I could read before I was 2

[bugo]

I posted this to Facebook last night. I thought you might get a kick out of it. Every word is true.

I started reading at about 18 months. By the time I was 2 I could read well. I would grab the phone book and read it out loud. When the newspaper came, I HAD to read it first. I would always say "this say (whatever it said)" especially when we were on the road and I read road signs which proves that I was reading before I learned basic sentence structure. It also proved that I wasn't just learning the shape and color of signs but rather I would read the control cities on the big green signs that are on freeways. I would freak folks out. Sometimes I would be at the laundromat and I would say "this say Tide" or "this say Cheer". One lady looked at my grandmother and said "He's reading!" One time this lady said that I just memorized the names of the detergent boxes so my grandmother got out something that I had never seen before and handed it to me and I started reading it out loud. I literally don't remember not knowing how to read. I don't know how I learned to read at such a young age. Sometimes I wonder if I was born knowing how to read. I could read before I could talk plainly. When we went to Heavener, when we crossed the state line I would say "that say Homa Homa" (Oklahoma) so I was reading while I was still babbling. I wouldn't believe that I could read at such a young age (and I can't blame any of you for being skeptical) but literally everyone who was around me at that age confirmed that I could read as well as some adults and they all tell the same stories. My great aunt tried to play it off by saying "(my parents) are teaching him how to read" in a jealous way but even she admitted that I could read at age 2. I'm not claiming to be a genius or anything and I'm not bragging, but I have to admit that it was pretty amazing. I really do question if I was born knowing how to read because as soon as I could talk (and before I could talk plainly) I was reading. To this day I can read very fast.

Here are some responses that I got from family members who knew me at the time:

Kelly: Nobody ever believes me when I tell them this about you!! Glad you posted so I can show my kiddos

Kelly: It was amazing to witness. I remember Grannie Steed being in the hospital and you could read the whole hospital name. I used to try and get you to read everything and you would just like be over it. Lol. Like hey I'm not your pet monkey. Lol

Cara: True story. My Mom told me all about it.

I was a boy genius but unfortunately I didn't get much smarter when I got older.

[bandit957]

I guess I learned to read when I was 2 going on 3, so to put it in context, it was probably 1976. I remember trying to read the words on speed limit signs, but it took a while to figure out it said "SPEED LIMIT".

People always say adults can't remember anything that happened before they were 7 or 8, but that's bunk gas. I remember things that happened when I was 2, probably younger.

[Rothman]

I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of us early readers on here. 

...

My mother kept a copy of "Reading Too Soon" around our house.

[iBallasticwolf2]

I was a boy genius but unfortunately I didn't get much smarter when I got older.

Same here

[Rothman]

People always say adults can't remember anything that happened before they were 7 or 8, but that's bunk gas. I remember things that happened when I was 2, probably younger.

Seven or eight?  I'd find it surprising if that maxim played out for a majority.  I'm sure lots of people remember times before then.

[iBallasticwolf2]

People always say adults can't remember anything that happened before they were 7 or 8, but that's bunk gas. I remember things that happened when I was 2, probably younger.

Seven or eight?  I'd find it surprising if that maxim played out for a majority.  I'm sure lots of people remember times before then.

I barely and I'm only 12.

[noelbotevera]

I learned to read somewhere around 16-17 months old (a little bit earlier) while living in North Carolina (which we only lived there for 3 years, but for me, 2 years). My dad turned on subtitles on (I think) a Spongebob episode and read the subtitles accurately and clearly (I learned basic sentence form a little bit earlier than you, bugo). I saw a road sign on I-95 NB and read it out (on a trip to a movie theater in Fayetteville; these were my exact words):

Exit 41

Route 59 north

Hope Millz (at the time, I pronounced s as z due to me having about 40% Southern accent and being young)


Yes, the early ages at the time this happened were shocking to my parents, showing that I could learn skills pretty quickly (ironically enough, I still don't know how to tie laces due to me using velcro shoes until I was about 8). They knew that they had yet another smart child, and knew what to do.

[corco]

I was able to start reading a little bit at the age of 2 or so. I actually had the make and model of most cars memorized by that age, and learned to read by using my knowledge of car makes and models to identify the letters in the nameplates. My Dad has video of me reading the "Oldsmobile" nameplate on the back of our old Cutlass Ciera and spelling it out loud when I was only two.

