Teaching Reading Really Early?

[JulieA97]

Hi! I have been lurking for a while but just now posting...

 

I am wondering what the downsides might be to teaching reading early. DS just turned 3 and knows upper and lower case letters, letter sounds and some sight words (plus colors, numbers, shapes, etc)-thank you Preschool Prep Co videos! He is anxious to do more and loves books. We do lots of read alouds and he has plenty of time for play.

 

He attended half day preschool 3 mornings a week this past year and loved it. He will be going back next year to the 3 year old class. Although it is a great preschool and pretty strong academically-TONS of play and sensory play as well of course, he is just so far ahead of his classmates. They were learning the colors and he has known them since he turned 2.

 

We have not decided on schooling for him yet-public, private, charter and homeschool are all on the table. I am moving more towards homeschool so I can customize things for him but don't want to lock us in to it yet kwim? I worry that if he gets TOO far ahead, he will be bored at school or stagnate.

 

However, I don't want to hold him back if he is really and truly ready. I'm not saying he would be fully reading this summer or anything, just that if he continues like he has in the past year, he will be reading fluently by the time he turns 4 I am sure. I checked 100 easy lessons and OPGTR from the library to compare them.

 

Thoughts? TIA!

[OneStepAtATime]

If HE is the one interested, and HE is the one moving forward with you providing whatever gentle scaffolding is needed and you move at his pace, then hey, go for it.  

 

But there are scientific studies showing that a lot of drill and kill at a really early age when the child's brain is not developmentally ready may be negatively rewiring the brain so they have a harder time making organic connections later on as they are trying to learn more complex material.  Do a lot of read alouds, do books on cd, etc.  Expose him to more complex vocabulary and concepts and to quality literature.  Give him some basic phonics instruction if he is interested and seems ready, but definitely read to him.  That will go a lot further than drilling letter sounds, etc. at such an early age.

[PentecostalMom]

If HE is the one interested, and HE is the one moving forward with you providing whatever gentle scaffolding is needed and you move at his pace, then hey, go for it.  

 

But there are scientific studies showing that a lot of drill and kill at a really early age when the child's brain is not developmentally ready may be negatively rewiring the brain so they have a harder time making organic connections later on as they are trying to learn more complex material.  Do a lot of read alouds, do books on cd, etc.  Expose him to more complex vocabulary and concepts and to quality literature.  Give him some basic phonics instruction if he is interested and seems ready, but definitely read to him.  That will go a lot further than drilling letter sounds, etc. at such an early age.

 

This.

 

[JulieA97]

If HE is the one interested, and HE is the one moving forward with you providing whatever gentle scaffolding is needed and you move at his pace, then hey, go for it.

 

But there are scientific studies showing that a lot of drill and kill at a really early age when the child's brain is not developmentally ready may be negatively rewiring the brain so they have a harder time making organic connections later on as they are trying to learn more complex material. Do a lot of read alouds, do books on cd, etc. Expose him to more complex vocabulary and concepts and to quality literature. Give him some basic phonics instruction if he is interested and seems ready, but definitely read to him. That will go a lot further than drilling letter sounds, etc. at such an early age.

Thanks. Yes we read to him all.the.time and have since birth. Dh and I are both huge readers ourselves so he sees it modeled at home with us. He learned his letters and letter sounds by watching the Preschool Prep videos a handful of times-we aren't making him use flash cards or anything. We play a few games with letters while making lunch or in the car-here is a banana b b banana. What letter do you think banana starts with? He loves it and asks for more. He is picking it up so fast right now. He points out sight words (Preschool Prep videos again-and yes I know many here say no to sight words but I didn't realize it could be a problem when I let him watch the videos) while we are reading books and then "reads " to us.

[Tanikit]

I am teaching my 3 year old to read. I taught my now 6 year old to read too at an early age and both picked it up exceptionally quickly with very little formal instruction (the younger does better with some formal instruction and can handle longer lessons at this age than the older one did, but both learnt to read at almost the same speed despite needing different techniques). My children are now homeschooled almost because of the reading as I did not want my eldest having to spend ages in kindergarten learning letter sounds that she had known since 18 months. She was reading the entire classes names to her teacher at age 2 when in preschool.

