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

41 responses total.

I started to read at age 3.  An ex-school teacher aunt was staying
with us for an extended period and decided that she was going to
give me a head start on reading.  As a result, I was already some-
what proficient at reading when I started kindergarten.  I believe
that my early training in reading was beneficial to me in my later
schooling.

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.

Altough I don't remember exactly when I started reading, I do remember
that I could read in kindergarten.  Probably because when I was a wee
lil' boy my mom read me all kinds of kids books.  Especially the 
Dr. Seuss ones.  After awhile I knew how to pronounce all the words in 
them and then was able to make association with words in other books.

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.

        I must have started to read when I was four or five.  I was a little
ahead of my classmates until 2nd grade, when I jumped ahead a couple of
years (by incessant practice).  I don't think it mattered much; they
caught up to me, those who wanted to, and can probably now read any of the
trash I read.

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

 Before age 5, but I don't know how much before. Mom read to us all
the time, and we probably learned that way. My sister and I also
taught my little brother to read before he was old enough for school.

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.

I can't remember not knowing how to read.  It seems that I picked it up by
osmosis while my mother read to me.  My teachers really didn't know what to
do with me when it came to reading class.  Most of them were smart enough to
point me to the library and just have me do some sort of book report every so
often (and incourage me to come to them with questions if I ran into something
that I didn't understand).  This is causing me problems with helping Damon.  He
is really struggling to learn to read, and even though I can remember helping
my youngest sister with her reading (she is dislectic) I don't have the
patience to give Damon the help he needs.  I try, but get frustrated with him
too easily (especially when he starts clowning around with it) to be much of a
help.  Since he is behind most of the other kids in his grade level he gets a
lot of one on one in school and they want us to work with him for 15-20 min.
every night.  I am seeing a great improvement since spring (I think that he is
finally catching on), he is even starting to read some of his easier books to
Staci.

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.)

I was three.  I remember when I was in kindergarten in a Montessori (sp?)
school, they let me read books about dinosaurs and then write about what
I'd read.  I wish I could remember what I wrote.  "I like the
Tyrannosaurus.  by Bobby."

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.

Great!!
And my own experience definitely is: interest or enjoyment is a real key.
It can make up for a LOT of frustration over things being too hard, and
without it nothing else makes too much difference.

(It deserves its own item, & isn't really "language", but this does relate:
has everyone read J. S. Mill's autobiography?  (been years for me, I'm
afraid.)  It's a good phenomenological account of a child->young adult
pushed to the limit; you can get some idea of what happens, both good &
bad, if you try to force people to do everything they're capable of.

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.

As with glenda, I don't remember +not+ being able to read. Folks 
started me out with letters (I guess) *and* the sounds associated
with the letters; then combinations of letters (w/sound) and then
suddenly (Iguess) I was reading what I was hearing/saying and they
stuck a dictionary in my room and it's been ever onward ever since.
  
Maybe that's why I was *so happy with myself* when I finally bought
my own  Webster's New Universal Unabridged! There are not very many
"possessions" of mine that render such a positive feeling.

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

Welcome back, Jennie - long time no see.

Thanks.

The story goes that my brother taught me to read when I was four.
(He was about eight)  I don't remember a thing about it, although
I do remember some later lessons from him on 2-digit multiplication,
rulers of England, etc.  (And a good deal of Latin vocabulary because
I helped him review)  He went on to make a career of college teaching,
and I went on to expect easy success in school, which doesn't help much
in the real world.

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!"

  I suppose I learned to read when I was about 2 or  When I was about
3, I was at my aunt's house and she and my mother were preparing lunch.
My aunt asked me if I wou get her a can of minestrone from the cupboard
I got it and she was really shocked, but then questioned the fact that
I could actually read. So my mom devised a little test. She took the 
paper and handed it to me and asked me to read my aunt a story from it.
  
My aunt was really amazed at this. By the time I was in 4th grade.

my reading was tested at a 10th grade l I only had to repeat
3rd grade due to my weakness in math.

  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 :) )

 I don't really remember learning how to read, except for a short period of 
time when my mother drilled us (my brother & I) in reading these little Lady-
bird books out to her. She says that she would try to have me read books to
her, but for *meaning*- so that not only would I be able to sound out the words
but that I would understand the sentences and the story etc.  I learned my
alphabet from Sesame Street while my mother was taking care of my baby brother
(at about age 2) and would spell out my name at 3. Could read pretty well by
the time I was in K, and read the C.S. Lewis series at 6. My parents thought of
putting me up a grade, but I was scared of the bigger kids... Oh, my mother
corrects me (reading over my shoulder) that I would spontaneously write out my
name at three- she didn't even know I could do it 'till I demonstrated... but
besides the Sesame Street when my brother & I were small, we don't watch TV at
all in my house, which I *know* is a big factor in how well my brother & I 
read. My brother was recently tested for reading comprehension, and is at 
college level in that respect (he's now in 10th grade). But this was a testing
taken at Sylvan Learning center because my parent's aren't satisfied with his
grades, so who knows how this early reading affects things!

