Ds can read a few words - is that unusual before 3.

[MNersanonymous]

Hi

Ds can now sight read a few words and sound out a few more which he then 'gets'. He has known the alphabet and letter sounds for a long time so it's just a natural progression I guess.

I'm genuinely curious as to whether that's unusual - he'll be 3 in just over a month's time.

No sarcastic answers please - it's a straightforward qn - I'm not trying to ascertain whether he is a genius as I know most of them even out in the long term - I am just curious as to whether that's quite unusual...

I don't remember exact ages for reading single words or sounding out words, but like your ds, mine was under 3 - he scared me by picking out words he recognised from the page of a book I was reading. A rare dated note in his baby book says he read his first book (about 20 words) when he was 3 years 1 month. It doesn't say what it was, but I know it wasn't one he had had read to him (he used to 'read' books before that but was remembering them rather than reading iyswim). The other note regarding reading was that by 4.5 years he was reading "just about any childs book" (meaning short chapter books, I think but not entirely sure). So, probably not long before your ds starts real books.

Ds was fairly obsessed by books as a young child and has continued to love reading. At school he's always been bright, but not in a 'stands out from the crowd' kind of way. Curiously, in spite of all the early reading English isn't his forte (though he's still good at it) - maths is what he excels at.

Both of mine read before 3, but then we do have hundreds of books in the house and we are very much a reading family (and I am a writer). Lovely skill to have early though, enjoy it.

MNersanonymous - yes, his classmates think he's a nut!
Fortunately there are only 10 in his class, so his teacher has lots of time to spend with him (and the others, of course!)

What sort of writer TeeBee? Maybe it's genetic...

I could read at 2.5 and my DGM said that was exceptional. I was so disappointed that DS couldn't, despite being surrounded by books, letter, text, he didn't grasp it.

3mths in Reception and he's 'Reading very well' and I feel the school think he's being hot housed (?!?!)

Anyone else find their child can read Brand names from an early age?..my daughter has been able to read the words Sainsburys, Marks and Spencers and Waitrose, and others since 2 1/2!! (you can imagine how she keeps her self entertained on motorway journeys watching passing lorries!) I assume she is remembering the pattern/logo/colour of letters rather than properly reading..

Does anyone know if it is easier for children to learn to read properly if they are good at recognising whole words, or are the skills required for picking up phonics and blending completely different? she is now 3 but as she hasn't yet started phonics at nursery I don't know how easy she will find them.

Ha that's why I haven't told anyone about this is RL - I'm so afraid of people thinking I'm some mad hothouser when I'm not!

I feel it's like a guilty secret!!

My Dd is the youngest in her class and will be 4 in July.
She can sound out words, and write letters, count up to 60 and down from 10, add and subtract. I'm more impressed by her mathsy tendencies tbh.

we have no telly either and the preschool Montessori teacher has told me that DD's very bright. She could identify and sound out letters at 2 and a half.

DD's always been very dexterous and could hold a pen as soon as she picked it up. She's very right-handed. We taught her sign language before she was verbal, and she communicated her needs very well then - DD had few tantrums during the terrible twos - i had most of them

I'm worried about her starting school in September as she will be the youngest again, and also about her being bored if I leave her in her pre-school. I don't want to push her academically, or hothouse her or anything like that, as she'll be in school for years and years, so there's plenty of time.

I read at three and a half, as did one sister - my other sister was 5, and was a lot more artistic and creative.

I think it's all swings and roundabouts. Some kids are more developed at one thing, and not at another, and then everything evens out.

Are you thinking of starting your DS off in pre-school this September? On the basis of the similarities between your DS and my DD, and what my DDs teach told me, your son is 'bright', but it's probably not that unusual on Mumsnet, because of the user demographic

I am a writer (well, a journalist). I have two English degrees.

My house is full of books. Packed with the buggers.

Neither of my children could read a bleedin' word till they were taught in Reception.

