Reciting Books

[ShinyGreenElephant]

How normal would you say it is for a just turned 3 year old to recite entire books from memory? Mostly rhyming ones eg Julia Donaldson but some other ones too. Probably about 10-12 that she can definitely recite all the way through, at least another 20 she can recite passages from or do with prompting.

This is NOT a brag post, she had a severe speech delay and her older sibling on her dads side is on the ASD pathway so thats where my mind is going. I'm pretty sure DD13 did it when she was younger but she was a very early talker so it seemed less weird, also I dont know what age she did it.

Her speech has caught up now - great vocabulary but pronunciation still needs work, I have to translate sometimes for people who don't know her well. Just seems a bit incongruous when she stands there and recites entire books when 6 months ago she had 4 words and was in speech therapy. Anyone experienced similar?

Dd could also do this but was similar to your older child.

I'd imagine that reciting a familiar book is much easier for your DC to do than to spontaneously make conversation or speak unprompted. Perhaps it's the musicality in the words, like people find it easier to sing than speak when they have a stutter so helps him overcome whatever causes his Speech and language problems.

I would say its the same as being able to sing a song.

*sorry I thought your younger DC was male.

DD1 could do this verbatim at 2 and beyond.

She autistic.

Good point about singing songs, all the books she does it with are either rhyming or follow a pattern/ structure. She knows some songs too but far more books, but then we read more than we sing so maybe that's why.

Her brother who is autistic doesn't recite books but will talk to himself / noone in the style of a YouTube presenter constantly, I think I was comparing it to that but DD does it more in context- either while paging through the book or telling her baby sister / pet / Teddy the story. So maybe its not the same but as @stargirl1701 says, I have known autistic children to do similar so it plays on my mind

Mine does this and has done for a while, her memory is ridiculously good. I once found her "reading" the gruffalo to her baby brother and was pretty much spot on.

I've got a really good memory for things like this too, comes in very handy in exams.

My twins used to do this at the same age, not so much now as they are six and are on to chapter books.Not autistic.

Mine did this and it was so cute. Hearing her do OwI Babies is my favourite memory. She is severely dyslexic and still has an excellent memory for books at 12.

I don’t have experience with this with my daughter as she’s only 14 months but I’ve been told that this was something I could do at that age, my parents actually thought I could read as I knew when to turn the pages and everything. Turned out I just had an excellent memory, to an extent I still do. No heath issues at all and I’m 31. Not a brag but just to give you another point of view. Your LO might just have a very good memory too. Doesn’t necessarily mean anything other than that

DD does this! Half the time now she 'reads' me her bedtime stories instead of the other way round She's 3 in Feb. I think it's relatively common.