Why Is There Such a Push for Early Reading?

Because everyone wants their kid to be ahead of the next kid, so their kid can go to Harvard or some such thing. I also think a lot of it has to do with money making enterprises.

I don't get the push for 4 year olds to write. It's not like they have the means to spell enough words to write Grammy a letter, so why do they need to write their letters?

Honestly, using a reading program / lessons when my son was a toddler never crossed my mind.
We just cuddled up and enjoyed story time together, and we had story time just about any time any where.
I read him every Dr Seuss book till we both had them memorized.
He learned reading in school starting in kindergarten and it finally really took off for him the 2nd half of 2nd grade.
By 3rd grade he was reading Harry Potter on his own.
And most of the rest of elementary school he was reading a lot of middle school level stories.
I think it's more important to help them love reading than to force it too early on them.
It takes a lot of time, but he's in 7th grade now and I am SO MISSING all those Dr Seuss books we use to read together.

I AM a teacher but my children all were ready to read by the time they were three. They were reading on their own by 4. They are all a year ahead of their peers. Teach the child to read early only if they are ready. This should not be a force issue otherwise they won't like to read later.

Hooked on Phonics, Yes Your Baby Can Read, Sylvan, Kumon and all the other companies that are out there to make a profit on two things that really drive American parents: fear and ego.
Fear that their child will somehow fail or get left behind,
and the ego of being able to show off how "smart" their offspring are.
Corporate America is really good at reading the market and creating a product for it. Parents these days are RIDICULOUSLY easy to sell to, especially young and/or otherwise insecure parents, it's so sad :(

I teach high school English (AP Language), and I just posted on your other question. I agree with everyone else here. There is no reason to push children to read so early. Reading to them early is fabulous, but pushing them to learn to read at an early age seems silly. Now, some children are going to read early simply because that is a natural strength for them, and they are going to pick it up as their parents read to them, but all of these companies marketing to parents - it's nuts!

Parents are so competitive from the moment children are born, wanting to compare how long each child sleeps through the night, who potty trains earlier, who reads first, who is tested for G/T classes, who is better in sports, who gets the best SAT scores - it never ends.

We need to encourage and support our children, but not push them because of our own competitiveness.

ya know, about 15 years ago i was on an aol forum (i know, i'm geezing!) and had the gall to state that i thought the insane emphasis on kids reading so young was...well, insane. i got TOASTED! scores of people landing on me with both feet for being neglectful, embarrassing, disgraceful, calls to have my kids removed from my custody, insults, my sanity questioned.
really ugly.
i cannot tell you how thrilled i am to be here lo these many years later and see all these sane, thoughtful, sensible mothers who are encouraging their children to love books rather than force-feeding them from infancy.
yay, moms!
:) khairete
S.

I am an early intervention specialist (master's degree) and I agree with Mom2girls. I think so many parents pressure their children not only in this area but also sports and other activities. Others know this and exploit it with advertising for things like "your baby can read." It is more about parents bragging than what is good for children.

I used to be a kindergarten teacher and also a Vice Principal. I can tell you that this early reading idea comes from society and our constant enthusiasm to "one up" everyone else and do it through showing off our kids. In some ways, setting high goals and expectations for our children can be a good thing if each expectation or goal has a meaningful purpose and is not self-directed. Reading is a gift. It makes us literate and opens every door and window to the world we know. We take reading for granted because we think that everyone can read or eventually will learn to read someday. As an educator, I know this is not the case. reading is a gift and a learned one at that. I think that each parent should spend time each day teaching their kids in some way...whether that be through life experiences, play, teaching consequences and manners, coloring, drawing, or singing a new song. However, I strongly believe that children under age 5 or kindergarten age do not need to be barraged to read or use phonics to learn to read before they start school. It is much more important to teach your child life skills such as sharing, listening, helping others, and the rules of the road when it comes to respecting other people. In my mind, this kind of teaching is far more important than a child learning to read at age three or four! Take it from me....I have taught over 400 kindergarten students in my career and that includes the learning to read part. Without life skills and respect, even the greatest teacher cannot help a child learn to read until they learn to listen, share, help others, and know self-control. I hope there are some other educators who will comment on your question....and I hope they will tell the TRUTH!

