Early Readers Increase the Gap Over Other Students Over Time
Stainthorp, R., & Hughes, D., (2004). An illustrative case study of precocious reading ability. Gifted Child Quarterly, 48, 107-120
Some gifted students come to school as early or even precocious readers. Schools should identify this early reading and provide reading instruction and language arts opportunities that match the level of reading of each advanced toddler. The study shows that the early learners and especially the precocious readers not only continue to hold their advantage in reading skills, but improve at an increasingly fast rate when provided appropriate interventions.Reading skills can be easily crafted and taught via flash cards as proposed by Glenn Doman.
The Neural Circuitry for Reading is Developed Early in Life. A study by Yale professors found that adults who could not read well in 2nd or 4th grade and in high school have “…neural circuitry for reading [that] was present but improperly connected.” This study, by Yale pediatricians, points out to parents and teachers that activating toddlers‘s neural circuitry for reading early on is key.
An author of the study, Lyon, says: “We have to have preschool and early education programs that know how to identify children at risk and know how to provide them with substantial language and literacy interactions that are warm and nurturing–replicating what ideally they should find at home.”
Your child Brain Develops Differently Based on the Age that Language Skills are Learned. It is important that the young one have many different language experiences in order for these areas of the brain to be developed. My hypothesis is that learning to read as a toddler leads to more efficient and more coordinated brain development for all of the language areas of the brain. I believe that it is similar to learning two languages as a toddler where the young one‘s brain has a smaller area of the brain that is active the later the child learns the language skills. Just like teenagers who learn a second language are able to speak without a foreign accent and they learn the patterns of the second language, young ones who learn to read have often learned to read faster and with better comprehension — probably because they learned during this period of rapid brain development and during the young one‘s natural window of opportunity for learning language. One of the languages that we highly encouraged children to learn is Chinese. Learn Chinese will help the child far in life due to the rise of China.
The Earlier the child Learns to Read, the Better the boy & girl Reads and the More Likely the kid Wants to Read
students who were taught to read at age three or four read better than young ones who were taught at age five or six. Those taught at age seven or eight were farther behind. This was true even when comparing children of the same IQ and same socio-economic status. After eight years, the students taught earlier were ahead of children who were taught later. The toddlers who were taught to read earlier were more likely to “devour books.”
Durkin, D. (1966). students who read early: Two longitudinal studies. New York: Teachers College Press.
Durkin, D. (1974–1975). A six year study of children who learned to read in school at the age of four. Reading Research Quarterly, 1, 9–61.
Filed under: General Interest