My daughter was reading at ~18 months. Or something like reading. You be the judge: My wife took 3x5 cards and wrote words like "BUCKET" on them and put the card next to the bucket in the kitchen. All over the house on things. Then she'd go around with her and point out "Look at the bucket! That card says bucket. Look at the chair! That card says chair." Etc. Then she'd gather up the cards and put them on the floor face up in a grid and say "Now go find me bucket!" And she would find the card. Soon after that she was pronouncing words on billboards on her own. From there she started to pick out and read books from the library. It was awesome but of course it relied heavily on my wife's patience every day to do this.