For those with early, "natural" readers:

[JRmommy]

How do you know if your children are memorizing words or really READING?

 

I am trying to wrap my brain around my son's reading. He is 4.5 and started reading CVC a few months before his third birthday. We started phonics with OPGTR a few months before his fourth birthday because I was terrified that he was just memorizing words instead of learning how to decode words phonetically. I thought he would really have a hard time with OPGTR. But, he just gets it, and I don't understand it. We are on lesson 110 (about halfway through, I believe), and I don't even feel like I am really teaching him anything. He sometimes even reads the teacher's instructions to me, and then quickly zips through the words on the page. I am definitely a firm believer in phonics instruction, and I don't have any plans to stop. We have always read to him since he was 2 or 3 months old, provided him with audio books, and tons of books for him to choose at his leisure. Being the logical person that I am, I still want to know HOW he figured it out. Is there any way, he could have just memorized tons of words? Just yesterday, he picked up his dictionary and began READING it. I couldn't believe it!

 

My intention is not to make this sound like I am bragging at all! I hesitated a number of times before I even posted this, especially on this board. I really just want to know if I should be doing anything differently? He is our first child (and only, so far), so I don't have any prior experience. Any thoughts?

[Mommyfaithe]

We just read books. I taught them phonics in relation to spelling. Just because my kids were early natural readers, they were not natural spellers...and needed to learn the rules.

 

Faithe

 

Eta...we started spelling in first grade, at six years old.

Edited March 4, 2011 by Mommyfaithe

[dcurry]

If he can read the teacher's instructions and the dictionary, I don't think you need to worry about whether he's memorizing or using phonics. :)

 

We have children like this. My friend thought he had a book memorized when he was 3 or 4, but when I told her that it was new and he'd never seen it before, she was really surprised. She covered up the words to see what he would do, and he thought she was ridiculous for expecting him to be able to "read" it without seeing the words. That's when she believed me.

 

I teach them using phonics (I have 5 children, and they all picked it up fairly quickly). But as soon as they "take off" and start reading EVERYTHING, including teacher instructions and the dictionary, I quit all formal phonics teaching. I continued with my first, making him mark all the vowels, etc, and he really started hating school because it was busywork.

 

If I could do it over again, I'd move on to other more interesting things. Have him read aloud (and continue reading aloud to him) to ensure that he's pronouncing the words correctly, and then start reading for content. Focus on science or other things that he really loves. Make it fun. Keep his interest.

[TracyR]

It sounds like he's got it all figured out. I wouldn't bore him with phonics if he's reading. It doesn't matter if he's memorizing words or not at this point. There are some children who learn to break the phonics code on their own without having any phonetic instruction.

 

I agree with dcurry. I would move on. Go to the library, get lots of books. Let him read to you and to himself. Work on reading comprehension.

[Mergath]

My dd's not reading yet :tongue_smilie: but I was one of those kids. I taught myself how to read not long before I turned four, just picking it up from my mom reading to me. (I was her first child too, and she didn't know that was unusual- she thought all kids did that.) So yes, it does happen. She didn't do anything unusual, just kept a big box of books lying around that I could read whenever I wanted. She didn't push me at all- rather, my parents were more on the side of trying to hold me back. It didn't help, and I definitely don't recommend that strategy.

 

I watched a lot of Reading Rainbow and the Joy of Painting, too. Don't know if that had any effect. :001_smile:

[LittleIzumi]

Dd picks it up just from reading. You really can't teach her phonics. I tried. :glare: I just read to her for several months & she processes it all & suddenly jumps to the next level of reading. She sounds words out so it's not memorizing, but she doesn't remember any of the phonics rules I taught her on her own whatsoever--even basic things like silent "e" makes a long vowel sounds, really. It's like she just is read to until she has enough examples to intuit how to read it phonetically and then she can suddenly read a ton more at a higher level. Wash, rinse, repeat every few months.

[4Hisglory]

My daughter (18 now) was an early reader and not being as wise as you I did not make sure she received adequate phonics instruction which came back on me later when she could pronounce a huge word she had memorized but struggled through sounding out some basic words. She is doing great but let me encourage you to not let up on the phonics instruction. They really do need it no matter how much it seems that they are "getting it".

