Toddler recited an entire book without looking

[PurplePansy05]

My DS (2y9m) recited an entire book to me this evening. I was pretty gobsmacked as the book is 20+ pages long and it doesn't rhyme much. It includes words I never knew my DS could say as well. He did it without looking at the text or the images in the book - I opened it to read to him and he was just laying in bed reciting the entire book alongside me reading it to him, he knew it before I read it out.

His vocabulary is very good and he's able to communicate in simple and complex sentences now. He also uses modal verbs correctly. He is brought up bilingual.

I was a very early reader and I wonder if he is gradually getting there - he is very interested in learning about letters.

Are there any resources and activities suitable for his age that you could recommend to further encourage him to develop his reading skills, please?

My kids did both this with all their books. I think it is just a sign of being read to a lot!

The very best thing you can do to encourage literacy skills is just to continue read to him. Anything else (any kind of teaching) at this age is unnecessary and might even be counterproductive.

I used to do this at that age but I think flashcards would have turned me off. I liked stories. Just keep reading.

I noticed my two and a half year old could do this from before the age of 2. You can also drop any random words when reading and he'll say them. If he doesn't know the book and it rhymes, you can drop the rhyming word at the end of the sentence and he'll say it (unless it's something wildly unusual that he wouldn't know) even if he's never seen the book before.

Strangely, I don't think his speech is that amazing for his age. I've heard kids his age with much more fluent speech. He is good at this though. We read a lot with him but I'm sure lots of parents do the same. He can recite chunks of books in the right context in day to day life. For example a child hurt themselves at the park and he said "Maybe he broke his leg and banged his head. Maybe he'll end up in a hospital bed just like Fred" which is from Tabby McTat. He'll "read" books to himself and say the story allowed as he's memorised them. We rotate books and he can do it with stories he hasn't heard for weeks or months.

I've heard some children are "gestalt language processors" which I think means reciting things like this in every day life. Not sure how that differs from echolalia.

My son doesn't just recite and repeat things. He uses it with understanding and tweaks things he wants to say so that the grammar is correct etc. I'm choosing to see it as a positive thing as he has no shortage of his own things to say in addition to these book recitations!

In addition to this he knows all the letters in the alphabet, can recite them, can tell you words that begin with each letter etc.

I don't think it's highly unusual but it's a good starting point. He's crazy for numbers too and can count past 20 in sequence and can count objects in front of him up to ten. He loves numberblocks but hates alphablocks 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't have the patience for flash cards and so on. He has some nice alphabet/number puzzles and we read a lot together. I think that's enough. It all comes together at school anyway. I enjoy linking real life experiences with his books to cement vocabulary. We went to a bird of prey centre last week and read "The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark" and "Owl Babies" that night before bed.

This all sounds a bit much, OP - it’s not unusual for children to recite books from memory if they are read to a lot.

As PP have said, just keep exposing your child to books and rhymes. I’m quite gobsmacked at the thought of using flashcards for a child who isn’t yet 3!

Your child will get there when he / she is ready.

I was exactly the same with the ugly duckling. Nearly 40 now and can still recite most of it

I'd keep reading to him and introduce poetry suitable for his age group. Being able to memorise is an incredibly useful and wonderful skill.

We played snap with the flash cards. Certainly hasn't turned off my daughter from reading. She has 100s of books and loves them all.

I remember my son doing this with 'the Cow that laid an egg' at a similar age. Very cute. He's a teen now and his good memory definitely helps in school as a previous poster said. He has sadly lost his love of books tho.

I think you surely keep doing what you're doing as it's obviously working very well? Why over complicate matters.

My son has been able to recite The Gruffalo without seeing the book for a few months (he's 2y 7m), and can do most of Zog as well. I don't think it's that uncommon a skill, although obviously nice to know how engaged they are with the stories and that they have a good memory!

I remember the first book I ever 'read' (recited) aged 3 and that was over 50 years ago. It was Skippy the Frog, I've never seen it since, I can't find it on the internet.

Surprised at all the hatred for flash cards 😂 our daughter loves them and actively chooses them to play with. We don't sit and 'practise' them, we just okay games like sorting them into categories eg food, animals etc or hide them round the house and then find them. I think they're helpful to support recognition of some single words and sounds and if she enjoys them can't see what harm they'd do?!

@SErunner I am positive my son will be similar. He understands books are about stories which is what he loves. He is pretty imaginative. Activities are fun for him, he likes a challenge so what you've described is likely what he'd do. If you give him a task and he cracks it he'll immediately tweak it to try a new challenge (it's fun to watch, less so to parent sometimes when it's physical not intellectual 😅). He creates games, that's how I'd describe it.

