Reading at 18 Months???

[Ecgwynn]

My MIL is always telling me that DH could read at 18 months.
Today I found and read DH's 'baby book' which lists when he could do various things. It says in there that he could string 2-3 words together in a sentence at 16 months.

So is MIL talking bollocks about the reading? Should I ever believe anything she says about her prodigious son?

A child at 18 months can be taught to recongise the odd word parrot fashion. Its not true reading. My two (nearly three) can recite The Gruffalo, and hold the book upside down and on the wrong page at the same time.

True reading is when the child can decode words and understand what they mean. Very few children are able to learn the true skill of reading before four year old. It can be done if the mother is prepared to work, but its unusal.

My DS could string 2-3 words together at 16m but he didn't start reading until he started school! I find that very hard to believe!

The key question is - has your DH won a Nobel prize yet?

Ds can recognise a few letters at 20 months (not deliberately trying to teach him btw, its from a charity shop puzzle!) so you could stretch that kind of thing to be "reading" but its just the same as recognising a cow or ear.

DS could recognise all the letters of the alphabet and tell you their sounds by about 16 months. Now at 27 months he can sight-read familiar words (like his name, 'Mummy', 'Daddy', 'car' etc) and he'll have a go at sounding out new words, but he is a long way off what I would call 'reading'.

(FWIW, I've not tried to teach him any of that: I've just talked to him & followed his interests.)

I do know some 3-year-olds who've taught themselves to read. A friend discovered her daughter was able to do it when she started reading words on graffiti and asking her mum what they meant.

I could read at 2 (properly, recognising words out of context), so I suppose 18mo is possible.
FWIW I could 'read' the word 'Co-op' much younger than 2, around 15mo, but really I was just recognising the logo.
Has she said which words he could read?
Maybe it was 'tesco' or 'lego' etc?

DS1 could recognise words at that age, he could also hold a conversation. DS2 not even near.

Is your dh especially bright?

Sounds like a really really annoying MiL, or else it could be 'hyperlexia'.

Haha! I was just about to post about hyperlexia! Is your DH gifted in other ways? Rubix cubes at 2? Calculus at 4? Fermat's Last Theorum at 6?

My paternal grandmother was forever saying similar ridiculous stuff to my mum, when my sibs and I were growing up. Apparently my dad and his brother were "never naughty" and were known in the village as "The Heavenly Twins"! PUKE.

Every good, clever, advanced thing my DS does is according to my MIL from their side of the family - is driving me bloody nuts. It is nothing to do wth the fact I am a SAHM and have worked with kids all my life nooooooo, it all comes from her. Really pisses my family off as I am adopted and they never place value on genes making you who you are but on how you are brought up.

My MIL told me that DH was walking well before one year. Definitely before DD anyway. I found his baby book and no, it was actually 15 months. She is very competitive and slightly mad. I did enjoy the look on her face when DS1 and DS2 both walked at 9 months I am also competitive and perhaps slightly mad

My neighbour also told me that her DD was potty trained at 12 months. I think not, somehow....

PS I do love my MIL a great deal but she deludes herself occassionally! I suspect yours is doing the same.

Mil told me dh was potty trained at 7 mos. and she could very clearly remember him sitting on his potty next to his cousin on hers at the same age.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Nod and smile.

When I am 70, I will be telling everyone that all of my children walked at six months. Even the one with cerebral palsy. And I will pour scorn on anyone who says different.

Your MIL isn't necessarily talking bollocks about your DH. DD started recognising written words at 14 months (not true reading I know) and has been reading phonetically since 20 months. So while it is very unusual it is possible. DD was also talking in sentences very early.

My DD (just turned 2) has learnt this week to drink from a cup. My MIL said that DH was doing this at 11 months which sounds exceptionally early to me but I have no reason not to believe her just because my child isn't as advanced in that particular skill.

DS might show no interest in reading until primary school. It doesn't matter. All children are different and they all learn new skills at their own pace.

I could read individual words at 18months according to my mother but dd definitely could-she could pick out individual letters of the alphabet[not all] and pick out some words fro jumbled flash cards.After that I used Glen Doman@s 'Teach Your Baby to Read' and by 2.6 she could read simple books and by 5 tackled The Railway Children.
She is not a genius!
At 11 she read pony books and little else.
Her brother could read before starting school [by 4] but was also absolutely normal in subsequent development.
I think its just a qurk-brains are a bit like an old fashioned switch board with different skills being 'plugged in' at different times.
My dd is now mum to two boys aged 3 and 5 and gets quite anxious because neither shows signs of precocity in reading [or anything else!].

Oh and ds took his first steps at 9 months whereas dd was 15 months.

I was reading Enid Blyton by 4yrs and school refused to believe I could read and write and tried to teach me my ABC, I became very disruptive through boredom. My DS is 5m and already drinks from a cup - future MENSA I feel ha ha

I think its unlikely he went from saying 2-3 words to reading in the space of 8 weeks!