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The curriculum have been pushed down. It used to be that letters and numbers were taught in kindergarten. Now, kids are taught to read in kindergarten and if they aren't reading a level D book independently by the end of the year, they get referred.
Unfortunately, the emphasis on reading for younger and younger children has led to the neglect of other activities which are more developmentally appropriate for most 4 and 5-year-olds, such as physical activity and cooperative play. Early reading does NOT directly correlate with future academic success, and preschoolers who are not ready are being forced to spend way too much time on sitting still and learning to read. Of course, if a young child is obviously eager to learn to read, that's a different story. But teachers aren't allowed to follow their individual cues...everyone has to be reading by 5.
yes it happens.
i was reading books by the time i was 4. i also never went to preschool or kindergarten. my mother "didn't believe in them." My mother said i just picked up books and read them. There were always a lot of books in the house. But i was not ever "read to" as in i have no memories whatsoever of an adult ever sitting reading books out loud to me. I remember overhearing someone say to my dad once something about that i "read books without ever having been taught to read." I remember pulling books out of the tall book case at home and just reading them.
when i started actually going to school it was first grade and i remember the SRA reading modules in a box in the classroom. They were classified and sorted by grade level. So level 3 meant you were reading at a third grade level, level 6 meant you were reading at a sixth grade level. So in first grade during reading lessons, the teacher would have me go sit in the back of the classroom and read the level 9 cards.
Reading isn’t instinct. A turtle is born and never meets its mother or father, yet it knows to make its way to the water, and it returns 20 years later… fascinating how that all works, but I digress.
You didn’t magically know how to read. You learned it somehow… it’s odd that you are convinced it seemingly happened without any learning…
bold above, no that is not the case, not everyone "learns it" and
yes there are people who DO just know how to read.
without "learning it." without anyone "teaching them."
they just know how to read and they do it. that was me.
so i assure you that bold above is not accurate for every person.
i have noticed it with other things, too, as an adult.
I have noticed when i take classes to "learn" something that as we go over the material the teacher is "teaching us" i find that I already know it. It does not feel at all like i am "learning it." it feels like I am "remembering" it. Remembering something i already knew how to do. This has happened several times in various activities, everything from specific dance styles, to advanced craniosacral techniques. Teachers in the classes on many occasions have commented "you already know how to do this."
I would say that it is not "normal" or "usual" for a 4-year-old to read fluently, though many will recognize words.
I was reading the newspaper at age 4, which, at least for my generation, was considered to be very advanced.
Perhaps children are reading at a younger age nowadays, though I really don't know. There are many more programs for pre-schoolers now, that's for sure.
I am a lifelong reader and a words person, but I didn't learn to read until I went to first grade.
When my daughter was not yet 3, she had the colored alphabet refrigerator magnets, and she called me over one day to show me that she had made a rainbow out of the colored letters. Then she proceeded to point to each letter and tell me what they were. I was surprised, because I hadn't taught her letters, so I asked how she knew what they were.
She said, "My cat taught me." We didn't have any cat, let alone one that knew the alphabet. I still have no idea, but maybe she learned watching TV. She couldn't actually read, just identify the letters.
But when she was five, she was in the other room when my mother and I were talking about my 18-year-old, high-school dropout niece. My mother spelled p-r-e-g-n-a-n-t, and a minute later my daughter came running in saying, "Amy is pregnant?"
Unfortunately, the emphasis on reading for younger and younger children has led to the neglect of other activities which are more developmentally appropriate for most 4 and 5-year-olds, such as physical activity and cooperative play. Early reading does NOT directly correlate with future academic success, and preschoolers who are not ready are being forced to spend way too much time on sitting still and learning to read. Of course, if a young child is obviously eager to learn to read, that's a different story. But teachers aren't allowed to follow their individual cues...everyone has to be reading by 5.
I hope the question fits here ... (I'm new here),
but anyway, is that okay? I started to read whole texts at the age of 4 without anyone teaching me to do so...
I want to know if this kind of things are common.
thanks for your answer!!
I agree with the previous two posters. Reading at age 4 is on the early side of the curve, but plenty of equally bright children do not read until 6 or even later.
I was a fluent reader at age 4, and apart from being bored for the first few years in elementary school until the other kids caught up to me, it had no real impact on my life.
I was the same but I would say that my early reading, around 5-7 did have an impact on my later life. Even then I liked reading about science and history, I was always getting into my older brother's college texts, and hated that I could only use the "junior" library. Anyway that early reading developed my interest in science which many years later led to a career in automotive and aerospace engineering.
bold above, no that is not the case, not everyone "learns it" and
yes there are people who DO just know how to read.
without "learning it." without anyone "teaching them."
they just know how to read and they do it. that was me.
so i assure you that bold above is not accurate for every person.
i have noticed it with other things, too, as an adult.
I have noticed when i take classes to "learn" something that as we go over the material the teacher is "teaching us" i find that I already know it. It does not feel at all like i am "learning it." it feels like I am "remembering" it. Remembering something i already knew how to do. This has happened several times in various activities, everything from specific dance styles, to advanced craniosacral techniques. Teachers in the classes on many occasions have commented "you already know how to do this."
a. I'm not.
b. However the comment in post above is.
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 07-07-2022 at 10:33 PM..
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