My baby can read

[MamaTuska]

I am new and this is my first post. I just want to know your opinion. My baby is recognising words by following what is written such as she claps when seeing a word. I assume this is ordinary. My DD is 13 months (she is my first), we speak to her in two languages and I use flash cards as she enjoys playing with them a lot. We do not use them everyday but she plays with them quite often. Is there anything else I can do to boost this ability.

😂

And the band played believe it if you will.

My dog could read. I put two cards one that says yes and one that says no. He always looked under the yes one for the treat.

As a former "gifted and talented" child myself, I can tell you it doesn't always work out well. I coasted through primary and part of secondary, then flamed out in later years; it turns out natural intelligence can't get you through higher level exams and I didn't know how to study as I'd never had to actually apply myself. I was bullied for being weird and now I'm a burnt out shell of an adult with a patchwork CV and several recent diagnoses of neurodivergent conditions that were missed in the 90s and 00s.

Please don't place too much emphasis on how clever and independent your child is, OP.

My DD1 could do quadratic equations at the age of 2. She now works in Costa

@olderthanyouthink

My baby can walk and she's only just 5 months, so nerr nerr

she can stand and take steps when you help her balance, otherwise she'd hit the deck hard and she can get herself up

Christ was that comment necessary? And did you know that it's actually a concern for babies to walk so soon? Not good for neural development. It'll show when it comes time to read and write.

OP it is possible that your daughter can read, I covered a story of a child who could write stories at 18months. True genius. Very lonely for the child and family. You only need to scan the extraordinarily bitchy comments in here to understand why.

You are better to speak with a health professional but in a nutshell let your daughter learn by continuing to read to her and letting her play as much as possible. The flashcards are not necessary. But lots of talking and loving and playing is great.

Is there anything else I can do to boost this ability.

there isn't any need, baby is already ahead of the game.

you could do open ended play with baby and fine motor skills as they are really useful

Ignore the nay-sayers OP—it is a well-known fact that babies can start learning to read from three months old. I recommend a book called How To Teach Your Baby To Read, by Glenn Doman. It's been used very successfully since the 1960s.
Flash cards are part of the method, so perhaps you have been using it instinctively!

Why on earth would you be showing flash cards to a baby? Absolutely ridiculous.

Since she went to school, she begins to mix languages and replace already learned words in her mother's language with easier English words. We found out she was quite smart when she got the Leapfrog tablet for 20 months and quickly started using it and playing 3 years plus games. When she was 2.5 years old, we installed her Gruffalo with tic-tac-toe game and she started winning without our help. I know it sounds like I was making it up, but I am not

Why would it sound like you're making it up? My DD is the same age as yours and at the same level by the sound of it, and she's pretty average in most respects. It's not difficult to believe. 🤷 I wasn't on your original thread, but my DD wasn't doing any word recognition at 13 months, or for quite a long time after, so it does go to show that they all get there in the end.

I'm glad you're enjoying motherhood at any rate.

This is the 2nd thread from 2019, with an update today, that I've read tonight

Sounds like OP ditched the flashcards some time ago. Wise move.

On the reading, one of mine learned phonics when she was rising 2. Kind of picked it up alongside her brother who was in reception. I remember a school assembly when the kids were showing off the phonics they'd learned and 21 months DD having to be shushed from shouting out the letter sounds. Not the usual reason for taking the baby out of assembly! She could properly decode simple words at 2.3.

Doom-mongers will be pleased to hear she was a thoroughly happy and normal preschooler apart from being able to read, and is still a happy and bright 9 yr old. School is easy so she's directing most of her energy into music where she's no super-genius, but is allowed to keep learning as fast as she is able and join in groups by ability not by age.

Top tip OP - if your preschooler continues bright, find a hobby she loves and let her direct energy there rather than pushing ahead with school stuff and getting even more out of synch.

It is possible. My brother is three years younger than me and learned as l learned. I was a quick learner but not outstanding and could read and spell fluently by the end of the reception class. For my sixth birthday I was to have a watch and the proviso for this was that I should be able to tell the time, including five to, twenty-five past by then, which could. My brother learned this alongside me and could tell the time round the clock by the time he was three. When I was six l was learning the multiplication tables and knew them all up to twelve times by 6 3/4. My brother, of course, learned them at the same time as me so knew them while he was still three, reciting them all to my dad one bedtime. The next night he told my dad that he would like to say his times tables. My dad, really not wanting to hear them again, said he had heard them the previous night. My brother responded with “but that was only up to twelve. I’ve learned them up to sixteen now.” My parents were very sensible and never boasted about it - fifty years ago people tended not to- but encouraged us all in our different ways and talents. He continued to have a genius level IQ and went up a year at school. He has had a wonderful professional career. He was never musical, though, which was always my forté and actually l feel in many ways I have had a much easier time by being bright but not outstanding as there l can communicate with many more people on the same level. Genius level IQs are as much a special need as the other end of the IQ scale in their own way as they require expert teachers to truly stretch their capabilities and there are very, very few people who can converse with them on their level.

Forget the extra there. Predictive text….

@simitra sounds like Where the Wild Things Are?

@Ohyesiam

I was taught to read with recognising flash cards. Now they teach deciding words with phonics, because it was believed that with word recognition you would be bad at spelling. I can’t spell which could’ve a coincidence.

