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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

is your nearly 2 years old reading books already ?

50 replies

babySophieRose · 16/08/2013 09:44

Just read a tread in chat about toddlers being able to read at age of 18 months. Some have medical conditions, but the rest are just bright. My LO is 21 months and nowhere near reading, got 30+ words, two words sentences and a lot of non- sense talking. What is considered normal at this age? Is my LO behind or normal? We speak two languages at home by the way and she goes to nursery two days a week. Thanks

OP posts:

whyno · 16/08/2013 09:50

Totally normal. Haven't even heard of kids reading at 2 before.

TheOrchardKeeper · 16/08/2013 11:22

DS reads books. He's 2.7.

Though he reads them upside down and in toddler-langauge. Don't think it counts

working9while5 · 16/08/2013 11:31

Ah the good old race-to-the-grave. Plenty time for all that m'dear. That's why they go to school. If some kids really find an interest in it, they may learn earlier. Some will be hothoused, which is sad and pointless. Either way, there's no hurry. All in good time or following their interests.

Cravingdairy · 16/08/2013 11:35

Once you have read a book to a toddler approximately a zillion times, yes it is quite common for them to be able to 'read ' it back to you!

ViviDeBeauvoir · 16/08/2013 11:37

I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old and guess what? Neither of them can read!
Both of them are very articulate, love having books read to them, know their letters/sounds but dd (4) has only just started to sound words out. She starts school in Septembr so she'll have plenty of opportunity to learn then.

I'd take threads like that with a pinch of salt TBH as it would seem that MN children are always at least 1-2 years ahead of every other child of the same age I've ever met (and I worked with children for 10 years!)

Your LO sounds just fine.

forevergreek · 16/08/2013 11:41

Eldest has just started to read but he is 3 1/2. Our 2 year old has only just started talking

YeahBuddy · 16/08/2013 11:50

My dts are 21mo and love to look at books, well one does, the other just eats them! But looking is all they are doing, they turn the pages and babble a bit which I suppose I could exaggerate as reading but it isn't.
There is plenty of time for them to learn to read, I agree. Quite frankly just getting through the day with all of us still in one piece is about the biggest achievement we can manage at the moment!

Original poster

babySophieRose · 16/08/2013 14:31

Thank you all. I was beginning to worry that i am not doing enough with my LO. She likes books, have few piles and " read" them all the time in her own language and using words to describe them. I really never knew any kids to read before 4 years of age. Felling better now.

OP posts:

thegreylady · 16/08/2013 15:38

My dd could genuinely read words at 18 months and short easy books at 2.her brother read at 3.8 and her two sons were both 4.She wasn't a genius at all just switched on that bit of her brain early.
Your dd sounds perfect to me.

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 16/08/2013 15:44

dd2 was hardly speaking at 2, never mind reading.

dd1 on the other hand could con the gullible into believing she could read, as she spoke fluently and had accurately memorised a large number of books. the health visitor nearly fell off her chair at dd1's two year check, until I mentioned that we'd got the book dd1 was reading at home.

she read properly at 5.

YoniBottsBumgina · 16/08/2013 15:44

No, it's not normal for 2 year olds to be able to read.

That thread was asking about the youngest child you've ever known or heard of reading so of course there are going to be extreme examples.

Normal reading age span is 4-7 years.

MrsBungle · 16/08/2013 15:47

I've got film of my DD who had not long turned 2 at the time 'reading' a book. She is turning the pages and reading the story word-for-word. On the film, she looks like a genius.

She had just memorised the story as it had been read to her so often! She couldn't really read. She is only just learning now at 4.

Pozzled · 16/08/2013 15:47

My DD just turned 2 and loves 'reading' books. It is basically just a long jumble of words based on the pictures, with the odd phrase or sentence that makes sense. She is a long, long way from actual reading! They all develop in their own time.

YoniBottsBumgina · 16/08/2013 15:50

Plus, I would say I don't think it's a particularly good thing for an under 2 to be able to read - they don't have the cognitive ability to understand phonics so they learn to read using the whole-word recognition method which makes it harder to process spelling and writing as well as sounding out new words. I much prefer the phonics method of reading so I'd encourage that - of course not much you can do if they take it upon themselves!

maja00 · 16/08/2013 15:51

Remember that Mumsnet is disproportionately inhabited by genius toddlers.

