note of all these things and see how he develops.

He might well find some of school boring and be made to read books that are far too easy for a while because they say they want to make sure he doesn't have any gaps, but I wouldn't worry or try to hold him back, just keep talking to the teachers. There will be other areas where he won't be so ahead and so he will still learn a lot.