Elizabeth Barrett looks like any other 17-month-old babies, with one exception: she can read!
Her mother Katy, a speech pathologist who is married to Michael, another speech pathologist, said that most people don't believe their infant is a reader.
"The joke is that since we see kids with language problems, we think anybody with normal language skills is a genius. But as time goes on, it's harder to deny that she's exceptional," said Katy. [...]
Elizabeth talks like she's 1, but she reads like she's 7.
So what does her doctor think? Dr. Steve Stripling, Elizabeth's pediatrician, says at 14 months he saw her sight read the word avocado. "I was floored", he said.
http://www.koaa.com/wacky_stories/x408978918 (with video) - via Arbroath
1. Both parents are speech pathologists.
2. They read to her a lot.
3. They taught her sign language.
There's history of teaching kids sign language when they are infants/toddlers, like before they learn how to talk or if they have hearing problems. So, it's no surprise that these techniques, applied to a healthy child, helped make her proficient at reading.
My boyfriend could read by 2 years of age. He's more than fine now; in fact, he's the smartest person I know!
My oldest girl could barely pick her nose and walk at the same time when she was a year and a half. Now she's doing her post-doc studies at UT-IMCB.
It's funny though, I was really precocious as a child but I wasn't given any mental stimulation so I'm pretty much average now... which is annoying. I always think about what I'd be like if I had recieved extra work, or skipped a year (I didn't even learn anything new at school until about year three/ third grade).