DS turns out to be an early reader. What shall I ask nursery to do?

[iheartdusty]

DS is 3.9. He appears to have a knack for reading, and can now pick up anything and read it by himself, or at least give it a go. I haven't really got a way of measuring his ability, but when DD brings home her ORT level 5 books, he sails through them without pausing for breath. We borrow library books for new readers (like 'sprinters', 'blue bananas' series) and he devours them.

he goes 3 afternoons to the nursery attached to the school, and I want to have a talk with them about what kind of support they can give him.
What I think I want is for them to treat him as if he was in (say)yr 1 and learning to read with the others. I mean I want them to assess his reading, identify any bad habits he is getting into, spot any weaknesses, and come up with some kind of structure for developing what he can do, as well as suggesting to me specific things I can do at home with him.

Do you think this is the right way to approach it? Is there something else I should be doing?

RK - do you not have lots of mates with kids the same ages? Do you not see them & talk about meaningless kiddy stuff? And do you not see what your kids are doing compared to theirs?

my children are early readers
i would not offer this information up

pmsl at that reply - you have just shot your argument in the foot by the use of the word early - how do you know??

I'd go along with many of the other posts here IHD - your DS is doing well on his own and just needs to continue enjoying his books.

I love you squirrel lady

dd used to do that but tbh it was as much that she'd learnt the gist of the story by listening to ds and then have a go and fill in the words she couldn't work out. Encourage it by all means, dd had access to books of ds' so could pick and choose to her level and interest from a wide range , Usborne Apple Tree Farm, their readers series, Magic Key etc However doesn't necessarily rate as G and T imho. Dd is just 6 and reading ORT 11 but then so are many(more than the 10% "target") in her Yr2 class. Also you need to develop his expression , recognition of punctuation and importantly comrpehension . It is perfeclty possible for a child to read technically well but not "get" the meaning at all.

Well spotted Squirrel....RK oh dear....

dont you get it folks
early does NOT mean gifted
when your kids are older you will cringe at this

What on earth is your problem Roy? You are being incredibly snide and patronising for no obvious reason. The OP did not come on here raving about how brilliant her child genius is, she simply asked for advice on one aspect of his development in which he is clearly ahead of his peers. She has a perfect right to ask people's opinions about how to handle a situation where her three-year-old has a reading ability a full two years at least ahead of the norm for his age. And as for the 'gifted' thing - that label has been debated thoroughly and frequently on this board but since schools have chosen -or been told to - to apply that label to the top five or ten per cent of their intake, I would say it is pretty likely that the OP's son will be in the G&T labelled group when he starts school.

DS1 was like that. I left him be and when he started school they made sure he had books that he could read that were his level iyswim.

He's still a bright wee thing and is sailing through school. (15 in Dec)

posted in Gifted and Talented means that early reading is being considered g&t which its not unfortunately. Its a trick. Now no doubt this child is extremely bright and gifted and talented but early reading is not a sign of it which i thin is what roy is saying

thankyou Hector ( fab name!)

But does it really matter?
OP has posted where she thought she were most likely to find knowledgeable people on this particular topic. Whether or not her child, is or will ever be GT is beyond the scope of this thread. Had she posted on Education, she might not have found anybody who knew about supporing reading for 3 year olds.

RK, do you have a habit of lashing on to posters about the validity of their op on other threads too? If the answer is "no" maybe you should think about your motives for posting here.

I'm afraid I agree with the detractors. The very term Gifted and Talented gets people's backs up not because anyone is jealous of other children's achievements, but because it's a useless piece of terminology.

I was a very early reader, as was dh. I'd be surprised if my lad (nearly three) wasn't reading by the time he was four.

But that doesn't mean gifted or talented. This implies extraordinary creativity, the ability to take an idea or concept and make something of it.

Being able to read has a ceiling. There are only so many words you can read or understand before, in order to be G&T, you have to start inventing new ones

It would have been far more appropriate to post this under 'Education.'

Sorry, but I'm not the only one who feels this way.

But the terminology is here whether we like it or not, and whether we agree or not, the OP should not be mobbed just because she chose to post her query in a topic that actually exist on this forum.

My son is 5 and is doing maths in negative numbers. I was lucky I could post about it in the Education Primary topic, as he was in Reception at the time.

I dont consider him G&T, but had he been any younger, I too might have posted in that particular topic....

So who has ever come across a 3 year old who could read really well who later turned out to be not very bright???

Of course it's not just a "trick"

Me.

I was one of those children. Agree with Desi.

IIRC the g&t topic came about for the very reason that SOME people felt their kids were G&T or indeed had been idenfied as such at school, and that they DIDN't want to appear too boastful or whatever but wanted help.

I have posted here once as DD2 seems to have been identified at shcool as G&T I think - she is doing different advanced maths etc, and I didn't want to show off, but wanted to understand what this meant.

Especially useless term atm since NAGTY the official thingy for it has closed and now the Gov't have taken over it... needless to say nothing has been heard in months

And my ds1 (offically G+T as far as that term goes) was reading narnia books in reception, I knew he was incredibly bright I also knew that the school would not assist or extend him nor tbh did I want them to, setting them apart from their peers is foolhardy when theya re so young and they relaly need to fit in and play play play.
Let the reading be a home thing.

Yes, of course children who can read at that age will be forever bright. Thank goodness, and God love 'em. I was a fluent reader by four, and it's a fantastically life-enhancing ability.

But bright is not the same thing as this ridiculous government monika of 'gifted and talented.'

But, iheartdusty, in answer to your OP, I agree with other suggestions. I don't think you need to do anything at this stage. A reading child will devour books, no matter what. It's probably more important at this stage to focus on the things he is possibly weaker at, whether that be drawing, modelling, throwing & catching ball, etc.

desi it is not always ridiculous, it has been a boon to ds at secondary school - pithy and useless at primary mind you...

but now they are changing the selection criteria and it is all going a bit far astray from what it had hoped to achieve....

Yes, piffle, I can understand how it might help to target things at secondary level.

These things always go belly up in the end, don't they! The trouble with education is that its component parts are all so highly individual that there aren't really any hard and fast answers.

Thanks for comments.

I have read a few more of the other threads, and can see the reason why some have suggested I should have posted in Education.

For the record, I am NOT contending that DS is G&T. He isn't even at school yet. When he starts school, if the school have resources which they administer under that label, and they want him to benefit, then well and good. That's up to them. What I sought, and what I have got, are opinions about whether I should 'nurture' such ability as he has in a structured way, or try to get the nursery to do so, and the consensus has overwhelmingly been against that.

But speaking more widely, I think it could have been crass and insensitive of me to post on another part of MN. When people are saying 'my child is struggling with x' or 'my child can't cope with y' , then to come along and say "I am really happy with what my child is doing, he seems to be rather good at something, and how can I help him develop it" hardly sits well beside the other threads.

I absolutely reject the idea that to post in this topic implies that the poster claims their child is G&T, either in the 'pure' sense, or as in the Govt-funding sense. As some posters have said, this is the area of MN where other people are most likely to have experience relevant to a child who has a high degree of ability at one thing or another. If it is the G&T label on the topic which gets people's backs up, then get MN to change it.