My son repeats the books I read him

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Hi,
my 3 yo "re-reads" the books I read him, almost verbatim. He repeats the words on the correct page, gives almost the same examples that I give for each page, and seems to equally enjoy when we read to him or when he "reads" to himself. He even points to the right words.

The problem is, I think he just memorized all of that. I don't know how to get him to understand what each words mean. I also notice that he is better able to follow the really short stories or pictures and their names, as opposed to longer stories. Ho do I know if he really understands the story? He does have a problem with language, understanding and replying.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

I think this is a normal pre-reading response - it takes a while for those neurons to actually hook up the idea of the letters representing words and not representing a cue to say the words. I actually remember (I was about the same age) when this happened to me: I was "reading" A Fly Went By, and all of a sudden, I got it, and I yelled "I'm reading!" "I'm reading!" My parents made it clear they didn't believe me, as they knew I had it memorized.

I think the key is to try to discuss the content of the story and see if you can draw out some conversation about it: point out things in real life, objects, situations, etc. that are similar to the book, even if it's just simple labeling or pointing. If he is still "reading" and not actually reading by the time he gets to school, they should have interventions to help.

IMO, and I'm just a parent and not a teacher - three is pretty young. DS, now an avid reader, wasn't reading until after first grade at the age of 7 (went from the bottom group of readers to the top group over the summer.)

This sounds really normal for 3, to me. My advice is just keep reading to him, it's one of the best things to do for your child. It sounds like he enjoys stories and print and that will help him learn to read, in his own time. Some of our kids do learn to read young, because they're hyperlexic, but it's not usual or necessary.

I didn't know how much my son understood for a long time, because his communication skills were poor, but he now reads and listens to quite complex stories and asks a lot of questions and enjoys them. Even if your son isn't understanding everything now, he's enjoying it, getting exposure to the words, and spending bonding time with you, so it's all good.

Thanks so much. I guess I keep comparing him to his NT older brother who was reading the begginer's reading books by the time he was 3. With my first, he was the only one around so I had more time to read with him. With my second, I got pregnant again when he was 1, so I haven't had asmuch time as I would have liked to read with him.

I know they are different children, but sometimes it's hard not to use one to gage the other. They are both smart boys (IMO ) but I want to help my son as much as possible with his understaning of language.

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I would expand the speech and reading materials to which he is exposed. My older son with high functioning classic autism and hyperlexia used to "read" beautifully at your son's age, but his comprehension was far below his ability to decode words. Please see some of the links to sources above.

I think that he would also likely benefit on working on asking and answering questions (a big problem for many high functioners). I used flashcards with my older son to work on this. See some of the many, many examples of flashcards that I used with him below:

http://www.freevideosforautistickids.co ... swers.html