 

Besides the possibility of being bored in school, if it is taught correctly for your child, I cannot see any disadvantages for the child. Disadvantages for you are that you need to be willing to keep up with your child once they take off and be able to find appropriate things for them to read when they are reading at a high level at a young age (there are numerous sites that list suitable books for this) You may also need to keep a close eye on your child when on the computer if they can spell (mine wants to load things on youtube herself) and if they see advertisements or newspaper articles dealing with violence or scary adult topics and read them then you will need to be able to bring it down to a child level and also still keep your child feeling safe. You may also need to watch what they order from the menu in a restaurant as you may not have time to check it before they place their order :)

 

Finally if your child does go to school you may need to keep speaking to the school which can be hard. You may need to switch schools if the school does not fit the child or switch classes or even just homeschool. Some children do stagnate, some do learn to pretend that they cannot read and even purposely read at the level of the rest of the class, some do just find and keep reading and advancing and some keep reading but because of limited home instruction they do tend to even out after starting school. You can always go and ask the school before putting him in - my DD went for an interview and assessment before kindergarten and they did not even test letter sounds so the school had no idea she could read - when I asked I was told that she would get "extra work" - my child need more play, not more work, so I kept her home.

[HS Mom in NC]

I had a very early reader.  She could read like an adult by age 5.  I had a late reader.  She started learning to read just before she turned 8 and could read like an adult by age 11.  I had a very average reader, she's 8 and doesn't read like an adult yet.

 

Go to the grocery store and stand in line.  Look around you and read everything on the front of all the magazines that surround you. Do you want to explain those things to a child his age?  Do you want those words entered into his vocabulary now? Like I said, I've BTDT because my oldest child learned to read like ducklings learn to swim, but there were words she learned just by standing waiting for the cashier to ring things up.  She, of course, asked about them.  What do you think of that in your particular situation?

 

Beware of sight words.  If the reading program you're using (if you're using one) has more than a dozen of them, you're not getting as strict a phonics program as you could.  If you want to know about how to teach reading with real books, check out Ruth Beechick's Homestart in Reading.

[Erica in OR]

One potential situation is that he'll motor right along in phonics instruction, be doing great, and then hit a wall. My oldest DD was interested in reading early, knew many of the sounds, etc. We started with 100 Easy Lessons and it was all going swimmingly until maybe 30 lessons in. Then it wasn't. She'd done what she was ready to do at that point, and I'm glad I recognized that and pulled back. We put the book away for many months and got it out again when she was showing signs she was ready again. We backtracked in the lessons for review and finished the book that time. Just be prepared that even though you think "if he continues like he has in the past year, he will be reading fluently by the time he turns 4 I am sure", it may not be the case. Development ebbs and flows and you can't predict what will happen.

 

Erica in OR

[nature girl]

My DD was also an early reader, she knew her capital/lower case letters by 18mo, and letter sounds soon after, just because she pointed to them in books we were reading in the same way she pointed to pictures, and learned them almost like vocabulary words. In a similar way she started sounding out words at 2.5, just because I'd point to the words as I was reading, and sometimes sound out CVC words...Soon she was sounding out and blending the words herself. We have never done a formal reading program, because it just felt wrong to me to be formally teaching her so young, and there's really no benefit to it in the long run. Most kids catch up by 8 or so, and are reading at the same level, so I didn't see a point in trying to "force" it. Because she picked it up naturally though, and was really excited about figuring out the code, I ran with it, no formal lessons just gentle encouragement. That way I never pushed her beyond what she was developmentally ready to do.

 

At 4 now, she's reading reasonably fluently, and LOVES to read to me every bit as much as she loves me reading to her. I think she's maintained the love of reading because I never did a boring phonics program with her, just fostered her love of books and let it happen naturally. Would she have been reading fluently sooner with formal teaching? Perhaps, but we wouldn't have had anywhere near as much fun, and I'm guessing she wouldn't have the joy in reading that she has now.

