Quote Originally Posted by Cataholic View Post
I have always heard that the early readers, or talkers, or writers of their name, all pretty much balance out by the 5th grade. Like early walkers..not exactly a fortelling of great physical prowess. I am curious, what did you go on to do after that? AND- I don't mean that in any insulting way..just curious. Did you then go on to skip grades? Graduate from high school at 15? Graduate college at 18, etc.?

I learned to read at a more "normal" time...and to this day, read, read and read- 4 books a week is not unusul for me. I love to read. I graduated college and law school at 'normal' times, enjoyed school ok in general, didn't do overly well, etc. But, I read like a fool.

That is where my curiosity comes from. What did such an early start in reading do for you? Are you still an avid reader? I can remember, as a kid, literally- looking around me for cereal boxes to read at breakfast. I read the wall of stuff at J's school last night, while waiting for a parent's meeting to begin. I. Must. Read.
But, I was not an early reader by any means.
I don't think being an early reader give students an advantage per se, but research shows that being exposed to books, text, and lots of adult conversation gives students a big advantage in school. Kids who have a rich environment before school learn things like phonemic awareness and how print looks before they begin K, and tend to have larger vocabularies (in many cases this is true throughout academic careers).

I agree with IRescue452 that too many parents just turn on the TV instead of helping their kids. Schools cannot (and should not) do everything. Parents actually need to do their job, too. I have a relative whose kid has reading comprehension problems that has been brought up repeatedly in conferences, and the parents do absolutely nothing to help him despite the fact the teacher has given them numerous tips, help, etc. They were also offered FREE tutoring twice a week after school and didn't take it because they didn't want to have to pick him up from school (1 mile away) instead of having the bus take him. That is just lazy and ignorant IMO. This is actually not that uncommon either in my experience. At what point are parents responsible for their own child's grades?