Why is reading Harry Potter in K so great?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harry Potter is not even "literature". It is a book that is fun to read and nothing more.

A kindergartner can not understand fantasy.

Are you the same grump who commented in another thread that a kid shouldn't be read Phantom Tollbooth b/c they couldn't understand it completely?

Phantom TollBooth is great at almost every level. It is one of those books you can reread every few years and get more from it. LOVE IT!

[Anonymous]

My 4 year old just finished Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment." I thought it too dark for him, but he could apparently handle the murder scene well. Next up is "War and Peace." Maybe we'll try it in the original Russian. He such a brilliant little bugger he should have no problem decoding the Cyrillic!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey, all! My 5.5 year old is reading the Bob books! No joke! I'm all about keepin' it real on here!

(Seriously. That's where she is at right now. We start K in the Fall.)

Hey! My 5.5 year old is wading BOBbooks too and she loves them!

Mine too! Except she is a little older and will be turning six in July.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 4 year old just finished Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment." I thought it too dark for him, but he could apparently handle the murder scene well. Next up is "War and Peace." Maybe we'll try it in the original Russian. He such a brilliant little bugger he should have no problem decoding the Cyrillic!

I'll have to suggest them to my DD after she finishes Newton's Principia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 4 year old just finished Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment." I thought it too dark for him, but he could apparently handle the murder scene well. Next up is "War and Peace." Maybe we'll try it in the original Russian. He such a brilliant little bugger he should have no problem decoding the Cyrillic!

was going fine until the Chapter called "The Grand Inquisitor," then, admittedly, gave DC a bit of trouble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harry Potter is not even "literature". It is a book that is fun to read and nothing more.

A kindergartner can not understand fantasy.

Are you the same grump who commented in another thread that a kid shouldn't be read Phantom Tollbooth b/c they couldn't understand it completely?

Phantom TollBooth is great at almost every level. It is one of those books you can reread every few years and get more from it. LOVE IT!

Agreed. I think the "can't understand fantasy" poster is the same as this one:
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/312461.page#3681170

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Children who can seemingly read before age 5 without prior training may have hyperlexia - the ability to decode and sound out words. However, this does not mean they comprehend what they read. It may actually be a sign of autism and such children may need to be evaluated for developmental disorders.

Hyperlexia happens in only a tiny number of children with ASD, so cool your jets,
http://www.yale.edu/eglab/pdf/NewmanEtAl.pdf

"In studying the phenomenon of HPL, researchers are examining an isolated skill that occurs in a small percentage (an estimated 5–10%, e.g., Burd & Kerbeshian, 1985) of a population of individuals with autism (an estimated prevalence of 10 in 10,000, Fombonne, 2003). In addition, limited developmental evidence suggests that the early (usually before age 5) manifestation of a remarkable level of word-reading skill ‘‘evens out’’ by age 10, so that children with HPL do not read better or more than their peers with ASD (Goldberg, 1987)"

and let a parent enjoy their precocious reader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children who can seemingly read before age 5 without prior training may have hyperlexia - the ability to decode and sound out words. However, this does not mean they comprehend what they read. It may actually be a sign of autism and such children may need to be evaluated for developmental disorders.

Hyperlexia happens in only a tiny number of children with ASD, so cool your jets,
http://www.yale.edu/eglab/pdf/NewmanEtAl.pdf

"In studying the phenomenon of HPL, researchers are examining an isolated skill that occurs in a small percentage (an estimated 5–10%, e.g., Burd & Kerbeshian, 1985) of a population of individuals with autism (an estimated prevalence of 10 in 10,000, Fombonne, 2003). In addition, limited developmental evidence suggests that the early (usually before age 5) manifestation of a remarkable level of word-reading skill ‘‘evens out’’ by age 10, so that children with HPL do not read better or more than their peers with ASD (Goldberg, 1987)"

and let a parent enjoy their precocious reader.

PP Parent of child with an ASD here. I agree that hyperlexia is rare (though 10% of kids with autism is actually not that rare) but disagree that it is something to "enjoy." For the kids who have it, it can seriously interfere with development and learning which is why we worked so hard with DS to avoid it.

I agree that this is not something that the parents of typically developing kids have to even think about. But for us it was a very interesting counter to all the bragging I was hearing about early readers.

[Anonymous]

I find it very hard to believe that a kindergartener could actually comprehend Harry Potter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it very hard to believe that a kindergartener could actually comprehend Harry Potter.

Isn't this a joke? My DS read HP in 3rd, which I thought was advanced, but of course it was not a topic of conversation.

[Anonymous]

My K was reading the Iliad and the Odyssey in the original Greek. It gave her new ideas for torturing her little brother.