Because people don't realize that a reading toddler

- puts you on accidental suicide watch until impulse control sets in several years down the road

- that reading is to books what parenting is to family in white shorts skipping on the beach holding hands (reading is EVERYTHING... Billboards, gossip rags at the checkout counter, newspaper headlines, instruction manuals -hint: toddler + power tool maual = Bad-, medicine cap instructions, profanity in bathrooms, junk mail, etc. If you don't see the problem inherent with a 2yo wanting to know what 101 Sex Tips to keep your man, prostitution scandal rocks _______, Genocide, to open push down and twist, to operate plug in and... Then there is no hope.

- Thay CONTENT of books is via reading level. When you have a 5yo reading at a middle school level? Just TRY and find 'appropriate' books.

- That the first 3 years in school are focused heavily on learning to read and being bored in school is NOT the way to encourage academic success.

- Etc. The list goes on but these are the more vexing points.

Mom of a fluent reader (3rdth-7th grade level) @ age 3. Not something I tried for, I just needed an hour off a day (ADHD extrovert kid = no rest) and my son fell in love with starfall.com. Which is a GREAT site, but the unfortunate side effect is fluently reading kids.

I think it is silly and don't see that it matters when they read. Of course we should read to them from when they are babies. It is hugely important for babies to hear language to learn it. But after that.... I was reading before kindergarten as was DH. His brother didn't read until late first grade and still managed a PhD from Yale :). The Waldorf schools don't teach reading until the kids are 7 and the Scandinavian countries start 'late' too and still 'beat us' when we compare outcomes (however you choose to measure it). I think kids read when their brains are ready. That said - I DO believe you can teach a child to dislike school and learning. And that this push for 'academics' in preschool and kindergarten is setting them up for that (as well as obesity and inactivity).

I don't know where the idea comes from but I hate seeing parents put so much pressure on little children. It's like parents feel the need to one up everyone.

Why push it if a child does not care for structured lessons at 3 &4? Children need to learn through active play and interaction with other children vs being drilled daily so parents feel superior to other parents.

I don't get it, my daughter is 17 and that type of pressure was not around when she was a toddler. Even if it had been, I would not have fallen for the gimmick.

Children grow at different levels and ages. Usually they even out within a couple of years. I like to see a well rounded, stable children vs stressed out children freaking out because a score is not perfection.

I've subbed at the elementary level over 10 yrs. and I see a lot of parents pressuring children. It's sad because it's those children I end up spending teacher time consoling because they didn't get a perfect score on something.

There is plenty of time for children to develop normally and exceed in life. They don't need this extra pressure.

Just my two cents.

I just want to say thank you for your post. It is refreshing to read all of the responses. Children have their whole lives to be "grown up", not enough time being a kid. Reading to your children is wonderful, for you and the child. So is going on an outing with one another, pointing things out to one another sharing thoughts and enjoying time with one another. They learn so much from every day life and exposure to life is just as important as reading, not that this was the question just my 2 cents.

I wish people would all "slow down" in general. Sometimes I wonder if I was meant to live in a different era :) Thanks again for the post.

Take care

There are so many reasons I can give about this but it'd take forever. So let me just say this, which is only a small piece of the puzzle: Students were dropping out of school in the 50's and 60's and It was thought in the 60's that learning to read earlier would get children to stay in school which of course has been proven a big mistake. And so there was started a big campaign to start everything early, Head-start, etc. which at first was only geared toward inner city children living in very bad conditions and not getting the proper nutrition, care, love or any proper parenting (most, not each). Parents that were having children one after the other to gain more monies in their welfare checks, parents not interested in raising healthy, responsible adults. It was found that these children were often very limited in their attention span and so the answer was to give them quick and short songs and such for the letters, numbers etc. and the sooner the better. The thought was that the sooner and more we can get in the more they would learn and want to continue to learn. But this has back fired big time. This spread into the educational system at large since and has taken on all kinds of aspects and damaging results. In fact the experiments and results that the system has done over time has been proven wrong time and time again and yet they insist on doing this way anyhow. The whole public has been brought into the lies. In the late 60's or early 70's the german government decided to try our way of educating the young. They hurried one set of schools along into early reading etc. and let the other groups continue with more play, singing, rhyming verses, more non-academic and learning through doing and they found in one years time the hurried children were much slower in their thinking, stressed, nervous and many displaying the beginnings of learning disorders. They went back to their old way of early educating. The way it is done in this country and others to give children an early start follows the notion that this will make them smarter faster, benefit them academically and later professionally and be first and more likely to prosper. We live in a supper competitive world so many people fall for this idea that quicker is better, especially when it is seen that children can learn early on. But enough evidence is out now (Harvard has mounds of evidence that the most of the public knows nothing of) that shows the dangers of learning academics too young, too soon. (I cannot go into all of this obviously here) For one thing, children introduced to academics early seemed to be at an advantage in the beginning but as time passes they lose this and many are unable to learn higher academics and later in life they are less personally satisfied with their lives and less socially integrated. The Scandinavian countries start their children later in formal schooling, 6 1/2 to 7 years, and have for a long time. Education in these countries is actual education, not training like it is here. At one time our system was the same and it has been known for hundreds, thousands of years that a child begins formal education at around 7 years. This is natural and normal for many reasons. It was also known that the relationship with the teacher was imperative, that love of the teacher for the child was everything. (but of course, at one time most people weren't formally educated either -- still these aspects are nevertheless archtypical) But since the early 1900's children start earlier and it just keeps getting earlier and earlier. This is very slowly changing. To start educating a child into early reading and the like is too much too soon and is at best misguided and at worst counterproductive and damaging. Remember too that public school teachers only know what they're trained to do by the government and are employed by the government -- unless of course they choose to expand themselves and question and venture into studies that show other and truer methods for truly educating a child. Also the word education itself is an ancient Greek word meaning To draw out. Our system pretends that children are buckets waiting to be filled. Reverence for education and the child is required for real learning to happen. "Wisdom begins in Wonder" --Socrates

