Early reading - is it reading or memorizing and how to enoy it

[madamez]

DS is 2.5, loves books, loves pointing out letters and numbers and tonight pretty much insisted on 'reading' his own bedtime book. Which is "where's my cow" by Terry Pratchett. DS can repeat most of the text, and stuff he's not so sure of he gets most of the voewl sounds right... is he reading it or remembering it? I'm a book junkie with a retentive memory so there must be some genetic input going on here, but it still seems a bit advanced... have I somehow hatched a genius or do lots of kids do this? Honestly a bit gobsmacked by it all.

I think alot of kids memorise books TBH.
If you want to know if he is actaully reading then write down some fo the words yourself and see if he recognises them out of context.

I think he is just showing an appreciation and enjoying having them read to him...

i am sure he will start reading early if he is that into books, but i am not sure how one would class early tbh.

I suspect that memorising however is a very useful interim step to reading.

i think it shows they understand the concept that the book means something and the letters signify stuff.

which is defintely part way there i would say

DS has started reciting a couple of the books we have been reading LOADS of lately....and I know he is doing it from memory coz he does it wthout the books in front of him

Yup, it's memory, because he's now reciting what is obviously a book to me that I haven't read to him - must be one he gets at nursery. BTW does anyone recognise this: various animals try to persuade the spider to come and play but the spider is spinning a web all day...? Thought if he likes the book that much I'll track down a copy to keep at home.

Probably memorising at this stage.

If you gave him another, simple book that he hadn't seen before - could he read the words?

That is an eric carle book the very busy spider - sorry about lack of caps - i have a cat on my lap!

I think memorising is good as it must help build up sight vocab later. Also helps with story writing as they know the "langauage" of how to write stories.

I think most 2.5yo children can memorise books and start to show an interest in letters/numbers, especially if they have an older sibling and can read.

How to enjoy it - same way you enjoy everything else with a 2.5yo child, do lots of reading with him, be expressive, make reading a cuddly, funny, exciting time for him and don't put any pressure on him. If he asks about a letter/number/word tell him, but don't make a huge deal of it.

Yep its called "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle. Its available in loads of different formats. We have the board book. See here

DS1 memorised a load of books between 2 and 2.5 We used to leave pauses and let him fill in the gaps and run our finger underneath the words as we were reading. He did actually end up pretty much teaching himself to read by the time he was 3.

Two of my younger children otoh also memorised books but didn't follow this through to reading, dunno why

Ds is 2.4 and loves his books. He remembers a lot of the words but we spend more time talking about the pictures "what can you see? Where is the rabbit?" etc etc than concentrating on the words.

DD2 is 2 and 3 months and has memorized her favourite books. she's not interested in letters and words, but loves the sounds and the rhymes. They love repitition at this age, same book 10 times a day - she even has to sleep with a particular dinosaur book propped up on her pillow instead of a teddy.

memorizing is a form of reading though isn't it?

Don't worry to much that he is memorizing rather than reading. He is only little, however he is learning important skills like how to hold a book, which way print goes and that fact that strange squigles mean something.

The acid test whether a child is reading is whether he can recongise individual words outside the story.

It is common for children to memorise favourite stories and there is no harm in it. When your little boy is older reading will come.

Just don't boast about it IRL, it will really put people off you! My DD's 3 and is 'reading' some reading scheme books she inherited - I've also got a daft memory for trivial things so I guess she's got one too.

Thanks everyone: BoD take your point about not going on in FL about my wonderful child but don't want to deter him either when he's having one of his "identify all the letters on the poster" spells at the bus stop.
Will hunt down that spider book enxt week

Two of my three memorised like this at that age, and they definitely have been earlier readers than my middle child who didn't. With DD1 I used to amuse my self by changing one word every now and again as I read her book, she always pulled me up on it. DD3 was similar and was put straight on to year one reading books when she started reception in January.
There probably is some genetic thing going on as I was exactly the same apparently - I would only have to read a book once and I could recite vast tracts of it - unfortunately my freakish photographic memory didn't last beyond 12.