Can a two year old begin to read?

[ladyofshallots]

My two year old (three in October) has surprised me by reading some simple cvc words such as cat, mat etc. She has known her letter sounds for a while and has a 4 year old sister who can read well and has watched her do jolly phonics games and songs etc. Is this something I should encourage?

Don't agree with hot housing children so young, my other dd is an early reader but just followed her own interests really. I have never really thought it possible for children to read this early, so not sure how to handle it? Has anyone any experiences of this?

just let her figure it out herself :) dd started with whole word recognition at that age and was reading simple books herself at 3, all with no input from me other than reading to her whenever she wanted me to.

Thanks, think I will do that - she loves being read to anyway. Think her sister is a big influence - she has been trying to teach her to read for a while!

My 2.8 dd does a similar thing. She'salways loved bring read to

I would encourage it as long as it's led by her. No harm if they enjoy it, IMO

It certainly is possible to read this early. encourage if you want, or just go with the flow.

I actually held DS1 back, and didn't teach him to read ( he would have quickly learned with flash cards), as I was scared he would be bored in reception (I needn't have worried, he struggled so much socially he had enough to concentrate on).

Go with the flow, I'd say. Just remember, it doesn't necessarily mean she's genius, just that she enjoys reading.

I think I would like to encourage her - was just worried this might be the wrong thing to do :) Will try to do it in a child led and relaxed way.

My son was like your two year old. It was slightly scary. Could point out numbers written down at 18 months and could give me, for example 3 crisps when a three was pointed at.

He's now 18 and waiting for his A level results (4 x A* is predicted). I used to love parents evenings at school.

I forgot to say, I couldn't find any particular books so I used to type very simple sentances (mostly about him) to encourage his reading. Also when out and about ask him to read words in the supermarket e.g. milk.

My DD1 learnt her letters, and started the process of reading at this age. The summer holiday before she started school - she was reading Enid Blyton's adventure of the wishing chair. She is 6, almost 7 now and still a good reader, but lots of children have caught her up, and I would say no longer spectaular.

I would say so long as you follow your DCs lead, then you won't go far wrong.

My DD is 23 months and her favourite programme is Countdown. For the last 4 months she has shouted out the letters. We thought she was repeating but even with the sound down she could recognise most of the alphabet.
We encourage her as she finds it fun and will run to the screen to point out her favourite letter 's' and number '4'. We aren't pushing her in anyway just allowing her to play at something different.
Would love it if she is brainy like pippops ds but as long as she is happy we don't care.

Like you, I don't agree with or like any form of hothousing. However my eldest DS was determined to learn to read just before his 2nd birthday, so despite some misgivings, I taught him.

Look /see method worked best for him, as did showing him words in lower case, not upper case. He could read fluently - really! - by 3.

Mog stories were brilliant to start with - lots of repetition of simple words. Plus the pictures tell a different aspect of the story to the words, so made my son think more about the meaning of the words he was trying to read.

But not a genius!! - he just desperately wanted to decode the puzzle on the page in front of him, and he's always had a stubborn and determined streak. I had many more problems persuading him to understand the meanings of the text he could 'decode' (ie read) that getting him to 'read' that text!

He loved reading, and still does, though his heart lies with maths and strategy games - he's 20 now. Learning to read very young happened to suit him, and made him very happy, so that's what we did together. It was a lot of fun for both of us - though I did have to put up with some strange remarks about being a pushy parent from some other parents and even, 2 years later, his primary school. I did what suited him at that age; that seems to me the most important thing to do. :)

I was reading reasonably competently by the age of 3 - so it's certainly possible. My mother's top tip is "leave them wanting more" - but if she wants to help you read her bedtime story then there's no reason not to go with the flow.

i did flash cards with my two boys and they were able to read simple words a 2.5years. it is photographic learning and is a techique some schools use with LO's

My DS could read at 2, whole words. He was self taught. One day he said mummy I have written hoover. He had arranged his plastic letters on the floor to say Electrolux. He seemed to be on a mission to learn everything. He later learned phonetics.

Now age 9 he is exceptionally intelligent.

In a nutshell, yes - if they want to. My son did; my daughter didn't. Take your cue from your child.

I went to a Montessori Nursery at 18 months when my Mum went back to work, and supposedly was reading at 2. I carried on being a couple of reading years ahead all through school, but eventually everybody caught up

dh taught dd1 her alphabet at 18mos when i went away on my first girlie weekend post-baby. he laid out all the letters in random order on the floor and called out a letter, and she found it. i think he thought i was going to be pleased... i was a bit freaked out. anyway, of the three, she's the only one that didn't teach herself to read before school (in june of yr r dd2 was assessed as having the reading comprehension of a 12yo by the ed psych. totally nothing to do with us.) so anyway, yes, some dcs do easily pick stuff up at a very early point!

i think it's lovely now, they all lose themselves in books and i get to drink tea... but do be warned it freaks out some parents.

Go with the flow, don't do flashcards or any kind of hothousing, and don't make a big deal out of it, no gushing praise, etc., -- but make sure her numeracy is progressing at a similar rate or she may become discouraged by maths if it's more of a challenge.

You don't want her to become a little reading 'performing pony.' Don't let it define her. It can become quite a pressure and be worrying when other children catch up.

Go with it. My dd1 was reading before starting school and has just finished reception, not being bored in the slightest. DD2 is 2.11 and picks out names such as Peppa, George, Mummy etc in books. My nephew reads almost as well as dd1 (he can cope with roughly equivalent to ORT stage 5/6) and he's only 3.5. His pre-school say that is very unusual but are very encouraging. As long as they are enjoying it and not pressurised I don't think you can go far wrong.

It becomes challenging sometimes to find 'emotional-age appropriate' reading material for a child who has a reading age far beyond average as they grow older chronologically, but not necessarily emotionally.

yy, def agree, i mentioned that on another early-reader post yesterday. once they hit school, look out for inappropriate free-reading material chosen from higher year group's bookshelves...

(although my personal favourite was a poetry compendium given to my 4yo at nursery, with a really scary ghost poem on the final page. i asked the staff if they thought it was appropriate and they took it off the nursery shelves lol. ds1 didn't sleep for a week! the divorce/ relationships/ alcoholism/ homeless stuff given to 7yo dd1 paled into insignificance.) the joys.

agree too re age appropriate materials for very young readers. As mentioned above, eldest ds could read very fluently by age 3. His reception teacher told me at end of the school year, after telling me what a problem it had been for her because I'd clearly hot housed him - I definitely hadn't! - was that his other problem was that she was struggling to 'expand his reading base'. She had been sitting him down, on his own, to read encyclopedias, when the other children were learning letters of the alphabet. I asked her why he couldn't chose other books to read, and she told me that he had, initially, been allowed to choose his own reading material during these lonely sessions, but that he always chose 'funny stories', never non fiction, and this was her solution to this 'problem' .

He wasn't even 5!! - still only 4!! Mad,mad, mad.

Oh yes, just remembered: kids who can read can read grafitti, and some of that is definitely not age appropriate

Just come back to this, thanks for all the replies, good to hear so many different experiences too :)

I must confess to being slightly freaked out by the discovery that she could read a little, but feel better now and will try to be encouraging but gentle in my approach!