Evan turned four years old on September 7th. We gave him lots of goodies to commemorate the occasion, but he gave us one big surprise. Since Evan was 15 months old he loved to memorize things. First it was words, then pictures from books and flash cards, then maps and names of composers. When Evan started memorizing all of his books we weren't too surprised. He loved playing computer games that taught pre-reading skills and I had briefly touched on the concept of sounding out words.
One night when Evan was reciting one of his bedtime books I realized he was now following the words and sentences on the page. I didn't think too much of it. My Mom came down to visit and celebrate Evan's birthday (and his sister's who turned two years old the day before). She brought with her the set of phonics books I had when I was little. I remembered learning to read from the books and was so happy she held on to them. We gave one to Evan and he opened it up and read...the whole thing! Surprise, my son knows how to read! I was in such shock. As a former teacher, I know what a long process learning to read can be. I couldn't believe Evan had basically taught himself. What a feat! I gave him the next book in the series and he read that, pausing to sound out any unfamiliar words.
A few days later I took Evan to his weekly speech therapy session. I mentioned to the pathologist that I had just realized that Evan knows how to read. She said, "Oh you didn't know? He has been reading for me since he started here in July."
Another perk of being an Aspie!
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