Age of kids learning to read - looking for info on starting later.

[leighi123]

I am trying to find an article or a study or something about kids starting to learn reading later, I know there was an article about it somewhere, but I can't find it anywhere! Instead of starting to teach them to read at age 4, they wait until age 7 or so and then start the process of teaching reading.

I think it was a study about kids in the U.S. vs. another country (somewhere in Europe - Germany maybe?), and comparing the kids that started learning to read early vs. later in terms of their reading ability later on, and the kids that started later actually did better on the tests.

My mom is writing a paper on reading motivation, and I thought this article would be great for her paper.

Anyone have any idea what I'm talking about?

[mammal_mama]

I'm not sure about the article that you're looking for, but I think you would get a lot of helpful responses if you post this in the unschooling forum.

Unschoolers help their children pursue reading whenever their children become interested in it, and we've discovered that there's a pretty wide range of "normal" ages for beginning reading, when it's left up to the child.

[4evermom]

Are you thinking of Better Late Than Early? I haven't read it but that's a title people recommend frequently.

http://www.homeschool.com/articles/bookexcerpt/default.asp

http://www.amazon.com/Better-Late-Than-Early-Education/dp/0883490498

[gcgirl]

I imagine you're thinking of Finland, where they start formal schooling at age 7 and have a nearly 100% literacy rate. A number of rebuttals have come out cautioning against painting with too broad a brush though - some critics have charged that Finland is a more egalitarian and less multi-ethnic, which makes schooling easier, and here's an article about the phonetic nature of Finnish (and most other language frankly; English is NOT so easy to learn).

http://learnthingsweb.hubpages.com/hub/Dont-Use-Finland-as-a-Case-Against-Early-and-Baby-Reading

I'm a proponent of letting the child lead and not starting formal reading lessons until age 5 or 6 unless the child is obviously ready and wants it. Even in English. ;)

[Linda on the move]

two other resources for you:

Your Child's Growing Mind by Jane Healy

Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk by David Elkind.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by gcgirl 

I imagine you're thinking of Finland, where they start formal schooling at age 7 and have a nearly 100% literacy rate. A number of rebuttals have come out cautioning against painting with too broad a brush though - some critics have charged that Finland is a more egalitarian and less multi-ethnic, which makes schooling easier, and here's an article about the phonetic nature of Finnish (and most other language frankly; English is NOT so easy to learn).

http://learnthingsweb.hubpages.com/hub/Dont-Use-Finland-as-a-Case-Against-Early-and-Baby-Reading

I'm a proponent of letting the child lead and not starting formal reading lessons until age 5 or 6 unless the child is obviously ready and wants it. Even in English. ;)

Thanks for posting that link. It was very interesting, especially the study showing that many (a large majority) of Finnish children start school already reading or with some reading skills, even though formal instruction doesn't start until age 7. From the article

The critics are obviously unaware of the fact that many Finnish children enter school already reading or with basic reading skills. Formal reading instruction begins at age 7 in Finland. But many Finnish children can already read before they enter school. A study that followed 61 Finnish kids from infancy to age 7 found that a whopping 30% were precocious readers. Another 43% were classified as emergent readers. If these numbers are representative of the population overall, it would seem that only a small minority of Finnish children start school with no reading skills.

Previously, I've read that the majority of Finnish children attend high quality government-subsidized pre-schools. There is a lot of pre-reading work and reading readiness that can happen before direct reading instruction.  It's obvious that there is much more to the story than the age at which formal teaching of reading should start. OP, maybe once your mom is finished with her paper on reading motivation, she could look at this aspect too. 

[Coral123]

Another good book about learning to read is "Straight Talk About Reading", by Susan Hall.

[P.J.]

I don't have anything to offer, but just wanted to say that I'm grateful for these links too.

I live in Germany where reading usually isn't introduced in schools until 1st grade...roughly age 6 or 7 depending. On top of that we are planning on Waldorf education for our son and they specifically avoid teaching letters and reading and writing at preschool and kindergarten (whereas some German preschools will introduce it but most don't).

Anyway I often find myself having to defend why Germans and I feel this is the best way and that it won't make your child fall behind. Good to have some links and books to back myself up if need be

[AllisonR]

Denmark is similar - learn to read in 0 class, which is age 6 - but this is very lightweight. Like if your kid feels like it. Some letters, some simple words. Again, if your kid wants to. Nothing required. Actual reading and writing "the big dog sat on a hat" starts in 1 class - age 7. I think the overall idea is that many kids (Not all) are not interested or ready to read at age 4 or 5. So why force them to sit down and do it, because it can then easily become an unpleasant chore. Start soft at a later age, and most importantly let the kids have tons of fun while doing it. So a lot of "write whatever you want", write in kids writing (no spelling or grammar)... so they like it and want to do more. Same with reading. Weekly trip to the school library and the teacher helps pick out books at their individual level. Some 7 year olds end up writing "i m ritin a stow re" and some 7 year olds are writing "I am riting a storee abowt me and mi sister Lea and we went two the store and we ate chokowlat." Both are encouraged at their level, in order to get them to really enjoy it. I think the system works well. Of course kids are exposed to letters before then, just in daily life. Signs at the store, house numbers, if the kids use the computer at all.... 

[Zeg25]

Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax strongly advocated for teaching kids to read later amongst a lot of other things.  It was a pretty good read and talked about other things like plastic bottles, ADHD medication, and video games ruining todays boys.  I would say it was well researched if you want to have a look at it.

[catkin]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/6937462/Reading-at-five-fails-to-boost-skills.html

This research is based on NZ schools and shows no difference by age 11 between kids who start to read at 5 and at 7.

[incorrigible]

*sigh* I wish I could remember. There was a study being thrown around by the HSLDA like over a decade ago that had really clear cut results showing the earlier a child learned to read, the lower their reading comprehension was upon high school completion. The kids that learned to read later (and the upper range was high, like 8-12), had dramatically higher comprehension rates upon graduation. I kept a print out of the dang thing in my diaper bag to hand to my busy body relatives when they started in about my plans to homeschool the kids. lol I was going to be this laid back unschooler and totally support my kids learning to read whenever they felt like it, even if that wasn't until they were 12! Of course, they were both fascinated by language and read at 3 (ds) and 2 (dd). It was a sign of things to come. Rebels without a cause, from birth, the both of them!!! 

[MakingHome]

The story/study you're referencing is found in Better Late Than Early (old, but excellent book, by Raymond Moore).

[mataji4]

Here is a good one by Dr. Susan Johnson-

www.youandyourchildshealth.org/youandyourchildshealth/articles/teaching%20our%20children.html