There is so much I could go on about -- these are not just opinions -- many educators have more knowledge on this and many parents are questioning and gathering knowledge. There are many good books you can read on this - many mainstream, many not so mainstream. If you read about what the school system is really about you'd be horrified - even most teachers aren't aware. The system runs on this manifesto phrase which is updated periodically, "the purpose of the public educational system is to separate child from parent."

Also, you may want to check out the alliance for childhood. If you're feeling pressured about this just try to relax and let go. And remember no one is going to ask your child as an adult when he learned to read any more than anyone will ask when he was potty trained. Some people believe if a child can read early they will automatically become a productive, intelligent person but this isn't usually true. And so if a young child is a good drinker we should give him beer or champagne?

Take this as you will. This is only a very small bit of what is really happening concerning early reading and or academics, some reports say it has led to much more crime over the last 40 years. I hope this has helped in some way. Personally, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have worried at all when my child didn't read as soon as others or thought it was so great that my other child taught himself to read at 4 years old. I mean this all in good intent and in good spirit.
The best to you

These early to read programs were not around when I was a child. My mom read to me all the Golden Book series. Each week she would buy a new one and we would read it. There were several I know she got tired of reading but I loved them and one was "The Three Little Kittens."

We would always buy books. Once we went to a second hand shop and I picked out a book by Robert Lewis Stevenson and I read most of it. In fact one day I took it to school and my teacher wanted to know what I was reading and I showed it to her and she said to keep reading it.

The spelling tests that were done on Fridays were easy to me. I would write down the word on Monday and take the test on Friday never once looking at the words and 100. So there is some method to the madness of reading to your child. I do recall the annual testing for reading and comprehension and math in the late 50s but they are not like the tests of today. We were grouped into sections of likeness and learned with some of us being at the top and some of us being at the bottom of the section. This way you didn't get discouraged because Sally was always getting it right and you were always getting it wrong. Now everyone has to be the same "equal" in learning.

All of these new "techniques" are ways to separate you from your money in the guise that you will do anything to "improve" your child's chances of getting a better education. Save the money and get a few books and read them together. Let the child help you read the book back to you. I always told my kids to look for the little words that they knew to sound out the bigger word (rat, cat, hat, dog). To this day they often thank me for that little clue.

The other S.

I agree that is caused by parent's fear and competitiveness.

There is recent scientific research on children's brain development that should be discouraging us from expecting every child to be able to read at a young age. My daughter was well below "grade-level" in reading until 3rd grade. Her teachers were threatening to have her labeled with a learning disability, even though her comprehension and vocabulary were fantastic because we read to her every day since she was a baby (her father read the entire Harry Potter series to her!). During 3rd grade she made incredible progress and by the end scored at 99th percentile in reading! There was no magic to this, no special tutoring, just a little girl's developing brain.

Now, she loves to read and reads all the time. I was afraid this wouldn't happen because she kept hearing at school that she wasn't a "good reader" and was quite down on herself because of it in the earlier grades.

We need to reset our expectations and accept our children's differences.