[desertflower]

It all depends on what u want for your family. It sounds like he's an advanced kid.

 

Downsides? You may want to ask someone who has older kids as well. my oldest is only 5 1/2. I went through the same situation as Erica. I switched to a kinesthetic learner program. And it's going nicely.

 

I say go for it. Just be prepared to homeschool soon because he will get bored. Take it slow at first just to feel things out. At this age you may want to make it fun to learn how to read, so u may want to look into learning how to read programs for kinesthetic learners; such as all about reading. I didn't realize my son was a kinesthtic learner until he was 4 1/2.

 

I think it's great that u r reading to him. That is probably the most important thing. To develop the love for reading/learning. Check out the book list for FIAR, Sonlight, amblesideonline, or Tapestry of Grace.

 

HTH and good luck. The beauty of homeschooling is that we can nourish our children in a way that fits them.

[Dmmetler]

I had a very early reader. She could read like an adult by age 5. I had a late reader. She started learning to read just before she turned 8 and could read like an adult by age 11. I had a very average reader, she's 8 and doesn't read like an adult yet.

 

Go to the grocery store and stand in line. Look around you and read everything on the front of all the magazines that surround you. Do you want to explain those things to a child his age? Do you want those words entered into his vocabulary now? Like I said, I've BTDT because my oldest child learned to read like ducklings learn to swim, but there were words she learned just by standing waiting for the cashier to ring things up. She, of course, asked about them. What do you think of that in your particular situation?

 

Beware of sight words. If the reading program you're using (if you're using one) has more than a dozen of them, you're not getting as strict a phonics program as you could. If you want to know about how to teach reading with real books, check out Ruth Beechick's Homestart in Reading.

I agree here. I have a ridiculously early reader as well (started reading at about 15 months, reading at a post-high school level by age 5) and one of my more humorous stories that wasn't at the time was a 4 yr old DD, asking, in a pizza place, in one of those ringing kid voices that cuts through everything "Mommy, what does e-rec-tile dys-func-tion mean?" She'd been decoding the captioning on a TV showing sports-with Viagra as a sponsor.

 

There were also multiple cases of panic attacks and serious anxiety over headlines that she only partially understood (like understood that someone had killed a bunch of people at a college, but not understood that Virginia Tech wasn't the college her grandfather teaches at, so she was absolutely convinced that he was dead-that one was due to an airport TV showing CNN.)

 

Once they can read and read well, you really can't control what they read much, and it is one reason why I really wonder, when parents talk about teaching reading early, if they realize what they're getting into. I have noticed that DD actually now filters her own reading far more aggressively than many kids who read later than she did, and I think it's because she had enough early experiences where reading something really bothered her to recognize that a book or magazine isn't always safe.

 

There definitely wasn't any "evening out by age 8" here, except that reading level tests don't go beyond post high school and the closer she gets to post high school by age, the more other kids also read at that level.

[Laura Corin]

One thing to consider - the developmental readiness to blend can come a long time after the ability to recognise letters.  Calvin knew his letters at eighteen months, but didn't read (I think - he taught himself in the end, so I'm not precisely sure) about two years later.  So do carry on with the exposure, but don't expect a steady progression.

 

L

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

As many have already pointed out, reading isn't always a linear process.  My oldest started 100EZ at age 3.5, and did well until about lesson 70.  At that point, we went all the way back to the beginning using another book (Phonics Pathways) and he made steady, incremental progress from then on until about age 7.  At 7, he simply exploded from 3rd grade to 6th grade reading level overnight.  No other way to describe it! 

 

My 5yo, on the other hand, knew all of her letter sounds at a young age 2.  But she was not ready for formal instruction until just recently after turning 5, and her reading instruction is a very non-linear perfect-one-day-clueless-the-next process.  :-)  Sometimes she's reading at 2nd grade level, sometimes I can't even get a CVC word out of her straight!

 

All this to say, by all means, give it a try, but don't get hung up on a certain number of pages/rate of progression per day/week.  Remember it's not a linear process, especially at the younger ages.  Choose a good phonics program over sight word to avoid trouble later on, and focus on phonemic awareness over actual time spent in "reading lessons".  Good luck!