I learned "look and say" i.e. word recognition and spell pretty much perfectly because I read a lot and have a retentive memory. DS1 and 2 the same (learned before school) and same. So although that may be a general theory, it isn't guaranteed.

"Teach your baby to read" is a classic book that advocates flashcards for babies upwards and it's a fun thing that they like to do, so ignore people suggesting that you are damaging your baby or that it's totally ridiculous. Babies absolutely can learn to recognise words very early. Their brains are so adept at learning language and can even learn words visually before they can speak them. Personally I have made flashcards but am not really bothering with mine yet, I have done them a bit when she was younger and she did enjoy it, I put them away until she was a bit older. SHe's 17 months now and her speaking vocabulary and understanding of words is a lot better so I think I may get the cards out again, I'm not in any rush but will probably introduce some again sometime soon, in the next few months perhaps. I could read fluently aged 3, just from picking it up from books being read to me and a few flashcards of the alphabet and so on, and learning it before school like that led to having a much better reading speed with no subvocalisation, unlike most of my age group who learned in p1. The early years are definitely good for picking up reading. The main thing is to make sure it is fun and a completely enjoyable game and not to overdue the length of time on it or make them bored. Just a few seconds at a time, no testing, and up to 5 flashcards. Nothing wrong with doing that. Also it's not something that has to be done, either. Whatever floats your boat!

@BernardsarenotalwaysSaints

This is the 2nd thread from 2019, with an update today, that I've read tonight

Aha, I've just realised this too!

At all the preschools I’ve worked in we do not use flash cards/word recognition in that way. We teach a phonics system, so ‘ahh’ instead of ‘A’, ‘Cuh’ instead of ‘C.’

We then teach ‘letter blending.’ So for the word cat we use their jolly phonics and spell out cuh ahh tu, until they can blend these sounds together and make cat. Then if you change the first letter they can easily spell out rat, mat, sat, pat.

If you teach them to recognise a word just by looking at a card and remembering ‘car’ then you aren’t teaching them to read. Because if you changed it to ‘bar’ they don’t have the tools to alter what the word says and actually read.

Either way at 13 months there are lots of things to learn! It’s certainly an important time when you see your baby turn from a baby-baby into a fun toddler with their own personality traits becoming more apparent.

@Kanaloa, everyone speaks as if phonics is the latest, best thing. Phonics have been around since at least WW2 and probably before then. We all learned Ah, buh, cuh etc before the “adult” a, b, c. My aunt, in her eighties, is a retired infant school teacher and always taught this way. In actual fact, the best way to teach reading is a mixture of look and say and phonics, which is what most teachers (including my aunt) and reading schemes have always done. In common with most children of my generation, I learned to read with the Ladybird books, ie: Peter and Jane. The A and B books were Look and Say and the C books were phonics. I can imagine that many Mumsnetters learned to read with the Red Hats, Blue Hats and Yellow Hats, while my own children had Biff, Chip and Kipper. They are all based on this premise.

Have read this thread briefly..OP ignore all the jealous sarcasm !

[quote Violinist64]@Kanaloa, everyone speaks as if phonics is the latest, best thing. Phonics have been around since at least WW2 and probably before then. We all learned Ah, buh, cuh etc before the “adult” a, b, c. My aunt, in her eighties, is a retired infant school teacher and always taught this way. In actual fact, the best way to teach reading is a mixture of look and say and phonics, which is what most teachers (including my aunt) and reading schemes have always done. In common with most children of my generation, I learned to read with the Ladybird books, ie: Peter and Jane. The A and B books were Look and Say and the C books were phonics. I can imagine that many Mumsnetters learned to read with the Red Hats, Blue Hats and Yellow Hats, while my own children had Biff, Chip and Kipper. They are all based on this premise.[/quote]
Well I think we’re in agreement that a 13 month old can’t learn by looking at cards, which is what I was pointing out. No teacher is teaching a child to read by holding up cards saying ‘wave’ and then the children are waving.

I wasn’t suggesting it’s the ‘latest’ thing, but that it will work better than random word and action cards as it seemed op had not used any phonics.

As this child will now be a preschooler and doing phonics in school it’s pretty irrelevant anyway.

@amsadandconfused

Have read this thread briefly..OP ignore all the jealous sarcasm !

Oh dear, the inevitable 'just jealous' comment has arrived. And it's as off-base and stupid as ever.

@Kanaloa

At all the preschools I’ve worked in we do not use flash cards/word recognition in that way. We teach a phonics system, so ‘ahh’ instead of ‘A’, ‘Cuh’ instead of ‘C.’

We then teach ‘letter blending.’ So for the word cat we use their jolly phonics and spell out cuh ahh tu, until they can blend these sounds together and make cat. Then if you change the first letter they can easily spell out rat, mat, sat, pat.

If you teach them to recognise a word just by looking at a card and remembering ‘car’ then you aren’t teaching them to read. Because if you changed it to ‘bar’ they don’t have the tools to alter what the word says and actually read.

Either way at 13 months there are lots of things to learn! It’s certainly an important time when you see your baby turn from a baby-baby into a fun toddler with their own personality traits becoming more apparent.

You're doing it wrong if you're doing ahh and cuh. You need to do pure sounds, without the schwa. If you go on YouTube and search for pure sounds there are lots of phonics videos. I recommend looking at the ones created by the phonics schemes, such as Read Write Inc.