My girls are in high school. Just currious, is there a huge push to "teach your child to read" or "to read to your child"? I beleive that you should start reading to your child at age 6 months. The benefits are tremendous. When my kids were in elementary school over 1/2 the kids could not read at grade level, that may be the reason for the big push.

I do NOT beleive you should teach a child to read before age 5. This doesn't mean that you can't start teaching things like letters and the sounds they make or some of the sight words.

Momof2 is right on..

There is not a push.. It is just companies wanting more clients and parents that think that somehow their child will have some advantage.

Every child is different and needs different things at different times.
Never under estimate your child, but also follow their lead.

If your child shows an interest in reading, go with it, same with writing, dressing themselves, potty training, riding a bike, making choices (that are safe).. go for it.

Offer and see how they respond.. But do not become frustrated, if they are just not into that activity.

We just had to allow our child to be on her own schedule and her own needs. Sometimes she was behind others..

She did not potty train till almost 4.. Had NO interest and totally resisted.

Could not tie her own shoes until she was 5 and a half and was already in kinder.

But she walked unassisted at 6 months, spoke in full sentences before she was 1 year old..

I had no idea she could read on her own at 4,, it was purely an accident I found out.. She told me she was afraid I would quit reading to her if she could read on her own! I have no idea how long she had been able to read..

I teach my kids the same way Mom taught me - I read books to them. Lots. That's it. They are reading ahead of their peers. Did they read at 18 mos? Umm no. Definitely not! :) I think the MOST important thing is to cultivate that love of reading when they are young with lots of interesting stories and colorful books. The rest comes naturally....

I for one do not believe in preschool. Both my kids went to daycare. My oldest is in 2nd grade reading at a middle school reading level. Which had nothing to do with me teaching him to read. We read all the time even before school started. He did not know how to read when he started Kindergarten. My daughter is starting kindergarten this year and cannot read. Although she knows all her letters and can write a few words. Nothing structured in terms of teaching her. I just believe that you need to let your kids be kids and not worry so much about what they need to learn or not before starting school. They will be in school for 13 years and even more after graduating high school. That's a lot of time spend in a classroom learning. You can certainly teach them things but make it fun

I suggest the push is coming from the commercial enterprises selling material so that you can teach early reading. This is definitely one of many things that you must decide for yourself whether or not it's useful.

I love your answer, Riley. A bouquet of flowers to you!

Jane, Riley is brilliant. Enjoy the depth of her answer.

Dawn

I don't mean to come off sounding wacky, but it's all part of the lies we believe as a worldly society.
Like the lie that we can control literally everything including our children's destinies.
That if we somehow get them to do everything earlier and better than everyone else, that they will get only the best education, get into the best college, immediately get a high paying job upon graduation, marry a trophy spouse and have trophy kids, and live happily ever after.

All because WE or the SCHOOL got them to excel earlier than people did in the past. And pushed them harder and faster.

Watch the documentary, "Race to Nowhere".

Also, realize, kids bloom when they bloom. Some are ready to read when they are 3, yet, I had one child who it just didn't click until he was almost 7. And he is an incredibly strong student academically. You just never know God's plan for these kids.
We need to let kids be kids, they all have their own unique giftings and talents, learning strenghts/weaknesses, etc. No govt. run education program cares about your student as an individual, they just want numbers and results, and we need to see through that, and do what is best for our kids.

I did not push for either of my children ages 8 and 5 to read however my 8 year old could read by age 2/3 and my 5 year old who is autistic and nonverbal can read albeit we're not sure to what degree. However, I fully agree with not pushing young children to read but I do not agree with waiting until they are in kindergarten to introduce basic reading concepts. It saddens me that in my 2nd grade daughter's class about 1/3 are actually still having a very hard time grasping kindergarten level books. I feel too many parents these days assume it is solely the school's responsibility to teach reading.

I think kids grow up way to fast these days and have to much pressure way to young. Why cants kids be kids, and learn how to go outside and play. Dig in the dirt, learn about animals and bugs, the weather?
I strongly feel that our kids will learn when the time comes. And at the same pace as their peers. For goodness sake, they will be in school 17 or more years. Plenty of time to learn.
I agree with other posts that some feel the need to one up, and I think the kids are feeling the same pressure. That they have to read better, count better, add better, draw better.
They need to learn that a great effort is just as impostant and you CANT BE GOOD AT EVERYTHING. You need to constantly try and, learn and be a good sport and friend about it.
Im glad to hear Im not the only one- not to push!

Good Luck!