[Anonymous]

My 6 year old, who just finished K, is reading those readers with big pictures and one line of predictable text. We're all thrilled he'll cool his wiggly jets long enough to sit down a read a few pages to us. But at bed time, he will snuggle against me and listen to as many chapters of Harry Potter as I'll read to him, and then beg for more. He is just entranced. Will we go on to book 4? No, because that one gets really dark. But if he loves HP, and they are doing him no damage, why not read them to him?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 6 year old, who just finished K, is reading those readers with big pictures and one line of predictable text. We're all thrilled he'll cool his wiggly jets long enough to sit down a read a few pages to us. But at bed time, he will snuggle against me and listen to as many chapters of Harry Potter as I'll read to him, and then beg for more. He is just entranced. Will we go on to book 4? No, because that one gets really dark. But if he loves HP, and they are doing him no damage, why not read them to him?

Reading the books to him and him reading and enjoying the books on his own are two very different things.

My DD loved the HP movies in K, and we read the first book to her. She is old for her grade (fall birthday, not redshirted) and an advanced reader by objectives measures. She probably could have read (meaning decoded) much of HP at the end of K, could easily have done it in first but had no interest in the books despite loving the movies. She was reading simpler girl friendship and mischief oriented chapter books like Ivy and Bean at the beginning of K but never showed a significant interest in the HP books until now at the end of 2nd grade. I started reading them to her and she took off and has read 2 1/2 HP books in the last 2 weeks.

My DD's K teacher was very wise when she warned me about letting early readers read to themselves all the time rather than continuing to read to them, as it continues to build their comprehension skills. DD still oves having stories read to her, she will come and sit down to join and listen when I am reading stories to her much younger sister, even though she has heard the story 50 or more times already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children who can seemingly read before age 5 without prior training may have hyperlexia - the ability to decode and sound out words. However, this does not mean they comprehend what they read. It may actually be a sign of autism and such children may need to be evaluated for developmental disorders.

Hyperlexia happens in only a tiny number of children with ASD, so cool your jets,
http://www.yale.edu/eglab/pdf/NewmanEtAl.pdf

"In studying the phenomenon of HPL, researchers are examining an isolated skill that occurs in a small percentage (an estimated 5–10%, e.g., Burd & Kerbeshian, 1985) of a population of individuals with autism (an estimated prevalence of 10 in 10,000, Fombonne, 2003). In addition, limited developmental evidence suggests that the early (usually before age 5) manifestation of a remarkable level of word-reading skill ‘‘evens out’’ by age 10, so that children with HPL do not read better or more than their peers with ASD (Goldberg, 1987)"

and let a parent enjoy their precocious reader.

PP Parent of child with an ASD here. I agree that hyperlexia is rare (though 10% of kids with autism is actually not that rare) but disagree that it is something to "enjoy." For the kids who have it, it can seriously interfere with development and learning which is why we worked so hard with DS to avoid it.

I agree that this is not something that the parents of typically developing kids have to even think about. But for us it was a very interesting counter to all the bragging I was hearing about early readers.

Counter? I have a very dyslexic 8 year old who is still struggling with one syllable words. You don't need to counter anything or rain on anyone's parade. Passive-aggressive and weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children who can seemingly read before age 5 without prior training may have hyperlexia - the ability to decode and sound out words. However, this does not mean they comprehend what they read. It may actually be a sign of autism and such children may need to be evaluated for developmental disorders.

Hyperlexia happens in only a tiny number of children with ASD, so cool your jets,
http://www.yale.edu/eglab/pdf/NewmanEtAl.pdf

"In studying the phenomenon of HPL, researchers are examining an isolated skill that occurs in a small percentage (an estimated 5–10%, e.g., Burd & Kerbeshian, 1985) of a population of individuals with autism (an estimated prevalence of 10 in 10,000, Fombonne, 2003). In addition, limited developmental evidence suggests that the early (usually before age 5) manifestation of a remarkable level of word-reading skill ‘‘evens out’’ by age 10, so that children with HPL do not read better or more than their peers with ASD (Goldberg, 1987)"

and let a parent enjoy their precocious reader.

PP Parent of child with an ASD here. I agree that hyperlexia is rare (though 10% of kids with autism is actually not that rare) but disagree that it is something to "enjoy." For the kids who have it, it can seriously interfere with development and learning which is why we worked so hard with DS to avoid it.

I agree that this is not something that the parents of typically developing kids have to even think about. But for us it was a very interesting counter to all the bragging I was hearing about early readers.

Counter? I have a very dyslexic 8 year old who is still struggling with one syllable words. You don't need to counter anything or rain on anyone's parade. Passive-aggressive and weird.

I apologize if I offended you. I specifically chose the word "counter" because it isn't judgmental. My point is that I always felt distant from the kind of debate going on in this thread. Good Lord, my child is autistic. I would trade that for dyslexia any day.