Early readers

[outnumbered]

I have read a lot on the net about early readers and they often say that not all gifted children are early readers.
However are all early readers gifted??

When I say early readers I am talking about 2 to 3 years olds.

I am interested in thoughts and/ or if anyone has some info...

[sandy cheeks]

I think it depends I was an early reader and talker but my mum thinks I was reciting the story not reading kwim and I have a very good picture memory. I'm not gifted.
DD is a reciter and talker she is bright but I dont think she is gifted but who knows.

[shelle65]

I could read at three and while I always did very well at school, I wasn't "gifted".

Early reading can be a sign of a "high achieving" child - not gifted but bright, good at applying themselves and is motivated by achieving good results.

[teenie]

I could read fluently before I went to school. Of course my Mum can't remember exactly how old I was (lol - I was the 3rd child - she can't remember many of my milestones!) but she guesses 3 and a half. She said definitely by 4 and a half (when I started preschool) I was reading just about everything and it had been building for a good while. Anyway, I'm not gifted. I would say I am bright and all things school-wise came easily to me but no, not gifted. I was always really good at anything to do with English so that was my strength and it obviously just presented itself very early in my life.

[faroutbrusselsprout]

I could read at three and while I always did very well at school, I wasn't "gifted".

Early reading can be a sign of a "high achieving" child - not gifted but bright, good at applying themselves and is motivated by achieving good results.

This ^^^^^^
My DS1 was an early reader but I wouldn't call him gifted. He's reading "chapter books" and has just turned 7. He's intelligent, curious and academic but not gifted.

[trishalishous]

I was reading at 2, and am considered gifted (I have a high IQ and was always in the top 1% in the school region/university)
I think DD will also be gifted, as she is talking 2 word sentences in 2 languages at 13 months.

[Little Crow]

I'm interested to know what is classed as gifted??

DD (3.5yrs) started speaking in 3-5 word sentences at 8 months, taught herself to read by 18mos, and became fluent in French by age 2.5yrs. She was very slow to reach physical milestones though like crawling and walking. I dont see her as gifted, just a kid with a hunger for knowledge. But i really dont know what is classed as gifted.

I remember many visits to some guy at the Royal Childrens Hosp when i was young to play games and puzzles. He told mum i was classed as gifted as a child, so was my eldest sister. Our parents were strongly encouraged to send she and i off to a special school for gifted kids but mum didnt want us that far away. Both she and i taught ourselves to read by age 2. I cant remember her IQ results but i think mine was 161. My hubby had a similar start too, with a vocab of 100+ words by 9mos and reading by age 2.

Does anyone know what the guidelines are? How are gifted children classed as such??


*Sent from the couch* (via my iPhone)

[faroutbrusselsprout]

There's a great website somewhere that I remembered someone here posted ages ago. Jax hopefully will
pop along and link it!

[bellalika]

As other posters have said, it doesn't mean your child (or another early reader) is gifted. They may be, but not necessarily. Bright, probably. Curious, most likely.

You need to figure our if the child is reading for meaning and can comprehend or just decoding the text (reading the words). There are different levels of comprehension too. I've taught early readers who can decode at a grade three level in the first weeks of prep but can't comprehend what they are reading. It can take years for them to develope that skill. Others come in decoding at a second grade level but comprehending 6 months below that. Some comprehend well above their ability to decode. Even when a child reads well early it mean they are gifted. Talented perhaps, clever for sure, but not necessarily gifted.

ETA: off topic, but my stupid phone just took 40 minutes to post that reply. Honestly, this phone is over-rated some days.
Sorry, I'm iPhone-lexic

[mim1]

Here's a link to the thread that Jaq started about high achievers, gifted learners or creative thinkers - http://www.bubhub.com.au/community/forums/showthread.php?t=337457 - that should go a long way to answering your questions.

For my ds it's not so much that he's an early reader it's all about the way he goes about learning things. It's the speed & ease at which he picks up concepts and runs with them ... taking them to the next level within the blink of an eye. It's scary!

