Would you consider this reading?

[howardboys]

We finally received our extra large magnetic poetry magnets in the mail yesterday!

We unpacked the box together with our boy and looked at all the cool words...I picked out about 5 or 6 very simple words, like boy, girl, good, bird and go, and put them on our dish-washing machine door.

We reviewed them together a little, and then went on to unpacking a new box with some new clothes for him...

So, this morning, we go into the kitchen, and he identifies the word 'good' by himself.

Would you consider that reading?

He only ever recognized one other word in a book ('me') about a boy who insists on dressing himself, hence the word 'me' shows up in the book in large letters on almost every page.

TIA
mom2ross

[hypatia]

Well I have had the same dilemma many times...

A few months ago, I picked a new book up, entitled 'Now, I love water'. I was pointing to the words as usual and my daughter shouted 'water' the second after i read 'love'.. I was extatic until my mum reminded me that there was water in the illustration and that she was just telling me what she was seing on the picture...

Last week I wrote Basil on the fridge and showed it to my daughter very briefly. 2 days on, I asked her where the basil was and she ran to the fridge.. now would she recognize basil if it was written somewhere else? I guess i need to put it up again and see if she says something-but she's not one for showing off and letting me know what she knows...

She read 'good-night' from a book we rarely read...but all stories end by 'good night' so she might simply remember it was saying good night on that specific page..

So as far as I'm concerned, the only time she sight-read was when she read out of a flashcard I had showed her just once.

[howardboys]

Yeah.

There are no images on the dish-washing machine.
He did pick the right word out of the group of other words.

I think he sight-read it, but also probably just memorized its location...

We'll see what happens in the coming days.

Thx

[Niniedney]

We both know there are two kinds of reading: by sight, and using phonics. It definatly sounds like he recognized the word. I think sight reading is indeed reading : )

[sarahjean]

I agree with Ninie - sight reading is indeed reading and can be great in combination with phonics! Good for your little guy - keep it up!

[hypatia]

What about brands? I've noticed my daughters shouts TRACE whenever this music channel is on... i guess i need to write it on the fridge or on a card to see if she recognizes it in a different format. I read somewhere that babies as young as one can remember brands logo if exposed to them often.

[DadDude]

Whether that's reading or not is entirely a semantic question.  If you take an expansive view, so that recognizing and being able to say just one written word out loud counts as reading, then this is reading.  If you take a restrictive view, which says that you're not really reading until you can figure out at least a few words that you haven't seen before, then it's not reading.  In any case, who cares?  If your child is just 16 months old, it's very remarkable whatever you call it!

[howardboys]

hypatia, this was the realization described in the very first chapters of Doman's Teach Your Baby To Read.

Doman describes how large font words in TV advertisements and billboards showed how easily little ones can pick up sight words, IF the letters are big enough for them to absorb...

So, I am totally not surprised that your little one recognizes words on TV.

There are many more fun milestones coming up that will constitute a firmer grasp of reading IMO, but for now, it seems the boy is able to sight-read a little bit after a short introduction to a word - which is neat!

[howardboys]

Update on my boy and our new large word magnets...

We've been gone for a week and on our return, my DH reviewed the words on the dishwasher with him, then scrambled up the words really well. Later in the day we were all hanging out in the kitchen and DS was able to tell us what 4 out of 5 words were as we pointed to them!

My guess is that he used phonics, sight and memory. 
He recognized the first letter and knew its sound, then that helped him remember (by sight) which word it was.

This evening I took away two words and put up two new ones:  big and run.  We'll see how it goes in the coming days. My guess is that his memory will be a bit short for the words I put away, but maybe he'll surprise me...

[hypatia]

Hi Mom to ross
This is definitely reading, well done!
Did any of you notice whether their babies are more likely to sight-read upper or lower case? My flashcards are lower case, and most books as well, but the words i put up on the fridge are upper case.

[Tanikit]

This comes down to the question: what is reading? Reading is actually obtaining meaning from written text. So if your child knows what good means (and if they say it when they see the word they usually do know the meaning) then he is reading whether it is sight reading or phonics.

My child reads lower case better than uppercase but is also starting to read uppercase now simply because we keep pointing out street names and product names and so on as well as flashcards and words in books.

[howardboys]

Here is a link to the magnetic word poetry we are using (all the letters are lower case):
http://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Poetry-Really-Words-Magnet/dp/B00003JATS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1274855574&sr=8-1

I recommend this set, it's been a lot of fun to use so far!

As I suspected, DS already forgot the words he recognized just the other day, and also incorrectly guessed a couple of the words he got right previously.  Some words have stuck well (good, go, bird, me), others not so much (boy, girl). 
The two new words I posted he doesn't recognize at all yet...
 
Regarding whether he knows what the words mean or not, sure he does...I've only used very basic word magnets he knows and speaks. 

[ShenLi]

Re: upper case or lower case

I think it depends what you teach your child.  They will learn what they are exposed to.  Doman believes it should be lower case because words are generally written in lower case so it is more practical to learn to read words in lower case.  I guess upper case can come later.

My son can read both because we started with upper case first until I read Doman and changed all our flashcards to lower case. 

I find there is a bit of combination reading going on with my son.  He has been learning to read using both whole word and phonics.  The other night, he read "evening" as "everyday" so I guess he recognised the "eve" part and assumed it was the same word.

[nhockaday]

My son never had a problem learning upper or lower case. He learned lower case first from the Leapfrog video, and then he learned uppercase from HOP pre-k. He could recognize all the upper case letters even though I never really taught them. I think it's pretty easy to grasp once you learn one or the other.

[waterdreamer]

My son never had a problem learning upper or lower case. He learned lower case first from the Leapfrog video, and then he learned uppercase from HOP pre-k. He could recognize all the upper case letters even though I never really taught them. I think it's pretty easy to grasp once you learn one or the other.

I agree! The only thing that was a problem for us was b,d and p,q in lower case.

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