Baby Dog Reads
Baby Dog's been reading her books out loud since she was less than 18 months old. It ceased to be a novelty long ago. "Yeah," I'd say to people, "she reads them out loud, but it's not really reading. She just has them all memorised."
Several months ago I noticed that she was recognising specific words. She started out reading signs. Two of the first words she knew how to spell were "no" and "parking." Again, it wasn't really reading - she had memorised particular sets of letters and recognised them in different contexts. "It's pre-reading," I'd say.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, the last shoe finally dropped. I finally noticed that she could always find on the page the word I was reading in one of her Thomas books. I decided to do some experiments. I pointed random words out to her in different books, without reading the page aloud myself. Invariably, she knew what the word was. Then I wrote some random words on a piece of paper - ones I knew she was familiar with. Again, 100 percent. Today, I wrote on a piece of paper the phrase "That dog is in the house with a big cat." She read it out without hesitation. I went on Amazon and printed a page from an Eric Carle book she's never seen before. It read "So the mouse ran on. 'Do you want to be my friend?'" She stumbled minutely on "mouse," but sounded out the consonants and extrapolated the word correctly.
So, it's official. Three years and four months. Baby Dog can read.
Several months ago I noticed that she was recognising specific words. She started out reading signs. Two of the first words she knew how to spell were "no" and "parking." Again, it wasn't really reading - she had memorised particular sets of letters and recognised them in different contexts. "It's pre-reading," I'd say.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, the last shoe finally dropped. I finally noticed that she could always find on the page the word I was reading in one of her Thomas books. I decided to do some experiments. I pointed random words out to her in different books, without reading the page aloud myself. Invariably, she knew what the word was. Then I wrote some random words on a piece of paper - ones I knew she was familiar with. Again, 100 percent. Today, I wrote on a piece of paper the phrase "That dog is in the house with a big cat." She read it out without hesitation. I went on Amazon and printed a page from an Eric Carle book she's never seen before. It read "So the mouse ran on. 'Do you want to be my friend?'" She stumbled minutely on "mouse," but sounded out the consonants and extrapolated the word correctly.
So, it's official. Three years and four months. Baby Dog can read.
posted by PapaDogDuvalier | 9:04 PM
2 Comments:
Oh yeah, think she's smart, eh? Well, by three years John Stuart Mill was reading LATIN! Match that! I tell you, standards have really fallen in the public schools.
So, at what age will you let her read your books?
Wow! That is impressive. But now you will have to be careful where you take her around town. Or next thing you will hear is, "Papa Dog, what does F. *. C. K spell?" It's hard to be a saint in the city.
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