Three year old memory

[newtron]

The other day, our three year old girl , while choosing her three books for us to read before her nap, picked a phonics book where a picture or word is shown and you have to turn a little disc to match the word to the picture or vice-versa. Neither my wife nor I had looked at this book with her before, and although she knows her ABCs, she can only identify a handful of letters (we are working on that). After we told her that the book was probably too advanced for her, she proceeded to open the book and match the pictures and words by herself and made the correct match the first time almost every time (about 20 different pairs). When we asked who had worked with her on the book, she said her grandma did. She hasn't seen her grandma since Christmas, and we visited for only a couple of days. So she had probably only looked at the book a couple of times. My wife and I are amazed at her memory. Is this a normal thing for a three year old to do? We just adopted her in November, so I really don't know what is normal for her yet.

[newtron]

Never mind, I just figured it out. The background color of each word matches the background color of the correlating picture. She's very good at identifying patterns. She's obviously better than me.

[annie0000]

Hi newtron, you would be amazed at what a 3 year old can do - she does sound bright though - if you read poems to her, she will know which poem it is by the shape it makes on the page - try it!

I hope that she is settling in with you.

I cant recommend reading to them enough, I wouldn't worry too much about teaching her all her letters though, because you will find that when she starts school they will start them all at the same level and she will be bored very quickly. We never pushed either of my boys to read, but read to them every day. Once they started school, they just lapped it up and are already 2 years ahead of their peers at only 7 and 6. I think though that had they started school being able to read, they would probabaly had a very different start as they would probably have just gotten into trouble through boredom.

[redcrx]

dont just put it down to the colours matching. My son was about 21 months old when he started finishing sentances in his books for us.

At his last check up with Health visitor he was given a book from bookstart called the zoo. The HV read it to him at the check up, 2 days later he was reading it to me.

He also enjoys matching pair puzzles and can beat any of us.

Hes 2.5 years old.

[annie0000]

yes red that does remind me that my son leaned an entire rhyming book by heart before he was two - I know that for sure as the book was called "it's time for a holiday" and was about going away on holiday and we bought it for our first trip abroad when he was 20 months old and he could recite it before we left. Little smarty pants. Mind you, 4 years later I still remember most of it - we read it a lot!!!

[redcrx]

lol, but thats how children learn isnt it, its all about repetition and then seeing the word and remembering what it looks like is reading.

My son can read the word homebase for some reason! lol

[annie0000]

p.s. his brother although a year older only spoke in sentences after his little brother did, he could however do a 60 piece jigsaw with no picture when he was 3. It is all about kids having different skills and talents.

[figure]

Newtron - this is the age where their brain is like a sponge. It absorbs everything.

I raised a child from newborn until she turned three. This child is fluent in English, Norwegian and French language. She did not learn those languages at school, just from her parents speaking to her. And she's in a class with seven years old children.

It's very important to to read and teach them good habits at this young age.

[figure]

This child is now three and a half.

[annie0000]

There has been a long range survey done on children form toddlers through to 15 and the found that across all socio-economic groups, that if a child is read to regularly from an early age - I think it was 18 months - they will be around 2 years ahead of their peers within a year of starting school. The interesting thing was that no matter what was done in school to close the gap, it never ever closed and the kids at 15 still had a greater reading ability than their peers. I can entirely back that up although it was a teacher at my sons school who told me about it - so by then, if I hadn't already been reading to them it would have been too late. it is also aparantly even better for boys if their father or a male adult can read to them as well.

She also said something about toddlers already being able to recognise a number of words usually shop names - they can all point out Tesco, Macdonalds, B&Q etc - so I guesss your little one has gone upmarket - can he recognise Sainsburys as well? lol

[Ice.Maiden]

I agree with figure & redcrx. Children of that age sap up information almost faster than they can take it in, and repetition helps them to learn. You can't beat reading to your children from the earliest possible moment. I could read and write before I went to school properly, because my mother used to spend hours teaching me. I did the same with my own children. The eldest is excellent at English now, and I also taught my younger, autistic one, whom they said would never grasp the basics, how to read. He now writes stories on his own. The proof is in the pudding.

[redcrx]

yes annie, he can read sainsburys and when shopping the other day cried because we wouldnt buy cillit bang! Weve never had the stuff in the house lol

[ethanryan]

hi my niece who is 3 in june. can recognise all of her alphabet and can count to 30. i have no idea where she has picked it all up from as her mom isnt the sort to sit and read with her. she is very clever for her age. kids really are so different, my son is 3 in may and can count to 20, but dont know his letters and colours. although he knows all the nursery rhymes and sings all the songs in the charts, knowin all the right words.

[Ice.Maiden]

Awww.....
At the end of the day, all children go at their own rate, but they can be a lot more clever than you give them credit for. Helping them along certainly doesn't go amiss though.