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.

I, too, have no memory of being unable to read.  I do remember sitting on my
father's lap and reading the words I knew, later the sentences, then trading
off paragraphs or whole pages.  I was able to read simple books by age 4, and
al through elementary school my test scores were high enough to raise the 
average of the class noticeably.  Unfortunately, I was "smart" enough that it
was very hard for me to get help when I did not understand- such as in math.
It was just assumed that if I was capable in one area, I could handle all the
others.  Pity, I'd like to have learned some math.

I got promoted out of Kindergarten after three days because I could read.  I
don't know how old I was when I started, but my parents made a concerted effort
to prevent me from knowing how to read until Kindergarten (and failed).  They
were concerned that I wouldn't "fit in"if I knew how to read before the other
kids. Hey, they were right, but it's too late now.  ;-)

sometimes it's just hopeless...<g,d,r>

Well, Kami, I do fit in now, just not with the group that they'd hoped for.
<g>

We ARE the people our parents warned us about...<g>   Oops, this doesn't 
belong in the language conference, quite.  Oh, well.

Not all grexers were child prodigy readers.  My roommate (Deigert) still does
not really know how to read, and did not really start reading until Books on
Tape.  There are people at the other end of the bell curve.  Deigert always
wondered why there were more exceptions than rules.  Reading was not a problem
in getting along with other kids, just with the teachers at school.  School
was like a word game that you could never win.  Sports were no problem.

I don't know when I started reading, but my parents have said I was playing
Scrabble before Kindergarten (which I started the same year as Larry).

Like some of the others who posted years ago, I have no direct memory of
not being able to read.  My mother told me that she taught my sister and
me to read when she got tired of being asked to read everything in sight.

Early on, I read some of the standard (for the time) school book club
stuff, like The Three Investigators.  At some point, I got my hands on
some Science Fiction books, and my pattern was changed forevermore.

My reading speed eventually (by way of a Picospan system named M-Net and
the failure to learn about pagers for a few years) got to the point where
I can read a medium sized novel in under 4 hours if not disturbed.

Life has gotten busy and I find it annoying that I am down to 2 or 3 books
a week now.  (ducks flying tomatoes).  Yes, I am aware that there people
who would be ecstatic to finish a book a week, all I can suggest is turn
off your pagers for a year or two, you'll be amazed at the results.

I distinctly remember having learnt to read at the age of two. In fact, since
I knew the alphabet by the time I reached kindergarten, I felt a sense of
superiority, and that got translated into abundant self-confidence throughout
primary school. I felt like the king of a small kingdom. That got altered when
I saw more of the world :).

Wow, this is an ancient item.

I could read when I was two.

I think that I learned to read when I was between 3 and 4.  I know I was
reading already when I entered kindergarten, but only simple things.  I
remember that with texts that were too complicated for me I woul scan my
eyes along each line without being able to read the words.  I think I did
this half to try to learn how to read better and half to try to impress people
by looking like I was reading "advanced" material (like our school
newspaper).

I'm not sure when I learned to read (I hope my parents have this conference in
their cflists so they can say more precisely!), but it was before kindergarten,
and my parents first tried to push it at me for a while when they thought I was
ready, but I wasn't, so they eventually gave up. A few months (or so; I only
really know this story from being told it over and over again after-the-fact)
later I crawled up on the back of the couch and started trying to read the
McGuffy Reader over my dad's shoulder.

whoa.  

your parents use GreX ?

<enter the first parent>
My family lore has it that my brother taught me to read when I was four.
This I don't remember;  he later taught me two-digit multiplication,
and how to take a square root, but the more arcane physics concepts
were beyond me (he teaches college physics now, in Texas).  I do
remember being bored in the reading circles in first grade.

As for Jonathan:  at some incredibly early age he had learned the names
of the letters, from some magnetic letters on the refrigerator 
("no, dear, that's not a 'g', it's a 'b', a green 'b' -- would you 
like some more applesauce?") so every once in a while we would try to 
see if he could fit the letters together into words.  Mostly, of 
course, he couldn't.

Then one holiday season when J. was four-going-on-five, we were
visiting my parents out-of-state.  My dad brought out a set of McGuffey 
Readers (facsimile readers) that had my name in them from the dark ages,
and asked if I still wanted them.  Dave had not seen them before, and
was looking at the first one when Jonathan came up next to him.
I think I was off in the kitchen, so I don't know whether J. just
spontaneously started reading aloud or whether Dave asked him to
try.   Certainly Dave called me in and asked whether I had
been working with Jonathan on this.  

Thankfully, in *my* first grade there were a couple of other students at a
similar reading level (but only two others in the whole grade), so I wasn't
particularly bored.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss