Can a Two-Year Old Learn to Read?
How many toddlers can name all the characters on their favorite TV show? My nephew knew the names of all the trains on the show Thomas at age two. Some of them were so similar I did not even notice the difference at first glance. My own two-year old son has no problem learning the names of the different characters on every movie and cartoon he watches on a regular basis. This adds up to many more than 26 characters. One day I realized that if he has no problem learning all of those characters, what is stopping him from learning all of the letters of the alphabet? The only thing stopping him is the fact that he is not exposed to it. Instead of allowing him to spend all of his time learning cartoon characters, why not introduce him to the letters of the alphabet?
Many parents will probably think that teaching a toddler to read would be too boring for the child. However, young children love spending time with their parents. Even doing something such as learning to read, can actually be fun. As long as they are getting attention from their parents, they will love it. Take advantage of this while they are young and still enjoy learning.
Obviously, teaching a toddler to read will be different than teaching a five-year old. There are two main things to remember when teaching your toddler to read. Toddlers have very short attention spans, and they must be entertained. Since most toddlers have very short attention spans, your learning activity cannot go on for too long. If you notice your toddler getting frustrated or bored with the learning activity, do not be discouraged. Put the learning activity away and pick it up again later. If you force your toddler to be involved too long, he or she will get frustrated and will begin to dread the learning activities. This may even cause them to dislike reading later in life. Also remember that learning must be fun. Coming up with creative ways to teach your toddler to read is the key. Find fun ways to introduce reading, such as writing a letter in cool whip, or playing with refrigerator magnet letters. These creative learning activities will make learning letters so much fun for them that they will be reading before you know it.
Once your toddler has mastered learning to read all the letters of the alphabet, you can start putting some letters together to make small words. Don't worry about phonics just yet. Put together a few sight words instead. Sight words are the common words used in reading that generally are not sounded out with phonics. Just remember, to make your learning activities fun and short and you will have a reading toddler in no time.
Published by ebeth
I'm a middle school teacher and a writer on the side. I also enjoy traveling and scrapbooking. View profile
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8 Comments
Post a CommentI taught myself to read at age two. No kidding. I just went up to her and started reading. She had read to me every night, and I quickly memorized the books. Eventually, I just started putting the sounds together on my own. If I can do that, someone can certainly teach it. People greatly underestimate children. They wait until age four or five to teach letters, because they think that kids are idiots. I actually got yelled at by my kindergarten teacher for saying that writing was easy and was told to "keep it grade-level," when I showed her that I could write in script. Bizarre.
I have a 28 month old girl, who at 18 months new 16 letters of the alphabet, and now knows all 26. Some people say that they are too young, but my daughter loves it. I would never push something on her that she didn't want to do, but this is something she enjoys.
I'm very encouraged reading this article and the comments. We have 2 boys, 4 and 2. Our older son, at age 2, didn't talk at all. There was no "moma" or "dada" "or anything. Now he's reading everything in sight. He has been writing his first and last name on the computer as well as hand-written on paper. His teachers are impressed with that
Our 2-year-old can read the upper case, and now the lower case alphabets since around the 18-month mark. At first, I didn't believe he was actually recognizing the magnetic letters that he so eagerly brought to me: moma, look "M". It was always the same letter. So, one day, I sat with him, and wrote random upper case letters on the etch-a-sketch. He called out every one except "W". He even recognized several lower case letters.
As a mom, I am thrilled that both my boys are eager to read. It would appear that our younger boy might be on his way to reading by age 3.
My daughter is only 15 months, but all she wants to do is bring me books to read to her! From the minute she gets up in the morning, she is dragging books to me, saying "Up, up!"
I used to watch the Today Show, but I've just given up. It's such a pleasure to read to my daughter without that distraction. I think that when the time comes, she will be a prime candidate for learning sight words. I just downloaded the Dolch words mentioned above and will keep them on hand. My mother says that I was reading by 3 (mostly because of my older sister's military-style "school" sessions), so I know it is possible.
my son was 2 + when he learn all of the 26 alphabet thanks to Leap Frog ABC DVD. We did have to teach him that much. One day, we took him to the Mall and he was try to spell the words on the store. I was shock and surprice.........
Way to go!!! I have known 2 moms who taught their 2 year olds to read. At first, I was taken aback, but these mothers were very credible. It's all about the sight words, you are so right. It's such a waste that kids have to wait so longgggg to learn to read. Reading is SUCH a blast!
I am so surprised to see this in print. I thought it was a radical idea to teach this young age to read. I was feeling sneaky because I want to teach 4 year olds to read and was told years ago that it wasn't "developmentally appropriate". Hogwash. Just wish I had known about Maria Montessori and her 3 1/2 yr old readers in those days.
Anyway, I think moms who care should definitely start teaching their 2 yr olds using sight words. If a child masters about 300 sight words before school entry, (the famous Dolch words), he will be able to read 70% of all the literature kids read in grades K to 2, I think it is.
Anyway, impressive that you stumbled across this ability of most normal 2 yr olds
These are great ideas but I don't think they'd work on my son as he is kind of behind on speech. I do think they can learn to recognize words though. I swear, sometimes he will see things that say words he knows like "Hot" and say "Hot!" I'm always like, Did he just read that?!
Trying sight words is a great idea! I wish I had thought of that. Great info.