When he was under 20 months old we were reading him a book regularly (The Sleep Book by Dr Suess) and my dh was reading it one night & decided to stop at every 5th or so word ... ds said the next word correctly ... for the whole book! We were shocked! But that's just memory, clearly not within the 'average' range, but just memory, it's not reading. I would say he wasn't really reading til closer to 3.5, but it was so hard to tell earlier as he would remember things after you read them once! But, giftedness is much more than just being able to read at an early age. Having said that I imagine that if a child can really read at a very young age their chances of being gifted are higher (but I base that on nothing scientific :)).

[gizmoduckus]

I was an early reader. I was extremely advanced in what I was reading also. For example, I read The Lord of the Rings when I was in primary school.

I do not think am gifted in any way at all. The only thing that separates me from most other people I know is that I can read a book much faster than what they can. In school, I was probably what you consider average.

[bellalika]

I was an early reader. I was extremely advanced in what I was reading also. For example, I read The Lord of the Rings when I was in primary school.

I do not think am gifted in any way at all. The only thing that separates me from most other people I know is that I can read a book much faster than what they can. In school, I was probably what you consider average.

Same for me. I was described as an "avid reader" (still am) but am in no way, shape or form "gifted".


Sorry, I'm iPhone-lexic

[jaq]

thanks Mim - saved me from doing it :)

Early reading (before 4) is often the first major indication that children are gifted, but I think its more a marker than anything. It's the clearest signal that their skills are generally not "age appropriate" and that they learn quicker/retain information better/ process info faster than other kids their age might. Other markers of giftedness are easy to miss, or worse, confuse with behavioural problems. (A lot of kids diagnosed with ADD are later found to be gifted.)

So not all gifted kids are early readers, but MANY gifted children do read early because their gifts make it possible. (Good memory, learn easily, make sense of patterns, able to see the big picture etc ...)

There are so many factors to look at - teaching a child to read at 4, for example, won't tell you if they were gifted. It will tell you they were ready to learn to read.

A child spontaneously learning to read at 4, however, might be gifted. A child spontaneously learning at 3 or 2 ... almost definitely gifted.

And Shiney, if you were found to be gifted as a child (and 161 is off the charts gifted, the usual "gifted" range is from around 125 or so) the likelihood your children are too is sky high. I've been told to get my younger daughter tested, even though for all intents and purposes she seems perfectly average. But apparently the incidence of a sibling being gifted is very high, and parent-child giftedness is incredibly high.

I have to confess my pet hate is hearing people say "I did this but I'm not gifted" or "my DD/DS did that too, but he's not gifted" because ... are you sure? Have you been tested? Has your child been tested?

One of the problems we have with giftedness is that its generally only people who run into trouble early who are forced to embrace the label. The majority of gifted kids, particularly those at the lower end of the spectrum, cruise along undetected, and so many end up bored, hating school, etc etc, and we wonder why.

For the record, when my daughter was 1, and the nurse looked askance at her vocab, I just said she was a bit advanced. At 2, I said she loved to talked because I never stopped. I never knew exactly when she began to read - wasn't paying enough attention, because toddlers can't read! - until she started yelling out what the streetsigns said. When I started her at Montessori, at 3.5, she went through five reader levels in 5 days, and by the end of the year had finished all the readers up to Level 25. I was still saying "she's not gifted, but" ... and then her teacher asked me to go and get her tested, because she was being disruptive in class.

Turns out .... she was gifted, and language wasn't even her most "highly gifted" area. Just the most obvious one.

[Etienne]

I was an early reader. I was extremely advanced in what I was reading also. For example, I read The Lord of the Rings when I was in primary school.

I do not think am gifted in any way at all. The only thing that separates me from most other people I know is that I can read a book much faster than what they can. In school, I was probably what you consider average.

I was reading and writing much before school. I had a diary and would wrote stories by 5. My parents were alcoholics and paid me zero attention but I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. I was also speaking two languages and apparently toilet trained myself lol I use to steal my grandmas knickers. My extended family always tease me and say I reached my peak at 5 as I subsequently left school at 15. I put it down to being very curious and independent. I am still an avid reader and will read a 400 or 500 page book in less than two days (few hours a day). Life story over lol not very helpful in the end.