I actually ended up being kind of a party trick in the neighborhood I grew up in. From shortly after I could speak, whenever any of our neighbors would see me, they'd point to a car outside and be like "what kind of car is that?"

[hbelkins]

I was told that I was a pretty good reader by the time i was 2 as well.

[bandit957]

I remember when I was about 2 or 3, a neighbor kid came to our house and farted really loud.

[bugo]

I was able to start reading a little bit at the age of 2 or so. I actually had the make and model of most cars memorized by that age, and learned to read by using my knowledge of car makes and models to identify the letters in the nameplates. My Dad has video of me reading the "Oldsmobile" nameplate on the back of our old Cutlass Ciera and spelling it out loud when I was only two.

I actually ended up being kind of a party trick in the neighborhood I grew up in. From shortly after I could speak, whenever any of our neighbors would see me, they'd point to a car outside and be like "what kind of car is that?"

That was me. I would amaze kids on the school bus by telling them what each car we met was. These were mostly '80s cars, which isn't even my area of expertise. From a young age, I could tell you what practically every American car from 1950 to 1970 was. Now, I couldn't even tell you what marque a late model car was if the nameplates were removed.

[Duke87]

My memory outpaces my learning in this regard. I vividly remember being 3 years old and I even have some memories of things from when I was 2. But I also remember not being able to read so I definitely wasn't doing it when I was 2.

I certainly was reading at a younger age than normal, though. By the time I finished preschool I was not only reading quite competently, I had also taught myself how to write. In first grade I was reading chapter books like Charlotte's Web.

I also remember being able to count to 100 before any of the kids around me could count to 10, and I could tell time on analog clocks before anyone else could as well.

Perhaps my best claim to little genius fame though, is that I got bumped up from first to second grade in the middle of the year, and therefore finished elementary school in five years instead of six.

[bandit957]

Even though I could read young, I still have trouble reading. Sometimes it takes me literally years to read a book. The letters and words often appear to be broken.

When I was in school, I was great at math and spelling, and terrible at reading.

It wasn't until I was about 30 that I realized I probably have dyslexia.

[slorydn1]

I was able to read at a very young age, too. Probably not as young as Bugo, but pretty young. I was reading the Grand Rapids Press out loud to my dad while he was getting ready for work in the mornings well before I went to pre-school. I would mess up the really big words, of course, and I remember my dad trying to figure out what the word was by what I said and correcting me. My reading comprehension was abnormally high for the age, but I sucked at math, especially when we started getting into Algebra and Geometry in high school.

Early age memory wise, I remember sitting around the dining room table with the adults and discussing presidential politics prior a year or so before the 1976 elections, and how amazing it was that our congressman (Gerald Ford) was elevated first to Vice-President and then President without ever having been elected.

I have very vague memories of sitting at the kitchen counter eating while my mom was doing something in the kitchen and watching TV and the news broke that Richard Nixon was resigning. Since that was August 1974 that would have been a couple of months short of my 5th birthday. I honestly don't remember very much before that point, although I do remember riding on my toy horse (attached to metal stands by springs) which my mom says we didn't have any more after I was about 2 or 3. That's as far back as I can go..

[texaskdog]

I can't say I was 2 but I could read before I got to Kindergarten and was pissed we were reading such basic books. 

[roadman]

I started to read at about age 2.  In later years, I was told by my mother that I taught myself to read by reading highway signs (this was mid-1960s before the era of graphic signs) when I was in the car.  A favorite family story is that, when I was about three and a half, my oldest sister's college roommate walked into our living room, found me reading the headlines from the front page of the local paper, walked out, found my sister, and declared her utter amazement about what she had just witnessed.

In grade school (public school system), I was always in the top reading group.  By fourth grade, the head librarian at our branch library had given me permission to check out certain books (mostly about railroads and bridges) from the adult section of the library because I had already read all the books on those subjects from the children's section.

[roadman]

(ironically enough, I still don't know how to tie laces due to me using velcro shoes until I was about 8).

I could not tie shoelaces until about the sixth grade (age 9) myself, and wore loafers to school most of the time.  For those times where I needed to wear laced shoes to school (we weren't allowed to wear sneakers), one of my parents would tie them for me before I left the house.  I then had to be extremely careful all day to make sure the shoes didn't become untied.