[2smartones]

My oldest son was that way. He started quoting books around 18 months, but it wasn't until he was almost 2 that we figured out he was actually reading CVC words.

 

How did we know he was reading? Because when we handed him something new, he would only read the CVC words, and he couldn't read words like "the" because he didn't know "th" yet. If he read something like "Walgreens", we knew he'd memorized it, but when he hesitated on a CVC word, we knew he was sounding it out. Further proof came a few months later when he started taking the letters out of his little wooden Melissa & Doug puzzles to spell words on the coffee table. After watching PBS shows and asking us how to spell things, he learned blends. Sometimes words on the coffee table would be misspelled, but they would be phonetically correct. Silent -e words are the only ones that ever gave him any trouble. It took him a good 6-8 weeks to catch onto that one. When he was 3, we went through ETC with him just for our own peace of mind, because like you, we thought surely he couldn't be READING all of that stuff. He was. By the time he turned 4, he was easily keeping up with Alex Trebek and subtitled movies. Very. Very. Freaky. :001_huh: From the time he was 4, nothing really surprised us anymore (except the fact that math didn't come easily to him... and still doesn't). He could usually pronounce new words correctly without having learned any rules... even ones that break rules. To this day, we have no idea how he instinctively knew rule-breaker words.

[Allearia]

My kids were both like this. I tried to do phonics but it seemed like a waste of time since they could read almost anything. We are covering phonics by learning spelling, though I haven't been so consistent and haven't found a program that worked but wasn't overkill. I would just quickly go through and see if there is anything he doesn't yet know in the phonics book, then plan to cover it more thoroughly with spelling. I am also a big believer in phonics but some kids really don't seem to need it.

[Mabelen]

My oldest was exactly like this too.

 

I knew she was reading in English and not memorizing because she had access to tons of materials and had proven that she could read anything, including newspapers (I started hiding them because I just didn't think it was necessary to have to explain certain headlines to a 4 year old).

 

I actually thought she was memorizing her books in Spanish because our materials were limited. I only realized she was actually reading when we went to Spain two months after she had turned 4 and she was able to read fluently anything at the book store!

 

She did have phonics instruction during her Pre-k year at Montessori school but as I recall her teacher went through it really quickly as soon as she realized how well my dd could actually read. She was also a very natural speller.

 

As far as how she did it... I think for my daughter it was partly having a very high visual memory and from there just figuring out phonics on her own. We didn't do any special programs, videos or books, we just read a ton.

[Donna]

My dd learned to read without specific phonics instruction. She was also a memorizer so I don't know exactly when she began really reading. I know she could read new CVC words when she was 2yo but after that I thought she was just really adept at memorization until she brought me a completely new book and read it to me sometime around 3.5yo.

 

Building up her endurance while reading took time. She did fine with picture books but she wanted to read books "without pictures." She needed me to take turns on alternate pages with her for awhile. She is also a natural speller but we work through a grade level or two of Spelling Power every year just because I don't want to assume she knows how to spell everything and it is easy enough to do...I give her a list and she spells it. If she spells a word wrong I tell her how to spell it right and she gets it correct the next time it comes up.

 

I read early as well and probably one of my earliest childhood memorizes is the boredom I felt in school during phonics work in K and 1st grade. I remember it being almost painfully boring. I can still see the pages in my head. Ach! So, I never did phonics with dd and she didn't seem to need it. Unless a word does not follow phonics rules at all, she can read it easily. Spelling Power is set up according to phonics rules so I guess she gets a bit of it there.

[Dmmetler]

Two ways-

 

1) When she started asking questions about what she read, I had an idea, because she had to be recognizing words out of context, not just memorizing books (but could have been memorizing sight words)

 

2) When she started reading words that I KNEW hadn't been in the books we'd read, so she couldn't know them by sight. This lead to some rather interesting moments and discussion-the most humorous (although not at the time) being when DD, in a restaurant showing sports on a TV, read the caption on an ad and asked, loudly "Mommy, what does "erectile dysfunction" mean? She was a small for her age 3 yr old at the time.