He has all the First 1000 Words books in our home languages which aren't dissimilar and he's played with those for a while alongside enjoying what we both refer to as "story books". I'm quite open to them and will be trying out various ideas from this thread to see what he enjoys as his new "game"/s 😊

My DD was like this, reciting long stories before 3.
However, she is so stubborn and ornery (and bright, wonderful, etc) and just wouldn't take to reading no matter how much cajoling and suggesting I did.
I was internally frustrated as I could see that she was bright and able to recognise letters and remember alphabet but just stringing them into words made her refuse.

Anway the minute she went to school she was off, she was a very good reader quite early and ever since she's been book mad (now at 9 / Yr 4).

Just my advice, don't worry if he doesn't want to read even if he shows signs that he could.

My daughter was similar, memorized books at 2, excellent vocabulary, counting etc. I thought I had a genius child. 😂 She is bright though and now at 8 she is an excellent reader. I'm a foundation stage teacher. I didn't do any extra work with her we just enjoyed lots of books together and her love and interest for reading grew. I would encourage parents in my class to 'work' with kids who are struggling with their reading and even then to make learning phonics and sight words etc fun and into a game. But also as a teacher I encourage all my parents to foster a love of reading with their children. Trips to the library and bedtime books are a great start, school should do the rest. It's great that you want to give your child such a good start.

My DS1 used to do this. His teacher described it as "phenomenal" on his first day of reception! Sadly as a teen he's not much of a reader. He is a bright boy though.

I was like that as a child, my Dad said he used to mess up on purpose when reading bedtime stories because he liked having this tiny toddler quietly correct his reading.

Something I remember them saying that when I wanted 'bigger' stories but I couldn't read the long words yet, they got older books on tape from the library and played them for me. So I could enjoy more stories. My Dad said it helped my vocabulary and understanding so when I was reading books on my own, I wasn't just sounding out words, I had the comprehension behind it.

I just have a vauge memory of having stories whenever I wanted because I learnt to put the little cassettes in the player, I'd put them on in the background while I did colouring. And going to the library to pick new ones.

DD was the same, I did start teaching her to read before 4 and she’s a happy little reader. She’s still got a very good memory and it’s definitely helpful at school and she’s a few years ahead in reading. We did things like playing pairs, we did have some word games etc and she wasn’t really interested but I don’t think it hurts to introduce phonics etc. Mainly we just carried on reading to her because she just enjoys it. We had to read before and after nursery and bedtime to keep her happy.

My DD learned to read at 3. By the time she started school she had a reading age of 8 years and 3 months. Her teacher tested her. She was less interested in numbers though. I taught my DD her phonics alphabet first at 2 then blends, then started on books with repetitive key words. She just learned very quickly. It sounds as if you could do that with your DC. Some DC like learning and have good concentration. My DD loved reading and doing jigsaw puzzles. My DS's loved being outside but they could both read before starting school. All kids are different.

DD1 would do this and was reading fluently by the time she started school. She was diagnosed autistic a few years later.

You don't need different activities, just reading, talking, playing and singing.

There's no value to him learning to read earlier than he might otherwise, if he reads a few months earlier or later it won't make any difference. So just do all the things that are known to be both enjoyable and beneficial.

My son is nearly at the end of primary school now but when he was that age he was a conundrum. He read out the eye test chart in the doctor's surgery before he was 2 😅.

Nursery were convinced he just had a really good memory but then he started reading things he'd never seen before. No one could tell really when he started to read because there was none of the phonics stage with him ( his older sister learnt by phonics in reception year). He still loves words, has never struggled to spell and is interested in making up stories and illustrating them. I distinctly remember being desperate to read and it finally clicking too.

Things my 3 have all enjoyed at the early stages of reading:
Alphablocks and Teach Your Monster (both already mentoned on the thread, just adding my agreement. In my opinion much better than many paid-for apps).
Otherwise just read with your finger underneath. This gets your child used to the idea of which way text runs and start a building their awareness of common words.
Don't do flashcards at this age.... more likely to build up sight words but not phonic awareness.

I don't think using sight recognition has to be totally divorced from phonic awareness. When I taught my older son to read, we used some sight words that crop up frequently but also did rhyming games with simple phonics and read books that worked that way too (Mig the Pig, Jen the Hen, Tog the Dog were three favourites I remember but are probably out of print now). He was reading fluently at a 9 year old level when he was five.

However - my daughter, who didn't want to do anything about learning to read, although she liked being read to, did not make any connection between what she heard and what she saw on the page until she was very nearly five, when we had a Ladybird Puddle Lane book with a picture of a little girl in it with the same name as my daughter underneath it. She knew what her name looked like because it was on her peg at nursery, and all of a sudden the light bulb lit up. By the time she was 7 she was at the same reading level as my son had been when he got to 7.

I'm inclined to think that encouraging them to sit and listen to a story, participate in activities with a group, hold pencils properly, cut with scissors, and dress themselves are if anything more important as school preparation. My daughter ended up with a first class degree and a professional career. My son left school at 16 and is a labourer, though he still likes to read.

I'd start teaching him if he's interested in letters. I was reading fluently by 4yo. Some kids are just early readers.