Learning to read in the modern era.

[rivka]

Alex decided that she wanted to read one of her bedtime books herself, tonight. She studied the cover very carefully. Then she pointed at a word.

"This has a B and a K. It says 'Becky.' " (Becky is our Director of Religious Education at church, and Alex absolutely worships her.)

"B-O-O-K, it says 'book,'" I told her.

"Starts with a B, like Becky," she said.

"It sure does," I said.

"This is an E for 'Alex',"[1] she went on, "And this is a G... for 'Google.' "




[1] (She does know that 'Alex' doesn't start with E, but she persistently identifies all of the letters in her name as being most famous for their role in that word. It's L for 'Alex' and X for 'Alex' too.)

Comments

[tavella.livejournal.com]

That's really quite impressive, getting from B and K to Becky; I bet she's not that far from starting to read for real. I was only 2 or 3 when I started reading, myself, and I learned much the same way.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

She asks us to write down people's names a lot. She can mostly sight-read Alex, Alexandra, Mama, Papa, Becky, Zoe, and Dorian. But I think that, as in B-O-O-K spells 'Becky,' she's attending to a few features of each word rather than really knowing the whole word. (Not that I'm being critical! She's only two, after all.)

[dragon3.livejournal.com]

One of the things we repeatedly notice about our best students is that we can do little to help them besides being enthusiastic while they exceed our expectations, while we have enormous opportunities to hurt them. I don't think this is unique to university teaching, except that universities provide a rich environment almost by default.

Keep on turning Alex loose and letting her choose her own enthusiasms in a rich environment. She'll be just fine...