When did you learn how to read?
 

They were talking about literacy in schools on the radio earlier on (LBC 97.3FM) and it just inspired me to ask...

How old were you when you learned how to read? As in able to read books like the ones by Enid Blyton, or Goosebumps etc...? (I know those are old books but I'm taking it from what I remember I used to read as a kid - I'm 22 now).

I was about four years old when I got to that stage (reading The Secret Seven, Nancy Drew, Goosebumps etc fluently).

Not sure, but apparently I was reading pretty well at 3. My brother (3 years younger) was 4, because I was the one who mostly taught him rather than my mother.
But I think that's pretty young. Most kids would be only starting to learn to read when they are starting school. My mother just had some methodology because she's a preschool/Montessori teacher.

I could read at the age of 3, but at the time I was reading simple little kid's books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I remember being sent to primary school a year early (I'd just turned 4) because I could read and write and there wasn't much point in having me wait until I turned 5 (according to my mother, my preschool teacher claimed that keeping me in preschool for another year would have done more harm than good). I think I started reading stuff like Goosebumps at the age of 4 or 5.

I still don't know how to read..


I joke, I have no idea.

I'm pretty sure I was around 4 when I started learning, when I began school.

I could do arithmetic before I could read. I could understand numbers and simple sums by the time I was about 2 and three-quarters old.

I could read and write my own name and the alphabet and basic 'cat, rat, dog' words at three, and was reading more lengthy (famous five, Tale of the Faraway Tree, etc) fluently at 4.

I'm not sure. I do remember borrowing so many books from the library that I had to get permission from my parents to read books from the adult section because I had read all that I wanted to read in the children/young adult section. I was possibly about 10 at that point.

I can't remember for sure. I think I was about 4 or 5 years old.

I can't really remember, but I do know that I could spell my own name and simple words by the time I'd started school, and I remember reading simple childrens books like biff and chip with the assistant at school. I know that we used to do reading challenges in infant school with the books you've suggested, which I always took part in. So yeah, probably around 4 or 5.

I know it was mega early. My mum used to hold my head up and make me look at books before i could even sit up. And i spent the first half of primary school in the class above my own, then had to do year 2 twice because for some reason i wasnt allowed to skip from infants to juniors. I was only about six max when i read harry potter, i know that, but i was never into goosebumps much

When I turned 7 I stopped reading mostly fiction and started reading mostly non-fiction. I signed up to the New Scientist when I was 12; science has always been my passion.

I would assume between 3 and 4 years.

x

umm no idea, why do you ask?

i don't know tbh i've always read a lot and still do but i have absolutely not idea when i first could read

I was around 4 years old. before I learned to read properly. something beyond the Spot the Dog books.
I don't know if the skill I had before could be called reading, more recognizing of logo's and symbols. I could always pick my favorite brand of lemonade at the store for example.

I do remember I was resistant to learning how to read properly. I liked having books read to me. That said, I could recognise my alphabet. and could recognise things like my name. but I just didn't like reading when I knew things could be read to me.

I don't know

I was always advanced for my age and can remember reading matilda when I was very young but exact specifics I don't know

Its difficult to define when you learn how to read IMO....because a lot of child reading is recognising words by symbols. I remember reading a study once where children could 'read' the word McDonalds, but it was because of the big M!

I was quite old when I learnt how to read properly, but thats because I was a really shy child who didnt like reading aloud so they assumed that I was a bit behind so I wasnt stretched in reading.x

I voted four years old, but I don't remember actually learning to read; my earliest memories of reading are of reading Dr. Seuss to my mom and oldest sister before I started school. I remember mooching books from the second and third grade teachers in Kindergarten, and by third grade I could read at a high school level.

I put 8, which seems really late by everybody else's development. My early years (4-6 years of age) education was quite disrupted and while I learnt some letters and sounds, it wasn't until I was about 7 that anything started to click. By about 8 I started reading Enid Blyton and moved on quite quickly from there.

I was reading very simple stories around 3, but the week of my 4th birthday (or so my mom tells), something really clicked, and I very quickly progressed to chapter books (Nancy Drew, Famous Five, Hardy Brothers, and Magic Tree House when they started coming out).

I remember my dad was surprised because when I was somewhere around 11-12, I asked if I could read his copy of the Lord of the Rings. I got through the Hobbit very easily and then breezed through Fellowship of the Ring. He then told me that when he was 19 (and in college), he had tried to get through the series but had given up halfway through Fellowship of the Ring. I felt quite good about myself after that. :P

But I'm almost 16 now and I read at a very advanced level on almost anything I can find, even religion, which has kinda surprised my mom, cause I used to stick exclusively to fiction and fantasy type stuff.