[MVHighways]

I started to read at about age 2.  In later years, I was told by my mother that I taught myself to read by reading highway signs (this was mid-1960s before the era of graphic signs) when I was in the car.  A favorite family story is that, when I was about three and a half, my oldest sister's college roommate walked into our living room, found me reading the headlines from the front page of the local paper, walked out, found my sister, and declared her utter amazement about what she had just witnessed.

In grade school (public school system), I was always in the top reading group.  By fourth grade, the head librarian at our branch library had given me permission to check out certain books (mostly about railroads and bridges) from the adult section of the library because I had already read all the books on those subjects from the children's section.

I learned to read somewhere around 16-17 months old (a little bit earlier) while living in North Carolina (which we only lived there for 3 years, but for me, 2 years). My dad turned on subtitles on (I think) a Spongebob episode and read the subtitles accurately and clearly (I learned basic sentence form a little bit earlier than you, bugo). I saw a road sign on I-95 NB and read it out (on a trip to a movie theater in Fayetteville; these were my exact words):

Exit 41

Route 59 north

Hope Millz (at the time, I pronounced s as z due to me having about 40% Southern accent and being young)


Yes, the early ages at the time this happened were shocking to my parents, showing that I could learn skills pretty quickly (ironically enough, I still don't know how to tie laces due to me using velcro shoes until I was about 8). They knew that they had yet another smart child, and knew what to do.

I read around 2 or 3 myself. One of the first times I read, I was told, was in 2003 (again, 2 or 3) when my grandfather had a heart attack. It was just after his heart attack and we were driving and I read a road sign advertising MA 110. Within the next few weeks after that, I was with my grandma at one of her friend's houses and I read a door sign saying "Family" and some others. From then until I was 7 or 8 I would obsess over the roads and such things. But I had started by reading road signs, and by the time I was 4 I knew the alignment of both MA 110 and 113 from Lowell to Salisbury (eastern terminus of 110)/Newburyport (113 eastern terminus); as well as I-93 through northern MA and southern NH, I-495 ("the way to the beach") from Methuen to Salisbury, MA 213, I-95 from Salisbury past Hampton and even into a bit of Maine; and of course most of the main roads in Dracut.

As for the shoe tying point, I have always been TERRIBLE at it. I'm almost 15 and still have a hard time of it; I wore velcro sneakers until I was like 10, and each time I tie my sneakers now I do an atrocious job at it. I've always had trouble with ties, knots, etc. but...

I've been a natural at picking up information, running As at everything during elementary school, through grades 5-6 (what the town termed "intermediate school" at the time, since then grade 5 has been merged into the elementary schools and grade 6 into middle school); into middle school (7-8) that dropped off a bit, but I usually ran Bs with usually one A, and my math skills... bleh. Math is NOT my strong suit, and my 7th grade math teacher sucked. Although that middle school was a TERRIBLE learning environment. Grades 7/8, kids could not shut up, and that noise was doing me a disservice. In 8th grade, my math class would sing "Let it Go" at me because they knew I hated that song. I'm at the end of my freshman year in high school now. Math issues linger but my teacher has helped me bounce back a bit. Right now I'm running As in Science, History, and English heading into finals; and C+ grades in Math and Spanish (not my strong suit, and sentence structure is a major issue for me in Spanish, even though I rapidly picked up English sentence structure 10-12 years earlier). I have honors classes in history and English, and will be adding science to that next year.

And a lot of this is due to the fact that I am on the autism spectrum (Asperger syndrome, specifically). People such as Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein are believed to have had Aspergers' as well, for reference. I can remember A LOT about subjects of interest as well as many things not of interest; but distractions such as classroom noise throw me off. Heck, a loud TV in the background can cause trouble in a conversation, depending on the situation. It also results in social issues; I prefer to sit alone at lunch (always have) and if possible, work independently in situations in class where it is otherwise a group activity.

To the main point, I was a great reader heading into kindergarten; road signs are partially to thank. I was actually doing basic talking (but not reading) at age 1 (!!) before losing the basic vocabulary I had; I stopped talking entirely, my family freaked out, I had the autism diagnosis, and by the time I was 3, I was not only talking, I was reading.

Meanwhile, my 6 year old sister only began reading around nine months ago, and her first word was "Mama" on a bridge in downtown Lowell when she was 2. (I was in the car with her at the time.) She only started calling me by my name, "Nathan", when she was 3.5; for the first year and a half she called me "uh uh" (why uh uh!?)

*I apologize for this really long post.*

[hbelkins]

I probably learned to read at an early age in part because I was reading road signs. 

