What is the best age to learn to read?

[Jilly_in_VA]

I was seven years old when I started to learn to read, as is typical of the alternative Steiner school I attended. My own daughter attends a standard English school, and started at four, as is typical in most British schools.

Watching her memorise letters and sound out words, at an age when my idea of education was climbing trees and jumping through puddles, has made me wonder how our different experiences shape us. Is she getting a crucial head-start that will give her lifelong benefits? Or is she exposed to undue amounts of potential stress and pressure, at a time when she should be enjoying her freedom? Or am I simply worrying too much, and it doesn't matter at what age we start reading and writing?

There's no doubt that language in all its richness – written, spoken, sung or read aloud – plays a crucial role in our early development. Babies already respond better to the language they were exposed to in the womb. Parents are encouraged to read to their children before they are even born, and when they are babies. Evidence shows that how much or how little we are talked to as children can have lasting effects on future educational achievement. Books are a particularly important aspect of that rich linguistic exposure, since written language often includes a wider and more nuanced and detailed vocabulary than everyday spoken language. This can in turn help children increase their range and depth of expression.

Since a child's early experience of language is considered so fundamental to their later success, it has become increasingly common for preschools to begin teaching children basic literacy skills even before formal education starts. When children begin school, literacy is invariably a major focus. This goal of ensuring that all children learn to read and write has become even more pressing as researchers warn that the pandemic has caused a widening achievement gap between wealthier and poorer families, increasing academic inequality.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220228-the-best-age-for-learning-to-read
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Comment/personal experience below, too long for here.

[COL Mustard]

1. For me

It was 35!

[no_hypocrisy]

2. In my experience, it depends on the child.

I have seen children 2-1/2 years recognize letters and I have seen a 5 yo reading at a fourth grade level. I didn’t read until first grade — and I had a bad teacher. The goal is reading comprehension and critical thinking.

[SheltieLover]

3. I used Glen Doman's flashcards when daughter was about 7 mos

Worked very well!

I learned at home early. I wad horrified on 1st day of kindergarden when teacher proudly announced we would spend the year learning our ABCs.

I still read a lot!

[Jilly_in_VA]

4. I don't think it matters when, as much as how

I didn't learn to read until I was in first grade. I wasn't even in the first group of kids in my class to start, as somehow I didn't test quite as high on my "reading readiness" tests. But once I did start, and I figured it out, I zoomed ahead of them and was reading at a third grade level by the end of the year. Back in those days, kindergarten was a half day thing and was all about play and socialization. But never mind that; most of us had grown up in families of two, three, four kids and neighborhoods where we had lots of other kids to play with. I was lucky enough to have had parents who read to us. However, teachers tended to frown on kids who already knew how to read when they entered first grade, as it made their job so much harder.

My kids, raised on Sesame Street and The Electric Company, read to in utero and all their lives and sent to preschool, were still vastly different. Son #1 is on the ASD spectrum and went to a therapeutic preschool from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2, then to a regular one from 4-5, then started school in a special ed class for one year. He'd been fascinated by commercials all his life, and at 19 months had yelled "Tide!" and pointed at the box of detergent on a shelf in the grocery store, amazing me. One day in his special ed class, he walked into school, picked up a book, and started reading it aloud to his special friend, a non-verbal autistic girl. His teacher said she just stood there with her mouth open. None of us had any idea he could read at all. He went to a regular first grade the next year, not a happy placement as it turned out. Too many stimuli made it hard for him to learn.

Son #2 and daughter went to preschool and kindergarten at our church. This preschool had been founded prior to compulsory kindergarten in Tennessee and was much better than any of the public kindergartens in the area. It was a combination of play and socialization for the younger age groups and some academics for the older ones. Many if not most of the kindergarteners came out of there reading. Son #2 was reading a little and knew all of his letters and numbers. He was actually better with numbers and continued to be so throughout his life. When he went to public school first grade he was found to be dyslexic as well as gifted, but thanks to an excellent special ed teacher the dyslexia was worked on and he became a good reader. Too bad nobody caught his dysgraphia.

