'splain this to me!

[MadiMamacita]

DS loves dogs and cats. he always points them out when he sees them. we were out at someone's house in the country. he started pointing and doing his cat sign and meowing. i looked, no cat. anywhere. but there was an arctic cat snow mobile.. with no drawing or logo, it just said ARCTIC CAT.
my 2o month old cant read, RIGHT?!?

then on the street later he pointed to a lady with a purse and started signing apple. the lady said something like "hi cutie" and I said "oh he's signing apple to you, weird!" and she said, "that is weird... i have an apple in my purse..."
so now he has x-ray vision, too??

I'm starting to worry I was accidentally impregnated by superman.

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

I got nothing.

But do you mean 2 year old?

[ellemenope]

it's unsplainable.

[MadiMamacita]

Originally Posted by Barbie64g

I got nothing.

But do you mean 2 year old?

no, he's 20 months.

oh, i see.. I typed an o instead of a 0.. 2o instead of 20.

[physmom]

Originally Posted by MadiMamacita

DS loves dogs and cats. he always points them out when he sees them. we were out at someone's house in the country. he started pointing and doing his cat sign and meowing. i looked, no cat. anywhere. but there was an arctic cat snow mobile.. with no drawing or logo, it just said ARCTIC CAT.
my 2o month old cant read, RIGHT?!?

Sounds like he might have a sight word. DD has some favorite words that she does that with too (she's the same age).

Originally Posted by MadiMamacita

then on the street later he pointed to a lady with a purse and started signing apple. the lady said something like "hi cutie" and I said "oh he's signing apple to you, weird!" and she said, "that is weird... i have an apple in my purse..."
so now he has x-ray vision, too??

I'm starting to worry I was accidentally impregnated by superman.

Do you often have apples in your purse? Could it might have looked like an apple from the outside? Maybe she had mentioned it or something?

[Italiamom]

Originally Posted by physmom

Sounds like he might have a sight word. DD has some favorite words that she does that with too (she's the same age).

I've heard about this somewhere as well. When we used to have a TV, there would always be these advertisements for "teach your baby to read." Which seemed to good to be true, so I read up on it. Sure enough, it was just a word recognition, rather than actual reading. Your DS has probably seen the word "cat" next to a cat so many times, that they are one in the same. The image of c-a-t is probably filed in his little brain right next to the image of a cat, and the sound of a cat.

I would, however, imagine that this means he will be an early reader. Beware, the days of spelling things out (hey DP, I'm going to go and have a c-o-o-k-i-e) are numbered. I could read by the time I was 4, and sometimes my mom swears it was bad news

[Baby_Cakes]

Definitely sounds like CAT is a sight word! But the apple I just have no idea. Sure is neat though!

[physmom]

Originally Posted by Italiamom

I've heard about this somewhere as well. When we used to have a TV, there would always be these advertisements for "teach your baby to read." Which seemed to good to be true, so I read up on it. Sure enough, it was just a word recognition, rather than actual reading. Your DS has probably seen the word "cat" next to a cat so many times, that they are one in the same. The image of c-a-t is probably filed in his little brain right next to the image of a cat, and the sound of a cat.

I would, however, imagine that this means he will be an early reader. Beware, the days of spelling things out (hey DP, I'm going to go and have a c-o-o-k-i-e) are numbered. I could read by the time I was 4, and sometimes my mom swears it was bad news

At least in DD's case it just appears to be word recognition. She's shown me no indication that she can sound out words but she will pretend to read in gibberish. FWIW, DH and I were both early readers but not super early (as in both before K but not when we were 2 or something). So who knows? Oh, and DD tries to spell things out to us too but, again, it's always non-nonsensical like m-w-r-a? Anyways, in the meantime, if he loves cats and dogs why not explore that? Take him to the animal shelter or pet store. Or maybe find some nice books about cats/dogs at the library?