[nature girl]

Your DD isn't exactly typical, dmmetler, lol. :)

 

I think PPs make a good point that if kids sit in front of Preschool Prep videos most will learn their letters and sight words, but that's not a sign of their future trajectory. As long as he's enjoying it and self-driven, it's probably okay (although I've read as OneStepAtATime said that there can actually be issues with development in other areas if there's too much concentration on reading skills too early), but I don't know that there's much point in pushing it with a formal program.

[Ad astra]

Every kid is different. If your ds shows interest in learning to read and you can make it pleasant and enjoyable for him, why not?

 

I'm in a quite similar situation with you. I haven't decided on schooling for my ds who just turned 4 and reads 1st grade level, just keeping all options open. I've been using the HOP program and had a great success with him. It only takes 10 to 20 mins a day while my dd2.5 takes a nap. He finds it like a fun game feeling proud of his own achievements and enjoys my full attention. For the rest of the day (12+ hours), he is free to do imaginative activities, field trips and outdoor play with friends. I continue to read aloud to him at bed time. FWIW, reading fluently at 4yo is not really uncommon where I am from. Most families have tons of children books at home and reading is the center of early education. 

[Spring Flower]

I taught my two oldest to read at 3. I was very hesitant at first, but they seemed ready so I did it. Best choice ever. Books have opened up a whole new world for my kids. 

[Korrale]

My son has been reading since he was 2.5. At 4 he can pretty much read anything fluently with comprehension. But that doesn't mean he is picking up inappropriate novels. He reads a lot each day for enjoyment but his choices are pretty much age appropriate. Thankfully there are a lot of good books out there. Picture books especially.

My son learnt to read in my lap with no pressure. He can't ever remember a time that he didn't read. It is just what it is and we see no ramifications yet. Well... Maybe. His spelling isn't so great, but, he is 4 so I am not convinced that has anything to do with early reading due to his age.

I learnt to read when I was 3 and I have been an avid reader my entire life. I have never found any downside to it.

I have also taught 4 children to read at 3. And I am currently teaching another 2 year old. The process is fun and gentle and done over an extended period of time. So far I have not found any downside with these children either.

[HS Mom in NC]

To clarify, my oldest was reading like an adult at 5 but we started phonics instruction at 4.  From the time she was 3 until she was 4 she asked me EVERY DAY if I would teach her to read.  I'm in the "better later than earlier" camp in general on reading.  After a year of it, I finally gave in. She never needed repetition or reminding.  She could read nothing just before she turned 4 and read like an adult by her 5th birthday.  A kid like that needs to read because it's built into her.  Most kids aren't like that.  There's no need to push it on them at that age if they're not like that.

 

As children get a little older it's easier for them to remember which words we use around other people and which words we don't use.  If your kid is very young they may struggle with it.  There will be embarrassing situations that you'll have to explain to others if words they saw on magazines or elsewhere are in their brains and then out of their mouths. Your child may innocently introduce terms to the kids (s)he is playing with that will upset their parents or the pediatrician or the pastor or the in-laws...

 

Also, as others have pointed out, for many children reading has peaks and plateaus.  Each stage of reading doesn't take the same time or amount of repetition for each child.  Siblings can differ dramatically.  Best to take it easy and be prepared for ebbs and flows-some kids have them.

[LikeToListen]

If your child is ready for it, please go ahead.  We could always wait if we find they aren't ready.  My daughter knew her alphabets before 2 and she was identifying beginning sounds and writing alphabets before 3.  English being a second language for us made me very hesitant to proceed with reading due to my lack of experience/confidence.  I have been teaching using youtube videos but they weren't enough.  Finally, I am getting AAR level 1 for her.

 

When I asked my daughter to read BOB books (she can read CVC words), she wasnt quite interested and I took it as she isn't ready to read a book yet.  But when we read stories to her, she wanted to read the entire paragraph by herself.    What she wanted was a meaningful story than a piece of information.  Looking at how comfortable she is reading a paragraph and her fluency in reading a sentence makes me think I should have given it a try.

