My 21 Month Old Son Can Read....

P.,
I think this is the age where they just explode with all the things that they have been observing and hearing from day one. My daughter is 20 months old and she is just a little parrot right now. She repeats almost everything I say and she can formulate 3-5 words sentences or questions, like "where daddy go? Do you see the Bus? etc.. She can definitely point out different objects and recognized that a pumpkins is the shape of the circle, which she pointed out to me just yesterday.

she can recognize some letters/some number and 2 shapes a Circle and Oval. She can also distinguish different animals and what sounds they make. I also speak spanish to her
and she know random things that I ask for. I in no way thinks that she is gifted, but she is pretty smart for her age and I'm extremely proud and you should be too.

Thats great! My son was obsessed with numbers and letter at your sons age, and we encouraged it and he could read several words by three and short books by four. We used to play with those foam bathtub letters all the time in the tub..your post brought back a lot of fond memories. It takes time to make the connection to an actual sound then to make a word, but I found that I could help it along at bathtime with those same bathtub letters. I used to ask him to find the letters to spell a simple word, like cat or dog, and draw a picture (crude as it was) on the side of the tub for him - he just loved it! If you don't have a set, get one, maybe two so that you have some repeat letters. My son's favorite video was "the Letter Factory" by leapfrog, and they have a cute letter factory letter toy, that you can plug the letters into the toy and it sings a song and reinforces the sound that it makes.

And now that he is in kindergarten, he loves to be the reading leader with his peers by teaching what he knows, so don't worry that he will get bored at school.

sounds like he is very ahead of the game...thats awesome...i would ask your pediatrician what he thinks...

I think that your son is, at the very least, advanced for his age. My daughter started counting and saying the alphabet at about 20 months. She started recognizing shapes at about 23 months and now she is 26 months and is starting to recognize the letters of the alphabet. The pediatrician said that she was ahead developmentally at her 2 year check up.
I think that this type of learning is mostly just good memorization at this point and not necessarily a sign of high intellect. Once a very young child starts to show that he understand 'concepts', such as those needed for reading or math, I think that you can probably be sure that he is highly above average intellectually.

I saw a documentary on genius children a while back and many of them began reading at 2 years of age.
If you see that your son starts reading words and sentences soon or shows an understanding of abstract concepts, you should definitely seek out more information.
all the best- B.

Give yourself a big pat on the back because in addiion to his intellingence, his learning behaviors reflect what you are reinforcing properly at home. He is definitely early. My DD started learning the alphabet at 18 months and now at 5 she is doing well. It is still too early to label her as gifted. Just continue to reinforce his learning desires and keep an eye on him closely when he is school age so that he does not get frustrated out of boredom or under-stimulated. Keep up the good work!

A.

hi P.,

my only real point of reference is my son (21 months old)... he too began to recognize letters around 17/ 18 months and now knows the whole alphabet and the sounds that each letter makes. he has a friend who is 1 month younger who also knows her letters and numbers. colors seemed to click in place around 19 months, shapes a bit earlier. but i'm not sure about most other 21 month olds. in fact, we played with a 3 year old a week ago who didn't seem to know the letters (but that might be on the late side).

Hi P.. Wow, I'm amazed at what you wrote. I have two boys and although my oldest started talking (also in 2 languages) at 14 months, he never did anything like that. My girlfriends little girl was saying her numbers from 1-10 around the same age and naming some colors, but she also had 2 older siblings. Interesting. I would say that's definitely early to be doing all of that, especially for a boy. Maybe you should look into it.
One word of...(for lack of a better word) caution...I know some people really like to push their kids into learning early, especially if they seem to have a gift. If you do anything like that, just make sure it stays fun and natural for him.
It's amazing to me as my kids are also learning 2 languages (English & Russian) how they can comprehend SO MUCH at such a young age.
Anyway, Congrats on having such a clever boy :)

God bless you

honestly, i think it all has to do with how much is taught. you say you're working, maybe with him in a daycare (if that's where he is) they teach him all those things, then when you come home, you teach him all over again, so he could be getting more learning time in then other children his age. i'm a sahm, and my daughter really only get me, and NOGGING, Disney, and PBS teaching her. she does understand just about everything we say, like go get me the blue hat (she's got blue, pink, and white) she gets the right one. we tell her to go bring us 3 blocks, and she goes over and gets 3 blocks. she's not quite sure about shapes yet...but she's good with the colors and numbers. she grasps the counting, but can only say 2 and 3 (but knows to grab extra when counting more then 3). as for letters, she only says a few, but never in order. and she can identify animals/sounds, and even build her lil wood puzzles, but she's only 1 1/2. sounds just like your son, just not quite as verbal as he is. my friends kids are older, and they were able to speak more at her age then she does, but at your son's age now, they definitely weren't even close to doing EVERYTHING your son does. some kids just develop quicker then others. you can have him tested, but i would say, most likely, it's the language thing. i've read many times, that children who learn more then 1 language at that young of an age, tend to "SPONGE" up info so much easier. i would take this as a blessing, and keep up the good work you seem to be doing in teaching him! he sounds like a bright and wonderful lil boy!

Reading and recognizing letters are not the same thing. It's great that your little guy is recognizing letters - some kiddo's will at this age, and some won't. If this interests him, get him some picture books with the alphabet and numbers. But this isn't necessarily a sign that he is gifted. My daughter was able to recognize the letters of the alphabet before she was two, and would recite them off of signs and things that she saw. She is 12 now, and does reasonably well in school but is not gifted.

My suggestion to newer parents is not to push reading. It doesnt' actually benefit your child to be able to read by the time they enter kindergarten, because kindergarten curriculum is designed to teach children to become beginning readers. As a parent of two school aged children, and as someone who works in school, I can tell you that often the children who enter kindergarten already reading (and by reading, I mean sounding out words with comprehension) are bored in class.

P.,

Wow! It's always amazing when they can do cool stuff like this. You just might have a very very bright boy on your hands.

I don't know a whole lot about your little man, so I can't tell you anything for sure, and I may be totally and completely off base, but I saw these same things in my son at that age, too. My son is what is called hyperlexic. Some children who read very early and are very interested in letters, numbers, shapes, and colors are. i wish I had recognized it much earlier than I did. Please, take a look at a website called www.hyperlexia.org Take a look at what hyperlexia is all about, and see if any of it sounds familiar. It probably won't, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure. If it does sound like your little guy, and you have any questions, feel free to message me.

Jess