[MadiMamacita]

Originally Posted by physmom

Anyways, in the meantime, if he loves cats and dogs why not explore that? Take him to the animal shelter or pet store. Or maybe find some nice books about cats/dogs at the library?

yeah we do take him places to see animals and learn about them- his favorite book right now is an audobon bird identification guide

Originally Posted by Italiamom

I've heard about this somewhere as well. When we used to have a TV, there would always be these advertisements for "teach your baby to read." Which seemed to good to be true, so I read up on it. Sure enough, it was just a word recognition, rather than actual reading. Your DS has probably seen the word "cat" next to a cat so many times, that they are one in the same. The image of c-a-t is probably filed in his little brain right next to the image of a cat, and the sound of a cat.

I would, however, imagine that this means he will be an early reader. Beware, the days of spelling things out (hey DP, I'm going to go and have a c-o-o-k-i-e) are numbered. I could read by the time I was 4, and sometimes my mom swears it was bad news

thing is, i have actively avoided the concept of "teach your baby to read" because I don't think its good for their brains and development to "teach" things like math and reading too early. The cats he has seen are on videos from youtube (the titles all say Kitty, not Cat), around our neighborhood, and from picture books with no text.
I taught myself to read before kindergarten, but not before 2 years old!

Originally Posted by physmom

Do you often have apples in your purse? Could it might have looked like an apple from the outside? Maybe she had mentioned it or something?

no. never. I don't even like apples.
It was a really thick purse and had no bulgy shapes or anything, and the situation was such that they didn't have any contact other than what I wrote above. we passed eachother walking through a door, each coming from a different direction. impossible that he could have heard her say it.

its a real head scratcher.

[St. Margaret]

He might have made the connection, seen the word just enough-- DD could read plenty of commmon words, family names, things like that, at that age-- yeah, watch out. We can't spell things now (we always said we wouldn't but then we'd want to discuss MAYBE going to the pool or getting pizza DD totally got on us pool last month. We mostly have to resort to odd descriptions like "the acquatic recreation place"). And DD is shaping up to be an early reader.

She used to do crazy stuff like that all the time. I figured maybe she was just making connections I missed, since my adult brain was someplace else, BUT I also think little kids just have the ability to tune into stuff... DD would read my mind so many times! So maybe not superman but superkids

[swd12422]

It's funny, I remember DS doing similar things like this around that age. I thought it was a little freaky, but it was always little things like you describe. (One time he was playing on the rug, and I wen to get the phone to make a call. He looked up and said, "Calling K?" That was exactly who I was going to call, and the scary part is that I only call this relative on birthdays (theirs and mine), but needed to ask a question so this was completely out of the ordinary. Normally at that time of day I call my dad or my sister, and if he'd guessed either of them (or even any of our friends) I wouldn't have found it freaky. But he's met K maybe 3 times in his whole life, and talked on the phone once or twice.) He hasn't done it in awhile, so I figured maybe they go through a little psychic phase in their development and then it's gone.

[MadiMamacita]

the phone thing reminded me that he can tell if i'm talking to my mom or his dad on the phone, but i speak different languages to each of them so that might be his clue.

i was hugely clairvoyant until i was about 5 so maybe he's just got "the shine" like my grandmother used to say.

[physmom]

Originally Posted by MadiMamacita

yeah we do take him places to see animals and learn about them- his favorite book right now is an audobon bird identification guide

Sounds like fun!

Originally Posted by MadiMamacita

thing is, i have actively avoided the concept of "teach your baby to read" because I don't think its good for their brains and development to "teach" things like math and reading too early. The cats he has seen are on videos from youtube (the titles all say Kitty, not Cat), around our neighborhood, and from picture books with no text.
I taught myself to read before kindergarten, but not before 2 years old!

We also have never made any attempts to teach DD to read. But she's been curious about it for awhile and will point to words and ask what they mean. It's just some she's really interested in, unlike blocks, which I still can't manage to get her to stack.

Originally Posted by MadiMamacita

no. never. I don't even like apples.
It was a really thick purse and had no bulgy shapes or anything, and the situation was such that they didn't have any contact other than what I wrote above. we passed eachother walking through a door, each coming from a different direction. impossible that he could have heard her say it.

its a real head scratcher.

Ok, no clue then.

[redvlagrl]

DD somehow recognizes "BBQ". No idea why. She has a pari of underpants that say BFF on them and she points at it and says "barbeque". But I figure if she can learn to recognize a triangle, then why not a word?