The usual family story is that I taught myself to read when two.
Yeah, that's the story about me, too. We have a little more detail because my mother was getting a master's in child development at the time, and she did a bunch of reading-level tests on me when I was three. But they still say I "taught myself" at the age of two.
Me, I'm skeptical. I mean, even language-gifted kids (and since I'm now a linguistics professor, I think it's safe to say that was an accurate description of me) don't somehow spontaneously start to read without all the right buttons having been pushed by the environment. At least subconsciously.
Re: Round O and crooked S
Yeah, that's the story about me, too. We have a little more detail because my mother was getting a master's in child development at the time, and she did a bunch of reading-level tests on me when I was three. But they still say I "taught myself" at the age of two.
Me, I'm skeptical. I mean, even language-gifted kids (and since I'm now a linguistics professor, I think it's safe to say that was an accurate description of me) don't somehow spontaneously start to read without all the right buttons having been pushed by the environment. At least subconsciously.
-J