For parents of kids who got in to HGC, what could they do in their preschool/pre-k years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From being read to..or seeing picture of a fox or a box with the word next to it. There was no implication that the child was not exposed to books etc. It is completely possible. Every kid is different.

Ahh see the truth comes out.. Stop saying your child taught themselves because its a bold faced lie.

[Anonymous]

So any child that has been read to has been taught to read?? Yes it is one component but completely different than a parent using flashcards, kid watches phonics related videos (Leapfrog etc), has Hooked on Phonics. That is a child who was taught...ana it is a prefectly fine way to learn to read. But some children decode on their own jus tthe same way some kids just understand math because it makes sense to them and others need to lots of practice and repitition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP..you are not correct about that. My just turned 3 year old read (simple) books to her preschool class with nothing more than a good supply of books to choose from at home. Her older sib was not yet reading and we had no expectations that she would pick it up. She loved to make chains of rhymes as around 2 and then she connected that understanding to the sounds the letters make. All the sudden she was reading "The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat" , "Hop on Pop" and on and on. She was just very intuitive about combining the sounds and figuring out the words. She also has an excellant memory for words. Read it once and new it forever..how to spell it too. Child #1 did not have these skills and really needed to be taught reading. Every kid is different.

My child read at that age also but to suggest that she just picked up a book and decoded the letters is fantasy. Let me ask how did your child figure out what x or t sounds like?

My kid had a fascination with shapes, and then letters (which when you think about it are simply shapes). He loved making abc puzzles. He knew the entire alphabet before he turned 2. We didn't coach him, other than singing abc's with him like most parents do, or when he would do the alphabet puzzle say "and there's the D!" We never used our fingers to point to words as we read to him, or asked him "what does this word mean?" - yet when he was 3 he began asking us what signs on the road meant as we were driving past them. As in, reading the words on the sign and asking "what does 'detour' or 'no passing' mean?" And he'd pronounce the words with unbelievable accuracy. He was actually in the county speech program until he turned 3 because of a speech delay and the therapist who worked with him said, "he's going to start reading before he turns 4." She saw something remarkable about him. He just understood from an early age that letters put together = words that mean something. I can't explain to you how he figured that out. Perhaps just a differently wired brain. But it wasn't us sitting there using flash cards with him and drilling him on sounds.

And once he started reading, it wasn't a matter of just memorizing words, or reading without true comprehension. You could ask him questions about what happened in the stories he'd just read for the first time and he would answer you correctly.

My other child is not like this at all. A completely normal, bright child who loves to learn but doesn't absorb things instantaneously.

[Anonymous]

This thread is kind of interesting but I think its a bit of a waste of time to try predict what your kid will be like at 9 from how they are in preschool. Probably there are kids that are exceptional at that age that are not later and vice versa. Sure, there may be *some* correlation, but it can't be 100%. And I don't think you can or should try to force these things with supplementing. Let them be kids! Either the kid is exceptional in 3rd grade or they are not. And probably how they are in 3rd grade does not tell how they will be in high school 100%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From being read to..or seeing picture of a fox or a box with the word next to it. There was no implication that the child was not exposed to books etc. It is completely possible. Every kid is different.

Ahh see the truth comes out.. Stop saying your child taught themselves because its a bold faced lie.

So reading to your child is the equivalent of teaching your child how to read. Sure, I'll buy that. It's an important thing to do, to set habits early and expose children to a love of books and learning and to the realization that the alphabet has meaning. Most parents read to their preschoolers. Not all preschoolers are able to read back to their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is kind of interesting but I think its a bit of a waste of time to try predict what your kid will be like at 9 from how they are in preschool. Probably there are kids that are exceptional at that age that are not later and vice versa. Sure, there may be *some* correlation, but it can't be 100%. And I don't think you can or should try to force these things with supplementing. Let them be kids! Either the kid is exceptional in 3rd grade or they are not. And probably how they are in 3rd grade does not tell how they will be in high school 100%.

Exactly. DC was speaking in sentences and using 1000+ words at 18 months and was reading chapter books (3rd grade, even some 4th-6th grade ones) at 4.5--was not pushed at all--but has had IQ tested as average. It is not healthy to think you can predict this kind of stuff, trust me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From being read to..or seeing picture of a fox or a box with the word next to it. There was no implication that the child was not exposed to books etc. It is completely possible. Every kid is different.

Ahh see the truth comes out.. Stop saying your child taught themselves because its a bold faced lie.

What is wrong with you? Are you having a bad day?

[Anonymous]

The kids must be exposed to letter sounds in someway. But some of them don't need to be instructed directly let alone repeatedly. But early reading has not been linked with academic performance in later years, so it is all good.

[Anonymous]

My daughter was fascinated with music rhythm. She and my wife went to Music Together classes when she was 2 and she was so happy and curious. She also loved Wiggles and Dora and sang all their songs and interacted. We read to her everyday because she demanded it. I would not say she read early but now she is an avid reader and reads to our younger children. She dislikes Math but performs ok so that she doesn't disappoint he teacher.

[Anonymous]

The best is when the child picks up a new book and can read and comprehend it. Not one that has been read to him or her multiple times a month in the past.

[Anonymous]

14:13 wrote: But early reading has not been linked with academic performance in later years, so it is all good.

Actually different studies have come to different conclusions on this.

Here's a literature review from an article about early educational milestones as predictors of lifelong academic achievement (+ other things);


Precocious Reading Ability

Some studies have found that early reading abilities are both directly and indirectly related to long-term reading success (Butler et al., 1985; Lonigan, Burgess, & Anthony, 2000; Senechal & LeFevre, 2002; Stainthorp & Hughes, 2004; Wagner et al., 1997). Reading abilities measured in kindergarten are predictive of reading achievement through the fourth and sixth grades (Butler et al., 1985; Stainthorp & Hughes, 2004; Wagner et al., 1997). Nonetheless, at least one study found that differences in emergent literacy abilities did not distinguish reading ability by second grade when the first grade program explicitly focused on developing reading skills (Crone & Whitehurst, 1999).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2713445/#R69

[Anonymous]

What is an hgc?

[Anonymous]

Highly gifted center...the term used in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From being read to..or seeing picture of a fox or a box with the word next to it. There was no implication that the child was not exposed to books etc. It is completely possible. Every kid is different.

Ahh see the truth comes out.. Stop saying your child taught themselves because its a bold faced lie.

I agree with this PP. No way a kid just learns to read out if the blue. I hate when people imply that. Sure, maybe you didn't do flash cards and worksheets, but there are lots of other activities parents do that help lead to literacy - reading to you kid, singing the ABCs. Even the PP who mentioned going to Music Together was doing something to help the child learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From being read to..or seeing picture of a fox or a box with the word next to it. There was no implication that the child was not exposed to books etc. It is completely possible. Every kid is different.

Ahh see the truth comes out.. Stop saying your child taught themselves because its a bold faced lie.

So reading to your child is the equivalent of teaching your child how to read. Sure, I'll buy that. It's an important thing to do, to set habits early and expose children to a love of books and learning and to the realization that the alphabet has meaning. Most parents read to their preschoolers. Not all preschoolers are able to read back to their parents.

+1 Well said!
We read to our dc all the time but had no idea she could read on her own until her kindergarten teacher told us at the beginning of the school year that she could read fluently. So, we did not "teach" her but we did read to her all the time and she figured the patterns out on her own and I have no idea when that happened. She just didn't tell us she could read on her own! We never did flash cards and didn't even point to words as we read them out loud. She is in a HGC now and still loves to read.