How old were you when you learned to read?

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I was 7 or 8 when reading really caught on, but once it did at around 2nd grade I was reading 4 or 5 grade levels ahead by 3rd grade. For a long time I preferred reading to eating. My daughter is 10 and still doesn't read text well. She has always had a good vocabulary and loves audiobooks or being read to. Dyslexia can be a bear.

I'm not sure exactly what the OP means in the way of reading proficiency, but I was introduced to reading as soon as I could talk, and it worked well. I was already reading at a 2nd or 3rd grade level when I started Kindergarten. I guess I had an unfair advantage, being that my Grandpa was a military college professor, and my mother was a grade school teacher with the U.S. Air Force.

Charles

Why is there no option for pre-conception? That's when I learnt to read. My mother had to get me a library card before I was born because I'd finished War and Peace by the end of the first trimester.

I was exactly 2 1/2 when I was reading the small picture books.

My Mum says I could recognise words before I was 2 years old. Whether I actually understood them at that point I am not sure. I was about 6 when I started reading for fun. My reading age has always been significantly higher than my peers. It was only in my teens that I started to struggle with reading but that was more to do with my Tourettes interfering with the book and my eyes rather than that I couldn't read. I have recently started reading for fun again and it is great. Only non-fiction though!

Interestingly enough I could recognise the number 4 when I was one year old, but I struggled with counting until I was 3!

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I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

I taught myself to read at 3yrs. So I went to school a year early, because I was apparently gifted. But, I think I have hyperlexia or maybe my reading issues can be accounted for by undiagnosed ADHD. I can't concentrate on a book. I've read about 10 novels in my entire life. My eyes can read whole page, but my mind can be thinking about something completely different. So, I read it again and again, then I give up.

Not every child learns to read at the exact same age, although the average age is about 6. I learnt to read around this age, and was not the first or last to learn to read in the class, although once I did learn to read I was still on level 1 readers when the rest of the girls in the class were at level 4.

I was hyperlexic...although I could decode words extremely well, I my comprehension wasnt at the same level (although both ablities were advanced for my age). I began to read at age 2, and according to my school reports, could read at a 7th grade level in kindergarten.

Around 6 or 7 (voted for 7). I guess I'm the minority here. I acquired language relatively early, perhaps having a twin sister helped it, but I always had problems with language throughout my life, and that includes learning to read. When I finally had this ability, I read a lot of factual information and liked to read encyclopedias, too. I've never been hyperlexic, though, I read slowly, and my comprehension isn't good either.

Around 3 or 4 is when I started reading full sentences, but I had an interest in words that began long before that; some time in my infancy. I remember feeling immensely frustrated when I couldn't read.
A lot of reading was self-taught.
I remember being able to recognize that "Cosco" (http://www.coscoproducts.com/eng/) looked very similar to "Costco" (http://www.costco.com/) when I was around 2 (because I was in my old house when my grandpa came over and gave us a Cosco car seat.)

I couldn't read or write at all until I was 8, and after that I could read very, very well. I caught up on all the missed reading though. xD I read dictionaries too! Not just in childhood either, when I was 14 I read a German dictionary. That was fun. It's also why, even though I've never been formally taught German I have a large vocabulary, but little/no basic structural grammar skills. xD

I could read children's books at 3. I also spoke my first words early.

I don't remember exactly when I learned how to read. But I am sure that I was abour 3 or 4 years when I taught myself to read. I was one of the only two kids in my entire Kindergarden class of about 20 students that could read.

I'me not exactly sure when or how I learned to read, all I know is that I could read short picture books when I was so young that my it qualified as a party trick at family gatherings, I could read the word government by myself by kindergarden, and by 1st grade I was steamrolling through those 10 chapter paperbacks (ex: magic treehouse, secrets of droon etc.) then the books just started getting longer from there

One perk of this, and I swear to you I am not exaggerating.

I have never needed to study for any kind of vocab quiz in my entire life. not one.

How can the poll say almost half of us learned to read by 3? The average child does not learn until 6. Either we are a community of geniuses or a community of liars or mostly only the geniuses are responding to this poll.

I self-taught myself to read at age 4. I was clearly hyperlexic. I couldn't even sound out words or understand basic phonics. I simply memorized a word by its sound and appearance after the first encounter. I couldn't spell until third grade. I'd mix the middle letters up, because, again, I didn't grasp phonics. Nobody ever had me tested as a kid, so I have no clue what grade level I read at. All I know is that I baffled teachers and family by being in preschool and being able to read such words as "secretary," "guilty," and "pediatrics." I read to all the kids in kindergarten. Whenever I'd finish my work early (which was often), I was allowed to go read. Then, as others finished, I could read aloud to them.

Words and grammar have been my lifelong friends. I'm hyperlexic in foreign languages, too, I believe. I self-taught myself advanced Spanish. I have an extremely advanced Spanish vocabulary and conception of grammar. However, my ability to converse in Spanish is just average. Same with overall comprehension. I care much more about recognizing obscure vocab words than I do about the meaning of a story.