When does a child learn to read

[Unicorn1981]

Sorry if silly question but I can't remember when I did. My 3yo has always loved books and is wanting to learn to read. Is this too young? I get her to follow my finger when I read but is there anything specific I can do except for reading with her and showing her letters etc. She recognises letters but what age would she start reading at?

If she knows that letters have a name as well as a sound you can see if she understands that (sounds) c a t is cat. She may be too young, not ready, not interested yet but just keep reading to her and talking about letters and see how it goes. Two of my DC read at 4, the middle child wasn't interested so I just made a pairs game with 52 index cards and the letters of the alphabet. He enjoyed that. He learnt to read at school at around 5 or 6. They all learn eventually though at different rates.

How long is a piece of string?

Every child is ready at a different age. People will have different definitions of what a 'reader' is.

Best thing you can do for a child is read to them lots and lots.

If they are interested / want to, you can get them to search for a letter (out and about / in the shops / in catalogues or magazines or on food packets / using wooden train with the letters of their name on, etc....... ) usually the letter their name begins with..... "Ooh look, there's a "s" like you start with" etc.

With my son, after learning letters we started talking about how words sound and what they start with and end with. E.g. Ooh there's a cat, cat starts with... We did this without looking at the words themselves, just as a verbal game as we were out and about. Also, making up silly rhymes. And as people have said, lots of reading. I didn't teach him to read per se, his pre-school taught all the blending, segmenting, etc, but I think the things we did at home helped.

Thanks. She does do the recognising letters thing and especially recognises letters in her name so I'll guess we can take it from there.

I read to mine asking questions to engage him with books and did lots of silly rhymes and poems and played letter games - words starting with the same letter, looking for letters etc. But I never formally tried to teach him to read as I didn't want to teach him differently to school so they had to undo my work. At 2 1/2 we were on a skype call to my husband and he noticed that our son was reading the keyboard while we spoke. In the next few month he began to sound out letters in book and sometime he would recognise that they made a word eg he eould read d-o-g then say dog. This kept him happy until he started school. I hear his classmates read at school as a parent helper and they all seem to "get it" in their own time. Some will struggle with basics for months then suddenly shoot up through the next levels, other move along at a very consistent pace.
Most schools are not bothered about them being able to read when they start (infact they would rather they can put their coat on, wash their hands etc) so read for fun, hopefully create a love of books and reading will follow at some point.

MIne all showed interest and were reading simple words by 2yo. Because they were interested they initiated it and enjoyed it. It meant that they were reading books that interested them at 5yo (and at 2yo!) rather than wondering why Spot stops twenty times in a book!
Mine all went in fits and starts. So they'd have a period when they were really interested and would read lots and then have periods when they didn't want to do it, so we didn't. Once they could read books they enjoyed to themselves they were away.

2yo?! Wow. My dd definitely shows interest but not reading words yet.

My boys didn't learn until four and five but my daughter was desperate to learn I held her back at first but in the end she was asking other people and beginning to recognise words and she was writing letters from two. By three she was starting to read and she attended school at three because they had a day a week before starting school.she was four in the summer and was reading fluently by the Christmas.
At school they are taught by phonics so please don't use the letter names as it confuses children unless you use both. I would read lots of books and talk about the pictures encourage understanding then recognising letters such as the Tesco van etc then begin with small words such as pig which can be sounded out.