 

It was obvious she was using phonics to decode, somehow, because when she hit an unfamiliar word she'd break it down, and come up with, if not a correct pronunciation, a phonetically logical one.

 

It would have been harder had she been older when she figured this out. DD was under 2 when she started picking out words, and was reading very fluently before age 3-and I think she was simply too young to be self-conscious.

Edited March 4, 2011 by Dmmetler2

[Hwin]

Mine was self taught - any instruction we provided was correction. It was pretty easy to tell he was actually reading, because he would read signs on the road, at the store, everywhere. In his preschool class, they would do announcements every day, and he would always get his little hands on that paper first and tell the class what they could expect for snack. :lol:

[Mommy22alyns]

I knew they were reading because they could read things they'd never seen before. They both just picked it up and ran with it after very minimal instruction. I really feel like I can't take any credit for their reading skills!

[silliness7]

How do you know if your children are memorizing words or really READING?

 

I am trying to wrap my brain around my son's reading. He is 4.5 and started reading CVC a few months before his third birthday. We started phonics with OPGTR a few months before his fourth birthday because I was terrified that he was just memorizing words instead of learning how to decode words phonetically. I thought he would really have a hard time with OPGTR. But, he just gets it, and I don't understand it. We are on lesson 110 (about halfway through, I believe), and I don't even feel like I am really teaching him anything. He sometimes even reads the teacher's instructions to me, and then quickly zips through the words on the page. I am definitely a firm believer in phonics instruction, and I don't have any plans to stop. We have always read to him since he was 2 or 3 months old, provided him with audio books, and tons of books for him to choose at his leisure. Being the logical person that I am, I still want to know HOW he figured it out. Is there any way, he could have just memorized tons of words? Just yesterday, he picked up his dictionary and began READING it. I couldn't believe it!

 

My intention is not to make this sound like I am bragging at all! I hesitated a number of times before I even posted this, especially on this board. I really just want to know if I should be doing anything differently? He is our first child (and only, so far), so I don't have any prior experience. Any thoughts?

 

Can he read nonsense words? My oldest was like this. We used Alpha-Phonics and it has tons of nonsense words so that's how I knew he was reading and not memorizing. Dr. Seuss has nonsense words. Maybe you can find one you haven't read out loud and see what he does with it.

[2smartones]

Can he read nonsense words? My oldest was like this. We used Alpha-Phonics and it has tons of nonsense words so that's how I knew he was reading and not memorizing. Dr. Seuss has nonsense words. Maybe you can find one you haven't read out loud and see what he does with it.

ITA! :iagree:

[Tracy]

When my dd's reading was exceeding her phonics instruction, I switched to a phonics-based spelling program.

 

Incidentally, those natural readers can fool you a bit. One day, when dd was about 4yo, she insisted on reading a book that I thought was above her reading level (about grade 3). I let her try, and she did really well with it. But I paid really close attention to where she was looking. I noticed she scanned back and forth between the text, the pictures and text on the opposite page. I realized that although she was reading it correctly, she was gathering all possible clues from the page in order to accomplish it. I think if I had given her individual words with no pictures or other context, she would have struggled.

 

So you are right to continue with phonics, but it doesn't necessarily have to be in the context of reading.

[jennynd]

my older one figure it out when he was 22 months. I know he did not memorized because that was his first time to see the book.

The younger one just turn 3 and like yours, she figure it ot few months before she turned 3 and I kew she didn't memorize it, becuse she does memorize some of the book and you can tell when she read from memory and figuring out words..

[zaichiki]

How do you know if your children are memorizing words or really READING?

 

The only way is to give them something they've NEVER heard read to them and see if they can read it. If they can, they are reading.

