A typical child doesn’t learn to read until they are a couple of years old. The ability to read isn’t even really developed until after a child starts school. This little girl, Elizabeth Barrett, is an exception, she’s only 17 months old and can read like a 7-year-old!

Elizabeth’s parents are both speech pathologists who had been reading to her since she was born. As she got older, her playtime included her mom writing words on paper and having her figure them out. Doing so helped her quite a bit because she was soon able to sound out letters and form words. Her family was astonished by her ability and took her to a doctor because they feared it was a sign of an underlying condition such as autism. When the couple showed the doctor the child could read, having her read the word “avocado”, the doctor was speechless.

This is pretty cool. We were surprised to find out a child can learn to read at such a young age. There’s a video of the interview with the little girl where the reporter and the cameraman write words for the baby and have her read them. Their reaction is pretty funny,

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