[Brian556]

Quote from MVHighways:

read around 2 or 3 myself. One of the first times I read, I was told, was in 2003 (again, 2 or 3) when my grandfather had a heart attack. It was just after his heart attack and we were driving and I read a road sign advertising MA 110. Within the next few weeks after that, I was with my grandma at one of her friend's houses and I read a door sign saying "Family" and some others. From then until I was 7 or 8 I would obsess over the roads and such things. But I had started by reading road signs, and by the time I was 4 I knew the alignment of both MA 110 and 113 from Lowell to Salisbury (eastern terminus of 110)/Newburyport (113 eastern terminus); as well as I-93 through northern MA and southern NH, I-495 ("the way to the beach") from Methuen to Salisbury, MA 213, I-95 from Salisbury past Hampton and even into a bit of Maine; and of course most of the main roads in Dracut.

As for the shoe tying point, I have always been TERRIBLE at it. I'm almost 15 and still have a hard time of it; I wore velcro sneakers until I was like 10, and each time I tie my sneakers now I do an atrocious job at it. I've always had trouble with ties, knots, etc. but...

I've been a natural at picking up information, running As at everything during elementary school, through grades 5-6 (what the town termed "intermediate school" at the time, since then grade 5 has been merged into the elementary schools and grade 6 into middle school); into middle school (7-8) that dropped off a bit, but I usually ran Bs with usually one A, and my math skills... bleh. Math is NOT my strong suit, and my 7th grade math teacher sucked. Although that middle school was a TERRIBLE learning environment. Grades 7/8, kids could not shut up, and that noise was doing me a disservice. In 8th grade, my math class would sing "Let it Go" at me because they knew I hated that song. I'm at the end of my freshman year in high school now. Math issues linger but my teacher has helped me bounce back a bit. Right now I'm running As in Science, History, and English heading into finals; and C+ grades in Math and Spanish (not my strong suit, and sentence structure is a major issue for me in Spanish, even though I rapidly picked up English sentence structure 10-12 years earlier). I have honors classes in history and English, and will be adding science to that next year.

And a lot of this is due to the fact that I am on the autism spectrum (Asperger syndrome, specifically). People such as Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein are believed to have had Aspergers' as well, for reference. I can remember A LOT about subjects of interest as well as many things not of interest; but distractions such as classroom noise throw me off. Heck, a loud TV in the background can cause trouble in a conversation, depending on the situation. It also results in social issues; I prefer to sit alone at lunch (always have) and if possible, work independently in situations in class where it is otherwise a group activity.

To the main point, I was a great reader heading into kindergarten; road signs are partially to thank. I was actually doing basic talking (but not reading) at age 1 (!!) before losing the basic vocabulary I had; I stopped talking entirely, my family freaked out, I had the autism diagnosis, and by the time I was 3, I was not only talking, I was reading.

Meanwhile, my 6 year old sister only began reading around nine months ago, and her first word was "Mama" on a bridge in downtown Lowell when she was 2. (I was in the car with her at the time.) She only started calling me by my name, "Nathan", when she was 3.5; for the first year and a half she called me "uh uh" (why uh uh!?)

*I apologize for this really long post.*

I have Aspergers, too, and can relate to many points in your post.
I was one on the smartest in my class when in the lower grades. My reading skills were way above everyone else. I remember in first grade, I was making paper DETOUR signs, and the other kids tried to copy me, but they could net spell detour. None of them. They were not even smart enough to copy the correct spelling from my signs.

By the time I got to high school, I barely passed math. Algebra was always extremely hard for me. In College, I had a very hard time with math because a lot of the problems had multiple steps, and I could not remember them all at once for the exams.

I can relate to the show-tying issue too. It took me a while to grasp it, and I wore Velcro as long as I could. I still to the day have no idea how to tie a knot.

The worst thing I had trouble with is manual transmission. People who were way dumber and less educated picked it up with ease.

Also, I can relate on the noise issue. I cannot think enough to be able to speak in a loud room with lots of people. This includes parties (my mom is having one right now; what?, did you think I would actually get invited to one?, as well as job fairs.

[Rothman]

Frankly, I wonder how many of us older roadgeeks just weren't diagnosed as being somewhere on the spectrum simply because autism really didn't start to be noticed until Rainman came out and even then, it's only been in the past couple of decades where a lot of focus has been placed on it.

We were just the quirky kids.