11yo dd reading age of 15

[natellie1970]

My daughter has been told by school that she has a reading age of 15. She has always been very bright annoyingly quick witted avid reader and quick learner she said her first word at 8 months old. Is she gifted or bright. And where do I go from here?

I wouldn't say that was particularly gifted. My DD was told at 8 she had a reading age of 13 and she isn't classed as G&T. If your DD enjoys reading, make sure she has a supply of books that she is going to enjoy and are age-appropriate, but I wouldn't have though there was much difference between what a 15 yo could read and an 11 yo.

I think it is good but probably of more relevance is the NC level. There are so many tests around it is difficult to know what exactly they are testing. Comprehension is an indicator of cognitive ability so if her comprehension is very good she may well be very bright.

DS2 tested with a reading age of 16 at age 7/8 and NC level of 5B. He is very bright (top 1%). Where do you go from here? Not sure, although I do think you need to ensure the school are differentiating for her so that she makes progress. Even if they do not, DS has made progress even though his previous school admitted that he had not been taught at the appropriate level, because there were not other children in the year working at that level. He has made a complete level of progress over 2 years, which is the minimum that is expected. I think reading is one of those areas where, if they are keen, they do not have to be taught, (she says with crossed fingers!).

With high reading comprehension I think you would expect high levels of writing too.

Reading is a funny thing. The more they read the faster their reading age develops. The assessment of reading age is often on the basis of being able to put words into context. DD scored a reading age of 18 at the age of 8. Not because she is massively gifted, but because she reads a wide variety of books o had come across nearly all the words used to test her.

I don't think that is anything at all unusual. The higher the better though

I like the fact my Uni age DCs all read for enjoyment. I feel its a gift for life.

Seems like a rather inconsistent science how reading ages are calculated.
I would just support & encourage; usual stuff, then.

Hard to know what it means: plenty of bright 11yos are able to read adult books: reading ability is often in direct proportion to how much reading you do. Dd was reading Dickens and Thackeray at that time. But also Ballet Shoes and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

Where you go from here is easier to answer: supply more books, make sure she has a library card, hold interesting conversations with her. And make sure she knows that reading should be about enjoyment, not about being on the appropriate band.

Difficult to say where to go, but I think you can never have too much reading for pleasure and it helps if they try different genres, authors and harder-than-now stuff. [Good school librarians and/or English teachers can sometimes help with that, but schools don't always have those]

It's not unusual - DD1 scored this at age 10. Reading widely, loving books and being read to all contribute. DD1 is bright - she is in a super set at her school now (Yr 8) and her group are working towards all A and A* at GCSE, but she isn't Einstein (as in A-level maths at age 10 and that kind of thing). She's just a normal but very able child. Your DD sounds the same.

Keep fostering her love of reading, talk about books, life, the universe and everything, stay in touch with what her school are doing and then she will do well. She sounds lovely, as do you.

Not unusual. Just get a library ticket if she doesn't have one.
Google 'books 11 yr old should have read', or similar, and work through the ones she likes the sound of.

My DD's report at the end of year 7 (she was 12 in June) said she had a reading age of 15 years 7 months. Yes, she's in top set for English but I she's certainly no genius!! Plus she tends to read magazines at home rather than books but as long as she's reading something that's all that matters.

Natellie1970 - if you haven't already skulked off with your tail firmly between your legs I would like to draw your attention to the following thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gifted_and_talented/a1841855-Difference-betwey-aen-G-T-and-bright

This is where I have used this thread to illustrate an earlier post I made on the above thread - about the oft repeated views on the MN gifted thread regarding bright v gifted and how advanced reading is no indicator of giftedness.

Over and above reading 4 years above her chronological age (well done your dd) you mention her being both quick witted and a quick learner and reaching at least one milestone (her first word) early.

Seemingly only the profoundly gifted are considered gifted on this thread (many posts, although by no means all, attest to this). My view is that a child with an IQ of 120+ is gifted, with increments going through moderately, highly and profoundly gifted.

You can look here to get more of a sense of this yourself. It is not a definitive science and people may ague about the methods of determining giftedness.

Of one thing, however, I am clear, there is no jump straight from bright to genius level giftedness - there's a whole range of gifted in-between and my view (for what it's worth) is that your dd likely sits somewhere in this in-between range.

If she is doing well at school then you need to do little other than enjoy her and stimulate her by supporting her with her passions. If there is a disparity between her 'smarts' and her performance at school, well it's definitely worth exploring it with them.

All the best

Blimey - you put us all in our place on the other thread . You make some very good points but I think most of us where just saying that OP's DD's reading age is good, in fact, very good but not necessarily unusual. I realise MN is a socially middle class selective sample in the main so is not representative of the real world at all. Hope I haven't caused any offence with my "genius" comment!

No offence to me at least and it's nothing personal against each poster here at all - these are comments that get repeated time and again on the G&T thread, my rant has been brewing for a while and this thread just happened to enable me to illustrate my counter views very well.

I just feel it's so hard for people to post on this thread due to the incredibly high expectations of what constitutes gifted. Of course there are some seriously gifted dcs spoken about here and I do understand that if you're a mum (or dad) of a dc that is working years ahead and that this is causing problems with schooling then it can seem trivial perhaps, when someone comes on with what is essentially a celebration of their mildly or moderately gifted dc. In the same way that I've seem some MNs with severely autistic children feeling exasperated with a parent that is full of angst regarding their child that 'only' has mild Asperger's.

Peoples problems are relatively different but I have the same argument, just because you have worse problems than me doesn't mean that I don't have a problem and it shouldn't mean that I don't deserve a fair crack at getting my worries heard or even my relatively small celebrations celebrated!

Yes I totally agree with your points. As an aside, I personally find MN talk boards invaluable as I only have DD so can't make comparisons about what is below average, average, good, very good, exceptional etc etc.