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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

#51

Post by j2kun »

I have been trying to teach my 3 (now 4) y/o to read and while he's getting it, the process is very slow and he won't try reading on his own except to look at the pictures.

On the other hand, he finds numbers delightful, can add two digit numbers and knows his multiplication table up to 10, loves squares and square roots, and can do simple algebra problems in his head (equivalent to solving 3x+1=28). He once sat by himself with his blocks for an hour figuring out all the triangular numbers ("step squad" numbers) that he could make with the 200 blocks he had.

I think you just have to try different things and see what the kid latches on to. Lego, drawing, music, whatever. Reading is not the only way to activate your brain, and I think peer pressure is a big part of why kids want to learn to read once they get to school. That and there are just too many ways to be entertained these days (video, audio, toys, etc.) while reading takes true grit.

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

#52

Post by randunel »

pc86 wrote: post #4
randunel wrote: 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.

My youngest is a boy, indeed.

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

#54

Post by jwrallie »

jacknews wrote: post #31

Can he understand anything of what he reads? It seems robotic; the point of reading is to get the meaning, not regurgitate the sounds. The best teacher is want.

They are two separate skills, most obviously in languages such as Chinese or Japanese.

If he can only read the sounds that is half the work, and is amazing on its own.

I’ve started reading at 5 when my father was at home during a short period of unemployment. He was quizzing me about sounds of words with similar letters and I was a curious boy. It seems that just giving kids attention works.

I’ve entered first grade at 6 when all my classmates were 7. Looking back I think it’s best to not create much age difference from your mates, there is already an (at most) 1 year difference that occurs naturally in the yearly school scheme.

There are more things in the body that progress in parallel other than intellectual abilities, I was always underperforming my classmates in sports and maturity for example.

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

#55

Post by randunel »

Jedd wrote: post #8
randunel wrote: 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…

> > 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?

Strictly personal experience, not just my own kids, but also personally observed.

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

#56

Post by 11101010001100 »

j2kun wrote: post #51

I have been trying to teach my 3 (now 4) y/o to read and while he's getting it, the process is very slow and he won't try reading on his own except to look at the pictures. On the other hand, he finds numbers delightful, can add two digit numbers and knows his multiplication table up to 10, loves squares and square roots, and can do simple algebra problems in his head (equivalent to solving 3x+1=28). He once sat by h…

Similar story here. Kid is very happy to talk numbers.

IMO logic is something that is not directly taught, so I'm happy to fill this hole as a parent.

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

#57

Post by jonhohle »

j2kun wrote: post #51

I have been trying to teach my 3 (now 4) y/o to read and while he's getting it, the process is very slow and he won't try reading on his own except to look at the pictures. On the other hand, he finds numbers delightful, can add two digit numbers and knows his multiplication table up to 10, loves squares and square roots, and can do simple algebra problems in his head (equivalent to solving 3x+1=28). He once sat by h…

My oldest son was similar and when he did start reading he wouldn’t stop. We restricted screen time but never books (until he was up all night reading, rushing through work to read, etc.).

You may want to look into having your son tested for gifted services when he reaches school age and if he’s highly gifted and your district offers it, enroll him in a comprehensive gifted program. Someone with abstract reasoning like that may benefit from a modified educational environment.

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

#58

Post by viraptor »

pc86 wrote: post #12
viraptor wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I see this "yeah well that's an anecdote so let's just ignore it" claim a lot but it doesn't hold water in my opinion. Most glaringly, the article almost immediately links to peer-reviewed scholarly research about the effects of reading for pleasure being initiated at various times in development relative to the average. N > 10,000, not that big N is itself a positive measure but it certainly doesn't hurt. There are…

I meant the method, not the benefits - that one kid reading at 3yo doesn't say anything about the method used. Also, that paper classifies early as starting reading between 0-7yo. Also, in twin studies they show quite high heritability compared to environment impact (which is higher to be fair). Also the impact they showed was between early reading and positive outcomes, but it doesn't show that (simplifying) you can make kids read earlier in some ways.

So it's an interesting study, but it's not really discussing "How I taught...". It's (simplifying) "do early readers have better life", not "can you use method to give kids better life via earlier reading". (Which may still be true!)

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

#59

Post by programjames »

wat10000 wrote: post #34

This really rubs me the wrong way. You're not that special. You're not an educational genius who has cracked the code for teaching kids how to read at years above their grade level. You put some effort into it and you have a kid with a great deal of natural ability. This is their achievement, not yours. The title should be "My 3-year-old learned to read like a 9-year-old." Too many smart parents have smart kids, avoi…

I've seen people with a great deal of natural ability. I'm certainly one of them. But most never got as good at maths as me, because my father began teaching me before an age I can remember. I also never got as good as some others, with arguably less natural ability, because my father didn't know what an amazing maths education looks like either—he grew up in the middle-of-nowhere, went off to college, and realized, "I really should have learned all this stuff earlier," and did his best to do so for me, but he was learning about competition maths at the same time as me. This is not to say that competition maths make an "amazing maths education", just that competition maths coaches exist, and they know exactly how to best teach students maths, while I learned mostly through trial and error.

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

#60

Post by WillAdams »

programjames wrote: post #50
WillAdams wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually attended a school system which had a system in place for that --- see my post elsethread. Unfortunately, the Mississippi State Supreme Court ruled it to be an unfair and illegal educational system which conferred undue benefits to the students able to take advantage of it and that the lack of a commensurate compensation for students who were unable to do so was manifestly inappropriate.

By "unable to take advantage of it", do you mean: - Unable to demonstrate prequisite knowledge, or - Unable to go to a school further away? I can get the latter one, which is why I think we shouldn't just have magnet schools, we should have free, government-run magnet boarding schools. Or, alternatively, how much would it really cost to provide a chauffeur service to kids who have demonstrated intelligence and need?…

The former.

The crux of the lawsuit as I understood it from hearing about it from letters my parents received from involved parents was that a student who was unable to learn at the accelerated pace and graduated with only a high-school diploma sued to either be allowed to continue to attend the school for 4 additional years, or to be granted funds to attend a college.

The school was the only public school in the county, and was attended by all the local residents (the student who initiated the lawsuit was one of them) and the children of the personnel of the local Air Force Base --- it was the matching DoD funding which made the school system possible.

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