TerraNotSoFirma · 16/08/2013 15:54

My 4 year old isn't reading yet, never mind my 2 year old. :)

thegreylady · 16/08/2013 17:01

Mine used to recognise random words written in red on biggish cards.Initially you loved reading the words then she/we 'made trains' with the cards ie put words into phrases like a red cat or her big doll.We had cards with a, the, and,he,she, and colours and adjectives.B her second birthday she had a reading vocabulary of about 50 words and could easily read the Ladybird Reading Scheme up to 2c.
She is August born so started school at 4.1-her teacher was astonished that she could read freely.However she could only count to 20, could write her name and still needed a sleep in the afternoon.
She was not and is not a gnius.She is an English teacher who has retained her love of books and she is a wonderful mum to her two boys.Early reading seems no more significant than early talking/walking etc-just another stage of development.If sh and her brother hadn't had alphabet pj's she wouldn't have started at that age.
I know she hoped one of her two would be an early reader but they were both just pre Reception.

saintlyjimjams · 16/08/2013 17:07

Ds1 could recognise a few words at 2 and a bit was obsessed with letters & numbers (learnt the letters from watching countdown & knew what an equals sign was etc). He's severely autistic, now a teenager who cannot talk & I have no idea what he can read (other than a few words I know he recognises - he may be able to read everything or nothing other than those words - I don't know).

TBH given our experiences with him I'd be horrified if I had a reading toddler :)

Notupduffedatpresent · 16/08/2013 17:12

I have a (newly) 5 year old who can only read very simple books with phonetically obvious words (and FWIW I thing he is fairly bright). And I have a 2.3 year old who could fool the best of them into thinking that he could read Each Peach, Peepo, all of the Pip and Posy books - but he's just reciting back what he has heard literally hundreds of times. It's very funny, he will sit and "read" a whole (familiar) book scarily accurately and with exaggerated dramatic expressions. But it's really, really not reading. I'm not sure that he even realises that the letters have official sounds. It's just a game to him. I've never met a child who could properly read younger than aged 4.

insanityscratching · 16/08/2013 17:23

Ds could read at two it wasn't a gift it was autism. My others without the autism read at the usual age around 4 to 5. I was quite happy to have "tardy" readers tbh as it reassured me they were pretty NT.
saintly ds reading was just another stick with which to beat us tbh meltdowns because your two year old has spotted the word too when his preferred spelling is two is mind numbing tbh. As was trying to explain to his teachers that this child who couldn't string two words together was perfectly capable of writing some pretty offensive insults word perfectly.

VelmaDaceDinkley · 16/08/2013 17:24

My DD learnt to read in reception. They've done a good job, better than I could have done

insanityscratching · 16/08/2013 17:27

Notupduffed ds could most definitely read anything and everything from newspaper headlines to subtitles. He couldn't speak but could read out loud fluently so it would be pretty obvious whether he was reading or not because he could only speak out loud the words on the paper in front of him.

Goldmandra · 16/08/2013 19:04

Ds could read at two it wasn't a gift it was autism.

Same with my DD1. She taught herself. It caused no end of problems when she started school but then so did lots of other things.

They read when their brain is ready and, whatever age that is, there is little point in trying to make it happen early. You'll just switch them off.

If you want your LO to have a good start all you need to do is enjoy books together (following the text with your finger as you read to her), encourage her to explore what is interesting and talk to her lots about everything you do together. One day the thing she's interested in will be text and that's the time to talk about letter shapes and sounds. If she's ready she'll find it fun and lap it up and you'll have a happy reader

NapaCab · 16/08/2013 20:50

Oh yes, my 22 month old regularly reads books! He points at sheep and says 'baa' and cows and says 'moo'. Does that count? Does it count that he regularly grabs my copy of The Economist out of my hand and proceeds to read destroy it?

I think I was an early reader as I have no memory of learning to read or not being able to understand printed words despite having memories going back as young as 3. Hasn't exactly done anything for me although I am still a voracious reader just for fun.

DS is more of a 'swing off the monkey bars and destroy everything in sight' kind of kid though... don't know where he gets it from (stares at DH)

thegreylady · 17/08/2013 17:43

Well my girl is definitely not autistic in any way and having a reading toddler was a delight; so was having a non reading toddler [her older brother].I just loved watching them develop and grow-reading is a plug in a switchboard and will be activated at different times for different dc.For most that will be 4/5/6 and for some it will be 2/3 and others may take till 7/8 to be confident. I honestly don't feel it signifies anything much :)

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