17 month old, reading already?

[shocked]

Hi, I have always read a couple of books to my daughter each night before bedtime and I change the books each week, with some rotation as we have about 30 books.  She started talking at 12 months and has a vast vocab now, not full sentence structure, but allot of words.  The past week she has started pointing at the words in the book & saying those words without my prompting.  It is to the point where she can read allot of words on each page. 

I was talking a group of friends who say their children, of the same age, are no where near this level of reading.  Does anyone else have a child who is reading at this age? 

I'm obviously impressed with her, but not sure whether I should just keep cruising along or see a specialist & if so, for what?

[not shocked]

babies have great memories.  They remember words and where words are and they'll also remember stories word for word.

Try a different book she's never read before and if she can recognise words in that then hooray, you'd better rush off and put her name down for university.

Why would you need to see a specialist?  You see specialists if there's something kind of problem, not if they're doing great.

[sure]

your child is way advanced than most kids. would suggest to just keep up the support, but not push too hard. she may be gifted, but hard to determine at this age.

[Mine too]

My daughter did the same - but I think she was about 2.  Recognising word shapes is one part of the reading process.  The other part is phonics - letter-sound mapping, i.e being able to sound out words.  She did that quite a bit later with very little guidance.  Maybe 3 and a bit.  She was reading newspapers at the age of four.  My second child was similar.  I also read to them every single day and they got new books by mail order every single month.

To improve concentration and comprehension skills, ask your child simple questions that are age appropriate.  e.g. what will happen next>  Is that good?  How many? What colour was ... etc, etc.

Reading is a gift for life - my children sailed through school and uni amd still love reading today.  I teach children and adults every day who have never fully mastered the skill of reading and everything is harder.  Keep doing what you are doing but don't push and cause anxiety. 

What on earth would you need a specialist for?

[specialist]

you might need a specialist if you suspect your child has autism.  some austistic kids read very early.

[Wow]

Hi, I have always read a couple of books to my daughter each night before bedtime and I change the books each week, with some rotation as we have about 30 books.  She started talking at 12 months and has a vast vocab now, not full sentence structure, but allot of words.  The past week she has started pointing at the words in the book & saying those words without my prompting.  It is to the point where she can read allot of words on each page. 

I was talking a group of friends who say their children, of the same age, are no where near this level of reading.  Does anyone else have a child who is reading at this age? 

I'm obviously impressed with her, but not sure whether I should just keep cruising along or see a specialist & if so, for what?

hey mommy! ur kiddo is one smartie! dont worry and as other suggested encourage her habit. Maybe shes hyperlexic! but then thats nothing to worry abt!

[Actually]

reading is a skill that is learnt.  Children learn to read at different ages, from 1 to 12.  By the age of 12 'normal' children are at the same reading ability levels.

Reading early does NOT mean your child is gifted (although he/she could be) it merely means she has parents that spend a lot of time reading with him/her.

Good for you, keep up the good work.

[Not reading]

Don't want to put a dampner on your joy, but as a pp said kids have a good memory. Reading (being able to say a word they haven't seen before without phonetically sounding it out) and memorising a word are very different.  So is your child really reading or just memorising words from the books you read to her?

[context]

Gee I don't know, my grade 1 child is still trying to get reading and phonetics under his belt... sincerely, good luck to you and your child different kids have different skills.

I would just keep doing what you are doing but at the end of the day it's all about context - does what they read aloud make sense? 

This is a little down the track...but if you put a sentence with a picture that doesn't correlate, would the child be able to read the sentence correctly?

All the best

[Old Mike]

Should you see a specialist?
NO.
For what?
What indeed???
Just go with the flow.

[seen that]

Is your child very focused, almost obsessed, with reading and finding written words everywhere?
I don't want to scare you, but chldren with a certain kind of high-functioning autism get focused on written words and numbers at a very early age, almost to the exclusion of other interests. The prognosis, with therapy, is usually excellent, and this is known as a "genius syndrom". (It seems that geniuses are not entirely normal...but we knew that, right?)

[Donna P]

(It seems that geniuses are not entirely normal...but we knew that, right?)

I disagree. I did an IQ text last week and apparently I am a genius, but I'm VERY normal 

[Caligirl]

Hi OP:

Your daughter might just really love the books you are reading to her & might just have a great memory. Or she might be a genius. Or not. It's pretty hard to tell at such a young age, but now that you think she's demonstrating unusual skills, you might just want to keep a close eye on how her ability with word recognition unfolds.

My daughter has always loved the alphabet and books as well, and we as parents have always nurtured those interests. At 26 months, she stunned us by sounding out words she had never seen before, without the aid of pictures. Now at just a few days over three, she is reading at a first grade level.

While that sounds cool in theory (and reading IS a cool thing!), it has also been a concern to us because, in our daughter's case, it is combined with a speech delay and some sensory issues. As others have mentioned, precocious reading can be a flag for hyperlexia, a condition that is typically paired with some form of autism.

I mention this not to get your anxiety levels up but rather to let you know that there can be a range of reasons for what seems to be early word recognition. Enjoy the precious reading time with your daughter, and also keep an eye out for her development. If at any time she develops other issues -- like a fixation on letters or words to the exclusion of other interests, or has delays in social interactions, speech or issues with sensory integration (sound, touch, etc.) -- you might want to raise this with a specialist. Until then, if I were you, I'd just thank my stars that she enjoys the wonderful world of books! Best wishes.

~ Caligirl

PS: Several parents in my daughter's Singapore preschool (those who did not know us personally but only knew that my daughter could read) hounded me for my "secrets of teaching her to read so young." Was it flashcards? Enrichment classes? How many hours per day did we read with her? I always took great delight in telling them that she simply watched a lot of Sesame Street....

[A gift]

It's hard for people to understand giftedness at an early age if it hasn't been experienced previously.  My child showed signs of this from about 18 months with numbers which I put down to an anomily.  Throughout the years I continued to ignore signs, as well as the teachers, caregivers and family members he was around.  It wasn't till he displayed behavioural problems at school that we investigated his IQ.  Looking back all the signs were there but no support. 

Nuture and support their achievements and when you are ready seek support and understanding.  Good luck as it is not an easy path for you or your child.     

 

[To A gift]

I would like to ask more quesitons about your experience. Since about a year and a half my boy has had a fascination with numbers. For some reason he's drawn to them and gets so excited every time he sees them. He's also into letters, and we're figuring out it's any kind of symbol or logo. He could count to 10 before he was 20 months old and could identify each single digit numeral. Now he's 26 months, is learning to count to 20, counts backwards from 10, knows the letters of the alphabet and is asking me what + and = means.

He can't read, though, and his social development seems OK.

For me I just chalk it up to how children learn different things at differet ages, and some children are just into things that others aren't, because there are other things it seems like his peers have a head start in - his pronunciation is terrible.

But I'm curious about the PP's experience, to know what did they discover about your child and what would you have done differently? Because I do downplay my son's numbers thing. I mean, I'm not ready to call MIT just yet, but then I don't want him to have problems in school later either.