Daughter, OTOH, taught herself to read at 41/2. I think it came about because of a game we played at the supper table sometimes, which was "Think of a word that starts with the __ sound." Everyone was free to say as many words starting with that sound as they could think of, but they had to be real words. She could join in, even though she couldn't yet read, and boy, was she good at it! She'd been an early talker (probably to be heard over the noise of her brothers!) and loved being read to. One day I heard her in the living room talking to herself and peeked in to see what she was doing. She had her magnetic board and letters and was saying "Guh guh guh oh oh oh. Guh oh. Guh oh. Guh oh. GO! GO! Mommy! I can READ!" I had never seen her so excited. I showed her how to put the letters together for "dog" and "mom" and "dad" and you have never seen a happier kid. She already knew how to write her first name, so the next day I took her to the library and she got her very own library card, the prerequisite for that at our library being that the child could write their (first) name.

I don't think it matters so much when, as HOW. Talk to your child and read to your child and give them the experience of words, and they will learn when they learn.

[Laurelin]

5. I'm told I could read at 3

So could my parents and aunts and brothers. My parents read to me from the time I was a baby and I did the same with my kids. I was "taught" to read in first grade but was bored so I read the notes to teachers in our reading lessons.

I was shocked when my oldest was still really struggling to read at 6. She knew the letters of the alphabet at 2 from Sesame Street, but couldn't read words at all. I had her tested and learned she was dyslexic.

She started to actually read at 9. I wasn't shocked to find out her younger sister was also dyslexic. She really struggled to read until about 10.

Both are slower readers than I am, but they both graduated from university with much higher grades (and more degrees) than I did. They're really smart and even read for pleasure but they did have a rough start.

I was told that early reading is genetic; I didn't learn from phonics, I learned words by their shapes. I'm good at spelling but if I don't know the word well I have to write it to see it.

Anyway people are different.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Not much help, but I would say as quickly as seems natural.

Last edited Wed Mar 2, 2022, 01:47 PM - Edit history (1)

My sister and I were read to a lot by our parents, and we would try to follow along with the text, ask "what's that word ?" and all that. We had alphabet blocks, chalkboards, and magnetic, plastic letters for toys. I don't remember ever having to work to learn to read; it was all play (though it took some dedicated parenting). Oh, we also had a children's song (on a 45rpm) about the alphabet that we played over and over; I can recite the alphabet forwards as fast as I can enunciate speech, and backwards almost as fast. I think the most important thing is for children to have as much opportunity to learn as possible, not so much to force them into lessons.

I probably picked up reading sooner than usual because I was so often around when my older sister was being taught (or just read to), and when she got older she liked to "play" teaching me, which turned out to be actual teaching! I ended up skipping second grade altogether, after having spent first grade at a private school where I apparently read faster than any of the other students.

If you learn to read earlier, you become an independent thinker earlier, I believe -- at least you start having vicarious experiences through books earlier, which gives you more to think about than you could ever acquire through personal experience. I still remember most of the Dr. Seuss books and comic books I read way back then. By curious coincidence, I have been thinking about this a lot lately. There are certain stories, or even pictures from certain stories, that have stuck in my memory for years and years, and I have often wondered if I could find those comics again. Recently, I found some of the comics I read way back then have been scanned in their entirety and posted to the Internet, and I quickly located three of the stories in that category -- all date from 1964. I would have turned 4 in March of '64, and I can distinctly my sister buying one of those comics in a store at "The Mall" and I think I bought another at the little grocery within walking distance of our house. I firmly believe that the earlier you learn to read, the better off you are. You end up reading faster, more easily, and with greater comprehension. It is perhaps worth considering that children who are not exposed to spoken language at all before the age of four (IIRC) are thereafter never properly able to acquire it. Our language processing skills develop early, and processing written language is a further skill on top of spoken language (for most people). Unlike spoken language, written language is quite arguably not natural to humans, and reading is thus an unnatural skill which must be properly nourished to flourish. Reading is a skill, and, like other skills, must be taught, vigorously practiced, maintained and improved by conscious effort. I feel my reading skills have shaped my life more strongly than almost anything else, and feel genuine pity for people who never have the opportunity to learn the way I did. I certainly can't imagine not teaching a child to read before age seven -- that almost strikes me as censorship, or even deliberate disabling! Give your child the chance to learn to read as play, and you can be certain s/he won't wait that long. (/IMHO)

[Sneederbunk]

8. Now me needs two right good.