Monday, March 10, 2008

One Amazing Little Girl

I know that most of you have probably heard this story already at this point, but it is so amazing I had to write a little something about it. There is an adorable little girl, who is 17 months old now, who can read. That's right....read. She doesn't do the words by sight or memorization, she can actually read them. Sheesh!! I was happy when my children were 17 months old and actually listen to the books I read TO them rather than eat them. Go HERE and check it out for yourself. I would normally just post the video on my blog, but I don't feel like braking any copyright laws today.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

That is a little freaky if you ask me!! Why was her Mom on the verge of tears when she was talking about her being different? She is obviously the one (or her hubby) who told the world about their daughter and now she is freaking out about her being different? Seems strange to me!
I can't even get my Kindergardener to try and read with me at home maybe I am just a little jealous. :)

Christina

Leah said...

Some of the moms as my sons new gymnastics class were talking about this earlier today!! It was a rather forceful opinion that shoe parents HAVE worked with her A LOT on those reading skills. My opinion, however, is that NO AMOUNT OF WORK would have had my children reading at 17 months old! Jared was talking well at that point, but Emily and Jared were both rather non-verbal! My husband's little cousin at 20 months old read one of the signs on a building at a stop light, on a street they'd never been on, on a building she'd never been to. Some little kids really just are super smart!!!

My Emily is almost 6 and not reading as fluenty as that 17 month old, and my daughter's actually actually rather advanced compared to about 1/3 of her class. But I'm still very very impressed with any amount of reading AT ANY AGE a child can do because the English language is insanely WEIRD when it comes to spellings and broken language rules, etc.

Thanks for posting that up Valarie. I was feeling too lazy to hunt up a link myself, but after hearing the moms talking this morning, I was definately curious to see for myself!

Valarie said...

Leah - I totally agree. I don't think any amount of drilling could get a child to read at 17 months unless they were extremely intelligent. Her parents obviously read to her a lot and she obviously loves books. And I do actually understand why the mom would be a little leary about her daughter being different. Being different (whether good or bad) is really, really hard.

dawn klinge said...

I sort of agree with Christina. If the parents don't want their daughter to be viewed as different, they're sure seeking a lot of publicity. It IS impressive and very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Theresa said...

Just stopped by to check up on your little girl. Glad to hear that she is better.

Amanda, since the time she could talk, has not stopped. Either, words or singing or just plain humming comes out of that child. I guess that's a good thing...she's happy.

Theresa

Mom said...

can you say, over achiever? :)

Ashley said...

Hhhhmmmm...my 20 month old can't even really say more than six or seven words very clearly. I guess we are proud under achievers over here. I can't remmeber how I got to your blog, just blog hopping when I should be cooking dinner.

Kathy said...

Oh my goodness, I couldn't imagine this, I'm still working with my 6-year-old on reading!


www.kathy-iamwhoiam.blogspot.com

girlymom said...

To each their own~ right?!
Whatever floats your boat...

ok, ok... I'm just kidding. It is amazing that she can read that early, but it just has me wondering where she should go from there? I mean is she going to be bored in Kindergarten? Be interesting to see how she's doing in 5, 10, 15 years.

Damama T said...

Wow! Very interesting. I hadn't heard about it at all - but then I don't watch tv much, either.

I totally get what the mom was saying about worrying about her being different. My oldest started kindergarten reading on about a 5th-6th grade level. I've also known other kids who had amazing skills in certain areas. They are different and the other kids make sure they know that different = weird.

The saddest part of having a child with one skill that excells like that is that they often lack severely in another important area. My son's was in handwriting. He is dysgraphic. He can read, talk, type, play games, do everything anybody else can do, but writing is actually almost physically painful because it's so hard for him. I hope the professionals guide these parents to help avert any such problems with that little girl.

Regarding the media issue - personal experience speaking here - sometimes, whether you want the publicity or not, there are things that, once they get out you might as well deal with it or some dang reporter will take it, twist it, and make it into something altogether not what it really is.