 

She is now trying to guess words because she really loves to read and doesn't know beyond CVC and sight words :) 

[Suzanne115]

My oldest started begging me to teach her to read at 3.  She was also showing signs that she was ready.  I resisted at first.  At about 3 1/2, she started talking about reading and how bad she wanted to read.  I started to slowly teach her some things and her reading just took off.  She didn't need very much instruction beyond the basics.  For her, she needed to learn to read early.  She was totally obsessed with it and felt bad when she couldn't teach herself how to do it.  I don't like to push kids at all.  She dragged me into it!  We started with words written on paper. Then, she wanted books so I bought her a set of Bob books.  Then, she wanted "real" books so we started some of the Dr. Seuss books.  She wasn't content with her reading until she read "Apples Up on Top" by herself.  Even then, she continued to want to read more and more.  The early reading did cause some problems with reading inappropriate things so beware. Now, she just turned 12 and she is still a voracious reader.

 

 

Suzanne

[boscopup]

My two early readers taught themselves for the most part. The one that is a later reader had phonics instruction from the age of just turned 4 (when he could blend). Early instruction does not equal early reader if the kid isn't ready.

 

I'll also agree with the "knowing letters" doesn't necessarily mean "reading will happen soon". My oldest knew all his letters and their sounds at just turned 2 (he was naming letters as he learned to talk), but it wasn't until age 4.5 that he could blend. The day that clicked (literally, one day), he could suddenly read at a mid-first grade level, and he progressed quickly from there with zero teaching from me. The downside is that he didn't learn explicit phonics, so spelling is still a struggle. He's taking the SAT-10 right now. On the spelling section, he only missed 2 or 3 words (out of 40), so he can spell, right? Nope. When he writes, he misspells a LOT of words. Thankfully, because of his reading exposure and visual abilities, he can recognize that a word is spelled wrong. He may or may not be able to fix the spelling. My youngest has had more explicit phonics instruction (via listening in to big brother's lessons), and he is an excellent speller already. He needs to learn a few rules, but I don't think he'll have any problems with spelling as he goes along. Youngest was my earliest blender - age 3. He didn't really take off with reading until 4.5 though. He ended up about the same place as oldest by age 5 (mid-2nd grade reading level), though youngest has a lot more stamina and can do short chapter books that oldest couldn't do until 1st grade due to the length and amount on a page.

 

I definitely prefer my kids learning to read at age 4 vs. later, as school is sooooo much easier if they can read well in the early grades. For example, my later reading 7 year old still needs me to read most of the directions and such on his math pages, but my 4 year old was reading and following the directions on his math pages no problem. So 7 year old takes a LOT more of my time (which isn't horrible - I expect K-2 grades to be "at elbow"). History and science were easier with my oldest as well, because he could read library books on his own and learn so much more than if I were to read them aloud - he's a faster reader. The 7 year old is not getting as much content because I have to read it all, and my voice only goes so far. ;) Again, that's not horrible... content subjects aren't really that important at this age. But my oldest was definitely easier to teach in those early years, and I can tell that the younger will be even easier (since he's so independent natured). All that said, you can't push reading on a child that isn't developmentally ready. My middle son wasn't ready at age 4 (even though he so badly wanted to read AND he could blend really well). He was in the sounding-out-everything stage for a good 2 years, and it was incredibly painful for both of us. It just didn't matter that he wanted to read. He couldn't. Nothing I could do would make him capable. He needed to develop in his own time. And when he was ready, he started reading. He's progressing slowly, but progressing. I can't tell you if the work we did from ages 4-5 were worth it or not. I doubt he'd be any farther behind if we'd waited until 5. He simply didn't have the ability to remember what he had sounded out until after he turned 7. He could sound out "c-a-t" and figure out that it was "cat", but then seeing it again later in the same sentence, he'd have to sound it out again. This was developmental. I had to wait for that part of this brain to click before we could go any further.

[reign]

I think if it's something you want to do that you should go for it!

