The Preschooler

My Toddler Can Read

I once saw a link for an online video which supposedly showed an eighteen-month-old toddler reading books on camera.  I didn’t watch the video because, honestly, my first thought was that it must a scam.  When I thought about it a little bit more,  my thoughts focused on the times when my own child was so proud of the fact that he could “read” his favorite Eric Carle story when he was just a toddler himself.  Even though I know he was not actually reading the words, I was proud of the fact that he had memorized the words and could tell the story to someone else.

Although this memorization and retelling isn’t, obviously, reading in the sense that we, as adults, would typically think of reading, the skills used to carry out this type of task are the same skills used by beginning readers as they carefully sound out the words on the pages.  Toddlers may not yet make the connection between letters and sounds, but they are able to find the cover of a book, turn the pages, and make connections between the pictures and the story that unfolds on each page.

Encourage your toddler to “read” to you.  Let her try to retell a favorite story that she has heard many times.  Do not interrupt and praise her attempts even if her rendition is one which the original author may not have had in mind.  And remember, even though she may not be a savant reading in an online video, she is building necessary pre-reading skills which will, one day, allow her to read when she is ready.

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Written by Laura on March 8, 2010