To the editor: You are teaching me (“Parents, relax: why you don't need to teach your 3 -year -old son to read,” June 24)? My son, although certainly early, was exposed to phonetics, diphthongs, numbers and whole words before having 1 year. Those diphthong books kept him occupied for hours. He was reciting the alphabet upside down when he was a year and a half of age and could also read road signs.
I spoke and sang him throughout the pregnancy and I really think it was a good advantage. I turned everything into a learning experience and he could enjoy his life more and communicate his needs much better than his classmates.
Devils, I was surpassing me in Backgammon at 3 years! So why wait to start reading? It is a loss of three years when the life of a child can, and should be, more satisfactory, and his own life can be easier and fills with more astonishment than he can imagine.
Sheila Winston, West Hills