 

I used 100ezl followed by OPGTR. I like them both and feel they worked well.

 

My youngest could sound out cvc words and read some words by sight at 2. I thought reading would come easy to her. She is 4.5 and doing very good but not fluent at all. Her sister started "reading" later (closer to 4) but was fluent very quickly. Reading came so easy to her and she was always several steps ahead of her lessons.

[HS Mom in NC]

There's no need at all to teach letter names.  You don't need to know them when you learn to read.  Teach the sounds first-some children have problems when you teach the letter names first.  It's unnecessary memorization that doesn't apply to sounding out words and many children mix up the name and the sound.  Teach sounds first and when they're reading fairly well you can mention the letter names which they only need to know when you start spelling words to them for spelling type situations. 

 

Also, avoid readers and workbooky types things as much as possible-some children are turned off by reading when they start doing it with tedious, uninteresting readers.  Get to real books as soon as possible and aim for high quality ones-most books at the local library are twaddle and a waste of your time when there are gems out there. Again, if you want to teach them to read with real books from the beginning get the Ruth Beechick's Homestart in Reading.  It also lists ways to determine if your child is ready to learn to read.

[Kerileanne99]

I agree that there is no way to truly predict just how far you/your child will take it at a young age, but as long as the child is interested and you proceed in a joyful manner? Of course you can.

I have a dd4 who is an extremely fluent reader. It has brought so incredibly much wonder to our lives. I cannot imagine it any other way as the girl is so insistent upon KNOWING everything. She literally has the world available to her...which of course has it downsides. Luckily, she is very aware of what she does not want to read:) I have even had her slam books on my finger as I read aloud because she reads so much more quickly than I read aloud and she constantly reads ahead, lol.

And yes, words out in the world can definitely lead to some challenging moments. We were recently in an airport that had CNN on with the subtitles and she became very, very upset whilst reading an update about the missing Malaysian airplane.

There have also been some, uh, embarrassing moments from things she read aloud:)

But the good has monumentally surpassed the difficult, and she is a voracious reader. Some kids just really thrive reading early!

[SnegurochkaL]

Hi, I agree with others who said that it all would depends on a child readiness. My kids were not early readers. My son could read some of his favorite board books at age 2 but was not willing to go further. When my kids were really young my first emphasis was on math,logic and foreign languages exposure and not on reading itself. My daughter started really using English as a primary language after she turned 3. My youngest who is 3 right now likes books but not really ready for long formal studies. Myself I was a "normal" child who started reading at age 7, but was reading Leo Tolstoy " War and Peace" ( full original version with half of it written in French) at age 9. My husband was reading at age 2, but was a late speaker. If you have a child who is begging to study, do not hold him back. I have a child who was very advanced at age 4, but I did not spend as much time with her as I could and it affected her self esteem and she was not going as fast on the learning path as she could( I had an infant who required my 24/7 attention).

[MotherOfBoys]

Another option is to teach him math to give him something to stretch his mind with. We were at that point with my oldest so I added math k and 1st. Then we added history and science more formally than just our readalouds.

 

We did Saxon for math but I wish we would have done that Moquin program instead. Cheaper and self discovery over drill and review.  

 

We did Saxon phonics because it was scripted, hands on(letter tiles), and worksheet. I didn't know my sons learning style so I picked something with a few styles in one. It's slow and complete. We only did k and 1. Now that I have my barring's more I would just buy 1st and slow it down myself to the childs speed.

[4KookieKids]

There's no need at all to teach letter names.  You don't need to know them when you learn to read.  Teach the sounds first-some children have problems when you teach the letter names first.  It's unnecessary memorization that doesn't apply to sounding out words and many children mix up the name and the sound.  Teach sounds first and when they're reading fairly well you can mention the letter names which they only need to know when you start spelling words to them for spelling type situations. 

 

 

This works especially well if you speak multiple related languages. If I teach my 2 year old that H makes "hhh", then she can get it when she sees it in either languages (where H makes "h"). For the letters that make different sounds depending on language, we just make whatever sound they usually make in the language we're currently speaking.