To Read or Not To Read... That is the Question

So Maryanne Wolf brings up a very good question in Part 2 Chapter 4, and that is the question that every parent asks, "When do I teach my child to read?" In my family alone, my new cousins are getting older, and its coming close to that point when they start asking, is it two soon to teach my child to start to read? And my answer to them is..."is it?" I have no idea. I guess I never really considered it there was a "right" or "wrong" age to teach your child to read. I simply figured that was school was for, so maybe they should start reading when they are in kindergarten. Wolf bring up this common theme "as soon as children begin to name the letters of the alphabet, the question arises whether they should learn to read "early." Because most parents believe that if their child starts learning to read early, they will have an advantage later on in school.

But really what it all comes down to is the brain. "Reading depends on the brain's ability to connect and integrate various sources of information." (94) And typcially the "principal regions of the brain that  underlie our ability to ingrate visual, verbal, and auditory information rapidly-like the angular gyrus-are not fully myelinated in humans until five years of age and after." (95)

myelinated= myelination = myelin (definition from wikipedia.com ) Myelin is a dielectric (electrically insulating) material that forms a layer, the myelin sheath, usually around only the axon of a neuron. It is essential for the proper functioning of the nervous system. Myelin is an outgrowth of a glial cell. The production of the myelin sheath is called myelination. The production of myelin occurs in the fourteenth week of fetal development, while very little amounts of myelin exist in the brain at the time of birth. During infancy myelination occurs quickly and does not stop until the adolescent stages of life.

Studies in Europe have shown that children who are asked to begin reading at the age of five, did not do as good at the children who were asked to start reading at the age of seven.  So in my opinion, as parents, we should not rush our child to do something before the developmental time it should be done. But this doesn't mean you can't teach your child other things their alphabet and numbers. But for the rest, "there are excellent biological reasons why reading comes in its own good time, "(96) and their is no need to rush is too early in a child's life.

I leave you with this last quote from ms Scout, from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird...."Reading was something that just came to me...I could not remember when the lines about Atticus's moving finger separated into words, but I had stared at them all the evenings in my memory--anything Atticus happened to be reading when I crawled into his lap every night. Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. "