Reply to Teaching my 4 year old to read

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Don’t stop and ignore the posters who are too lazy to work with their kids.  Lots of kids read by age 4. [/quote]

Speaking as someone who taught my kids to read, that’s ridiculous.

Kids develop at different rates.  It’s like saying all 4 year olds should be 3.5 feet.  That’s apparently taller than average, so the percentage might be relatively small (and I don’t know the actual percentage), but across the population that surely  adds up to a lot of 4 year olds.  Meanwhile, the majority of 4 year olds will be shorter, but will almost certainly get there and surpass it eventually.  Every child grows at their own pace and barring extreme outliers it’s commonly acknowledged to be normal and healthy.

Yes, a lot of 4 year olds learn to read.  Some will even learn at a younger age.  The vast majority, however, learn to read somewhere around the ages of 5-6.  Part of that is undoubtedly exposure to effective instruction, but a significant part of it is also developmental readiness, which like most attributes (including height) varies by individual.  It’s good for the human race that we have diverse combinations of strengths and weaknesses. Reading is an important skill everybody should have, but [b]it’s not critical that everyone acquires it before they turn 5[/b]. [/quote]

Many more 4 year olds could read if their parents attempted it. I see many parents are scared off of it by naysayers so they wait until 6, but some of those kids could have learned it earlier. Everyone should give it a try in the 4s and if it doesn't stick, fine.[/quote]

If you blow it off till age 6, you miss the potential to catch learning disabilities.  A lot of kids are more ready but it takes a lot of effort.[/quote]

Finish society doesn't have that problem.  Kids start at age 7 and they are one of the top countries leading[/quote]

Finland has almost no non-native students.  The US is wildly more diverse both in birth language and ethnicity.  The Finnish language is spelled 100% phonetically, while English has a lot of non-phonetic sight words (including many many common words).  No reasonable comparison is possible.  [/quote]

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