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I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

theintrinsicperspective.com

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Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#2
I have two children roughly OP's age, they couldn't possibly be more different in terms of motricity, senses, intelligence, etc. Polar opposites.

My first said her first words at 9 months old, "ba" for ball, bath, and 2-3 more meanings, and made a repeated sound pointing towards the object of interest, sound which cannot be described in words. Before the age of 1 we had amassed over 50 words, most up to 3 syllables, a handful had more. Same for walking, fine motricity, etc. She reads at 5 years old.

My second only started saying single syllable words at 1y10m, started walking similarly later, and isn't able to do at 1y10m most things that my first was already able to do before being 1yo, so the delay between them is higher than 100%, more than double.

Same family, same teaching style, etc, only 3 years apart.

The ability to teach your child to do something depends almost entirely on the child, your teaching abilities don't seem to matter much, they simply copy you. All that matters is that you are present and offer them the attention they need.

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#3
post #2

I have two children roughly OP's age, they couldn't possibly be more different in terms of motricity, senses, intelligence, etc. Polar opposites. My first said her first words at 9 months old, "ba" for ball, bath, and 2-3 more meanings, and made a repeated sound pointing towards the object of interest, sound which cannot be described in words. Before the age of 1 we had amassed over 50 words, most up to 3 syllables,…

Yeah, one off examples don't really mean much when people talk about anything kids related. In this case additionally because hyperlexia exists. (https://www.healthline.com/health/hyperlexia) Maybe the methods worked, maybe you got lucky, maybe the kid learned despite what you did. Who knows.

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#4
post #2

I have two children roughly OP's age, they couldn't possibly be more different in terms of motricity, senses, intelligence, etc. Polar opposites. My first said her first words at 9 months old, "ba" for ball, bath, and 2-3 more meanings, and made a repeated sound pointing towards the object of interest, sound which cannot be described in words. Before the age of 1 we had amassed over 50 words, most up to 3 syllables,…

Are they the same sex? I seem to recall a study where there are some - not huge, but statistically significant - differences in first onset of movement vs. language in boys vs. girls.

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#7
post #2

I have two children roughly OP's age, they couldn't possibly be more different in terms of motricity, senses, intelligence, etc. Polar opposites. My first said her first words at 9 months old, "ba" for ball, bath, and 2-3 more meanings, and made a repeated sound pointing towards the object of interest, sound which cannot be described in words. Before the age of 1 we had amassed over 50 words, most up to 3 syllables,…

More or less same here, both girls, now 10 and 7. The 10yo started reading pretty good at 4.5yo on her own, now she reads books for teenagers since a couple of years, the 7yo is more or less OK for her age (probably having her side by side with her sister doesn't help us to be fair).

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#8
post #2

I have two children roughly OP's age, they couldn't possibly be more different in terms of motricity, senses, intelligence, etc. Polar opposites. My first said her first words at 9 months old, "ba" for ball, bath, and 2-3 more meanings, and made a repeated sound pointing towards the object of interest, sound which cannot be described in words. Before the age of 1 we had amassed over 50 words, most up to 3 syllables,…

Is that just the phenomenon of subsequent children leveraging the benefits of a slightly older sibling? Combined with some training of the parents by the first child, and therefore a significantly different mindset being exhibited towards the second child.

> The ability to teach your child to do something depends almost entirely on the child ...

Is this a summary of your personal experience or are you citing research?

Re: I taught my 3-year-old to read like a 9-year-old

#9

But, why? Now the kid will be bored at primary school. You could have diverted him toward skills you aren't going to learn in school (checkers, chess, music,...)

This is a good point that I don't think gets enough thought. Unless he's going to an excellent public school, or a private school, the odds he's much more bored in the first few years of school goes up dramatically when he's reading the book in 5 minutes (or practically has it memorized from reading it at home so much) while everyone else is sounding out the words on the first page.

This does all sort of go away if he's going to great school with more individualized attention. The odds of that in general are pretty low, but hopefully a bit better assuming there's some correlation between having a parent that cares enough to teach a 2-year-old to read in their spare time and having the resources to be in a great public district or go to private school.

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