 

I am trying to wrap my brain around my son's reading. He is 4.5 and started reading CVC a few months before his third birthday. We started phonics with OPGTR a few months before his fourth birthday because I was terrified that he was just memorizing words instead of learning how to decode words phonetically. I thought he would really have a hard time with OPGTR. But, he just gets it, and I don't understand it. We are on lesson 110 (about halfway through, I believe), and I don't even feel like I am really teaching him anything. He sometimes even reads the teacher's instructions to me, and then quickly zips through the words on the page. I am definitely a firm believer in phonics instruction, and I don't have any plans to stop. We have always read to him since he was 2 or 3 months old, provided him with audio books, and tons of books for him to choose at his leisure. Being the logical person that I am, I still want to know HOW he figured it out. Is there any way, he could have just memorized tons of words?

Yes. Both of my boys learned to read this way. They would just pay attention to the words on the page as I was reading aloud to them (I asked them both and this was their answer.). Both boys have an astounding visual memory and they were able to connect the words on the page to the words they were hearing. They'd learn new words after just 1 or 2 repetitions. Soon they extrapolated the phonics rules. (Ex: words with an "f" sound in the middle were all spelled with ph in the middle, so ph must make the f sound.)

 

Just yesterday, he picked up his dictionary and began READING it. I couldn't believe it!

 

My intention is not to make this sound like I am bragging at all! I hesitated a number of times before I even posted this, especially on this board. I really just want to know if I should be doing anything differently? He is our first child (and only, so far), so I don't have any prior experience. Any thoughts?

 

I did phonics with both of my boys even after they were reading.

The phonics level was lower than what they were able to read on their own, but I wanted to make sure they didn't have any holes in their understanding of phonics. (I knew they had extrapolated the phonics they did know and didn't know what they could have missed.) It was just as you described (and is currently like this with my 5 year old who could read pretty much all of the words I am typing right now if he was standing here looking over my shoulder). We zip through it anyway. Not sure if we NEED to, but it makes me feel better.

I use All About Spelling with my dd, who did not learn to read on her own. (She has dyslexia.) It covers spelling rules from a phonics point of view. I could probably just use AAS with my 5 year old and skip the Hooked on Phonics, but he likes the colorful books that come with HOP and I like the presentation, so I keep it.

It's utterly nerve-wracking when kids learn stuff in great leaps on their own, isn't it?

[silliness7]

When my dd's reading was exceeding her phonics instruction, I switched to a phonics-based spelling program.

 

Incidentally, those natural readers can fool you a bit. One day, when dd was about 4yo, she insisted on reading a book that I thought was above her reading level (about grade 3). I let her try, and she did really well with it. But I paid really close attention to where she was looking. I noticed she scanned back and forth between the text, the pictures and text on the opposite page. I realized that although she was reading it correctly, she was gathering all possible clues from the page in order to accomplish it. I think if I had given her individual words with no pictures or other context, she would have struggled.

 

So you are right to continue with phonics, but it doesn't necessarily have to be in the context of reading.

 

My 6yo reads this way. She's very intuitive with how the story is going to go even without pictures although she flubs up more without the pictures. I still can tell that she is figuring out the first couple of sounds and then plugging in the word that seems best to her. It's usually the right word. So either she's pretty clever or our books are very predictable. :001_smile: Either way we're still plugging away on the phonics. She can read words like "beautiful" and "amazing" with no problem. Then stumble over "get". Bizarre! The short "e" sound is going to be the death of her. :lol:

[LittleIzumi]

My 6yo reads this way. She's very intuitive with how the story is going to go even without pictures although she flubs up more without the pictures. I still can tell that she is figuring out the first couple of sounds and then plugging in the word that seems best to her. It's usually the right word. So either she's pretty clever or our books are very predictable. :001_smile: Either way we're still plugging away on the phonics. She can read words like "beautiful" and "amazing" with no problem. Then stumble over "get". Bizarre! The short "e" sound is going to be the death of her. :lol:

 

Oh, dd does this too!! All of it. Sometimes she is matching picture with story with what the word looks like & then as she visually moves over the word to the next the letters will actually register & she'll realize she assumed the wrong word & then she goes back to sound out that one word that didn't match her story construct. :lol:

The big words but not small words scenario is crazy sometimes. She'll ask, "Why does that say, 'The Fancy Princess?'" but then get stuck on "that." It's very interesting.