I do not, as it happens, give a monkey's.

katebee - the first satge of reading is logographic, which is recognising a word as a collection of visual features.
The next stage is alphabetic reading - decoding grapheme by grapheme.
Some children need very little help to progress to this stage, some will progress through reading and spelling experience, dyslexic children will have difficulties progessing to this stage.

I think, if I remember the research correctly, that there isn't any particular link between early reading and later academic progress.

But then I would say that, we have a house stacked with books but I am enough of a bookworm to prefer to read them myself than to teach my dds to read when school or preschool will be doing that perfectly well in due course. Why waste valuable reading time on infants?

my 8 and 6yo dds are both avid readers now, though we didn't teach them young. One of them took quite a while to learn at school. But it makes me really happy, seeing them enthusiastically devouring books. To me that's the main aim of reading, not how young you do it or what level a child is on.

Actually Zazen ds seems to not do very well at all with a pencil/ pen. He still largely scribbles or draws scribbles and claims they are certain objects but they bear no resemblance. My guess here is that if he struggles with anything it will be writing but we'll see. It might not help that he is left handed.

I don't have the option of ds starting proper school this sept - it will be the year after. He goes to a nursery but it is play based which is fine by me. I am slightly concerned that he will get bored at nursery but having chatted to others on here it will be more likely due to being one of the older ones at nursery (a lot of the kids leave at 3) rather than lack of academic stuff.

If he is happy playing and making friends at nursery hopefully I can answer his qns and help if he continues to want to start reading.

But Fennel I'm only following his lead, not 'wasting time' he asks me.

Yes, I can see that's not quite the same as deliberately teaching them. I'm responding more to some of the other posts about the relation of early reading to a) intelligence and b) having a house full of books/parents who earn their living by writing skills.

DS1 was like this, he loved recognising words/letters. He then completely lost interest and is only now starting to want to read again. He loves playing rhyming games and using alliteration. He starts school in September. My Mom was constantly going on about how both myself and my brother could read before we went to school and how I should teach DS1, but I want him to see books and words as fun for as long as possible.
So in answer to your OP, no, it's not unusual, but it may not last!

fennel, a child is more likely to desire to read if they are in an envirnment where a lot of reading happens (with or without deliberate teaching I suspect), so there will be a correlation. If I ever sat down with a book when the dcs were small, ds would immediately get one of his books and bring it over for me to read to him. Maybe if I'd done lots of gardening when they were younger I'd now have green fingered teens, but I read (or tried to) and ended up with bookworms.

I know, I suppose I am just a bit unkeen on children learning academic things precociously as I had parents who did encourage rather too keenly on the academic front, and they did very much think it was led by the children - that we wanted to learn these things. And we did, but we took our cues from what gained parental excitement and approval. And my experience of a very academically-oriented family (we all read early) makes me aware of how subtle the parental pressure can be. And how potentially damaging for the children.

So I do tend to be a bit wary of the child being "keen" and it therefore being OK to go along with their urge.

OK fair enough & I'm sure you are very right about subtle pressure. Just wanted to point out that children copy their parents a lot in all sorts of things.

Fennel,- according to my parents, admittedly King and Queen of Push, I wanted to learn, so my mother taught me (at 2!). I do kind of believe this since my mother had had my younger sister by then and was ill, and must have had precious little time or energy to devote to putting me through my paces. So I guess that some children do want to learn.

None of mine was reading before 4, but they did know their letter sounds by 3, and middle daughter could sound out words at just 3 (as in c-a-t makes cat).

Another extremely bookish family. With two ignorant children.
Before discovering MN I had never met children who learnt to read before school.
I'd love ds to be less of anarchist and be interested in letters.

I know, franca, I find it utterly weird, all the eager preschool readers.

In RL my kids are relatively competent. Here on MN they're quite definitely thick.

Yes, I feel the same MI. So much so, that I'm actually shamefully quite .