When did you learn to read?

Sep 4 00:28 UTC 1991

How old were you when you learned to read?  Language scholars and child
psychologists have different theories on how the age at which you learned
to read affects your later language development.  Don't be afraid to tell
the truth -- I'm sure we have a wide range of ages here on Grex!

Griz

response 2 of 41:

Sep 4 03:01 UTC 1991

I am told that I could read by the time I entered kindergarten, but I do not
remember that.  (I do remember the kindergarten teacher asking us what year
it was, and none of us could come up with the correct answer: 1961).

I'm also told that I taught my younger sister to read before she entered
elementary school.

response 4 of 41:

Sep 4 09:43 UTC 1991

Somewhere between 18 months and 3 years, according to my parents.  They
took me to the Money Tree for lunch and tried to tell me that there
were no lobster crepes, whereupon I pointed them out on the menu.

response 6 of 41:

Sep 5 01:21 UTC 1991

 I was reding when I was a couple years old. I had no problem reading
those Playboy mags. ;-)

response 8 of 41:

Sep 12 03:16 UTC 1991

I was about 5. The first book I remember reading was "Mickey, The Baby Fox".
The book is still sitting around at my parents' house.

response 10 of 41:

Sep 1 21:34 UTC 1992

The osmosis thing is interesting, Glenda.  I've heard of this in general but
never a firsthand report - but it makes sense to me.  (I was that way about
music - I play almost anything (not rhythm instruments) by ear - badly!!! -
& it's really hard for me to relate to people who are *** MUCH *** better
than I'll ever be but can't play anything without a score.  (I read music
reasonably fluently, but there's an internal feeling of translation into
sound before it comes out the fingers/lips/whatever.))

Myself, I don't know when I started learning to read.  The first REAL book
I read (or remember reading) was when I was 6 or 6.5 (My Father's Dragon,
still good).  But I know this because it's a family anecdote.  My mother was
working on dinner in the other room; I'd read a paragraph or so & run in, all
excited, & tell her all about it.  After a few pages' worth of "Wild Izz-land"

it suddenly hit her that it must be "Wild Eye-land".  Natural mistake on both
our parts, in context.

Now I have a 5-year-old.  He learned his letters very early (2, I think), but
a year or less ago was having nothing but frustration if asked to sound things

out.  Then suddenly it was there (in embryo, of course).  I was looking at
the beginning of the McGuffy primer, & he came up & started reading out loud
over my shoulder!  "Did Mommy look at that with you??"  "No, I'm just
reading."  Quite a shock.  (Pretty much all 3-letter words with short "a"
in the middle, at that point.)

response 12 of 41:

Sep 2 14:00 UTC 1992

We got Damon caught up to grade level in reading over the summer.  His teacher
kept a copy of the 2nd grade readers at home and we just went over and traded
as he finished them.  We finished the last one last Friday, just in time for
school to start (today).  We have been going to the library as well.  We
usually have to help him read those books as he will insist on getting
scientific stuff.  Last week STeve allowed him to bring home 11 books from
the library.  Not one of them was a novel.  There are books on dinosaurs,
the planets, earthquakes, volcanoes and one on ancient Eqypt.  He will sit
for an hour or so every night and periodically during the day and look at them,
reading the parts that he can and asking about the others.  I think that it
has finally connected that reading is more than just a chore that you have to
do in school.

Staci is beginning to follow Damon's trend.  She got 4 stories from the kiddie
area and then went into the non-fiction and got a book on the lungs and
breathing.  I wasn't sure about it, but STeve insisted that "she wants it, she
can have it".  She has been looking at it, but hasn't asked us to read it to
her yet.

response 14 of 41:

Sep 7 19:02 UTC 1992

I'm told I learned to read by age three.  I don't remember it, but my
folks tell me that my grandmother (also a former school teacher) took
a special interest in my education when I showed an unusual interest
in books as a toddler.

My kids, on the other hand have been like night and day.  My older kid
learned to read pretty much along with the rest of his class...and then
in the summer between 1st and 2nd grade, he really took off. He can read
pretty much whatever catches his eye now, at age 12.  My younger has
had a constant struggle with reading.  He can *read* but has less real
comprehension than he should at his age--not nearly enough to get any
thing out of books.  He's 10.

response 16 of 41:

Nov 11 18:11 UTC 1992

Yeah, those are damn good dictionaries, though the Brits would probably
consider them inferior just by virtue of being Webster's ...

response 18 of 41:

Nov 12 12:55 UTC 1992

Thanks.

response 20 of 41:

Sep 20 03:44 UTC 1993

I don't remember when I learned to read. However I have my "First Reader",
with my name in it - but no date. I recall I loved it, and memorized every
poem and story in it. Here is how the book opens:

                 THE NORTH WIND

          The North Wind came along one day
            So strong and full of fun;
          He called the leaves down from the
             trees,
            And said, "Run, children, run!"

response 22 of 41:

Sep 21 18:59 UTC 1993

  I started reading when I was 4 or 5, or somewhere in there... I remember
having to read these yellow books about someone named Sam, and always
being frustrated with how slow the teacher went...  I really got into reading
in elementary school, although I haven't read that much for pleasure, lately
(with the exception of online :) )

response 24 of 41:

Mar 11 07:31 UTC 1994

I do not remember not reading, and have no memory of anecdotes about my
development of the skill, but I do remember a book, which I still have, which
I read at a fairly young age and found to be both fun and very instructive.
The book is called "Harry Stottlemeyer's Discovery." (sp?)  I do not have it
handy, as it is at my parents' house, and I cannot name the author from memory.
The book deals with semantics, language logic, and grammatical structure, all
presented in a way which was very accessible to me by, I think, age 10 or so.
I may have been younger than that when I read it, but I really do not remember.
  The book was printed rather strangely.  it was not bound, but rather stapled
together down the crease in the middle.  It was, however, a published book.
I will see if I can find it, and will mail the info to anyone who expresses
interest.  If you are interested, please send me a quick note, and I'll
make a file of names of folk to whom to send the author's name and the
publishing info.