Recently, a friend gave me a craft kit filled with exquisite wood games and bright books that hopefully teach my kids to read. The company says voice-based programs can start showing interest in books and tell stories, inform letters and words when young children start to have a job, know how to hold books, and know you read from left to right.
This must have described my youngest son, who just turned 3 and liked to pretend to read picture books with his 6-year-old brother, who learned to read in kindergarten. But the scene has been gathering in the cabinet for weeks.
California’s frustrating reading scores suggest the need to improve early literacy. But at 3 years old, my son still wore diapers and had a soft baby age. Is he really ready to learn how to read? What is the “correct” age? Is the young age too young?
Before starting the course with my little one, I decided to sign in with some literacy experts.
Spoiler Alert: Most tell me to wait.
“Can a child learn personal letters in 2½ or 3,” said Susan Neuman, professor of childhood and literacy education at NYU.
At the age of 3, she said, children learn languages through play and back and forth, and they talk to them, read and sing caregivers. She said parents may read nursery rhymes, a powerful tool that teaches the rhymes of children they remember throughout their lives. They might sing songs like “Hokey Pokey” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider” that prepare children to hear and recognize the sounds of our language.
“It’s really essential. Spoken language is the foundation of early literacy, and that’s what we need to do in 3 or 4.”
A branch librarian at the Corona del Mar library reads on story time in 2019.
(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)
Research shows that these verbal skills may actually be more valuable than learning early reading: children who learn letters in the early stage may be more “schooling” in kindergarten, but the benefit will soon disappear as other children catch up. In the early days, strong vocabulary predicted the readiness of fourth-grade schools, Neuman said.
When is the “appropriate age” for children to learn to read?
Neuman said we all heard of premature children who read on their own as early as 2 or 3 years old, but they are outliers that make up about 1% of children.
For the vast majority of children, studies show that 5 to 7 years old is the prime time for professors to read, said Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading. At UCLA.
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Reading words from pages is a complex activity that requires the brain to put together multiple areas of multiple domains to deal with aspects of language and thought. It requires a physical level of brain development called granulomas – the growth of fat sheaths that are around nerve cells, insulated and allow information to spread faster and more efficiently in the brain. Until the age of 5 to 7, the process has not been fully developed, and some boys tend to develop abilities later than girls.
“I even think it’s really wrong for parents to try to push reading before 5, because it’s “forced connections don’t need to be forced.” Parents trying to teach their children to decode words in 3 or 4 may end up making the child unreadable. Children who drill in flash cards and letter decoding may also miss more important moments of games, exploration and language.
“Waiting will not be hurt, but there is a risk of driving the will,” Wolf said.
In European countries such as Finland and Denmark, waiting for reading until the age of 6 or 7, while focusing on gaming and exploration, children tend to be more proficient in readers and struggle less, Wolf said. If she had a wand, Wolf said she would ask all schools in the U.S. to wait until she was at least 6 years old.
She said: “This doesn’t work.
But some experts also say that the voice of trust should be taught to 3-year-old children in preschool classes. “Children at 3 years old are very capable,” said Theresa Roberts, Sacramento State Child Development professor who studied young children’s reading.
It’s not necessarily a trivial matter, she said. Her research found that in a 15-minute vocabulary session, children aged 3 and 4 were “highly involved” and they did better in kindergarten. She added that for the rest of the day, they still have enough time to play and expand their vocabulary.
Maureen Palacios, the former owner of Time Bookstore, read to children in 2024.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
As for my son and reading suit, Roberts told me “Give him a try! Watch and see what happens.”
What is the best way for parents to get their young children to prepare for reading?
Early literacy rates are key to helping children learn to read, but “looks like what older people might think of.”
The skills of infants preparing to read begin to develop in the uterus as the infant listens to the familiar sounds around him and begins to make a connection between the sound and the meaning of the word. After birth, a baby is immediately immersed in words and rhythms as their caregivers coo, chat endlessly, sing lullaby.
Parents should start reading to babies early from soft fabrics and boards.
“Reading is really bent on your beloved legs,” Wolf said. He advised parents to read nighttime rituals with babies and surround them with letters and books to provide a wealthy environment.
When a parent reads a toddler a book such as “Pat the Bunny” and points out, “Oh, this is a bunny, bunnies have fur, pat the fur — that’s all early literacy,” said Linda Espinosa, a professor of education at the University of Missouri and co-chair of the committee who wrote a recent report on preschool curriculum for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Singing ABC with them, teaching colors, and having them play with magnetic letters on the refrigerator, also promoted the development of vocabulary and oral language, which was the basis for early literacy.
This is also to let the children roll, explore and play.
“When we talk about early literacy, we don’t usually think about physical development, but that’s one of the key components,” said Stacy Benge, author of “The Whole Kid Letter: How Young Kids Really Develop Literacy.” Crawling, catching a barrier through the floor, and even building a sense of balance are key to reading and writing, she said.
“At preschool age, we snatched them from these experiences to support direct instructions,” Benge said. “We worry that our kids have a lot of money behind.”
Some children may be interested in letters of their names and wish to copy them or point out words that start with the same sound. Many people will enter kindergarten already know some letters and sounds. But parents don’t need to work too hard.
“I would say parents, relax, talk to your kids, have them have a long conversation, read to them, take them where they go,” Neumann said.
As for the reading kit in my cabinet: “Don’t you want to just read to him and convey a love for his love? It really depends on how you want to spend your time,” Neuman said. “I’ll say don’t bother. Do something interesting.”
