Education
Advanced Readers We continue our series of educational parenting articles on ‘Raising Bright Sparks’. How to recognize, support and extend our brightest kids.
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n early interest in books, letters and words, accompanied by an ability to memorise well, frequently results in gifted children being able to read at an earlier age than other children. Early reading is one of the characteristics of gifted children. Some gifted children learn to read by themselves, initially reading signs in their environment; however they rapidly progress to reading books, often reading fluently before parents realise their child is able to read. Not all gifted children learn to read prior to school but if not, they tend to make rapid progress with reading once they are taught how to read.
The complexity and importance of reading Reading is a complex skill that depends upon the brain’s ability to visually decode words. Reading requires activation of a network that connects different areas of the brain and does not occur
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until a child is cognitively ready to read. Some children, including intellectually gifted children, may struggle with reading well after starting school, indicating the need for an assessment to investigate the possibility of a learning disability. There are many benefits associated with reading for any child. Theodor Geisel, well known as Dr Seuss, wrote for children: “The more you read, the more things you will know, the more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Mariah Evans, a sociologist from the University of Nevada identified that children raised in homes with five hundred books are likely to progress an average of 3.2 years further in education than children who have not have as much exposure to books, highlighting that early development of literacy skills predicts completion of higher education.
Benefits of early reading There are additional cognitive and educational benefits when a child learns early to read by
Your Local Families Magazine - February/March 2016
themselves. Stuart Ritchie and Timothy Bates from the University of Edinburgh found that early reading was associated with higher intelligence scores, academic motivation and duration of education. These researchers, together with Robert Plomin from King’s College, London, confirmed that early readers develop higher levels of intelligence and achieve greater successes in life. The link between intelligence, language acquisition and reading skills is clear. As the brain acquires language, the neural structure changes and develops the individual’s capacity to think, analyse information, synthesise ideas and create. Language builds the brain’s capacity for thought. Steven Stahl, the author of books about teaching vocabulary, said: “We use words to think; the more words we know, the finer is our understanding of the world.” Coaching and the use of ‘word pedometers’ have been trialled to increase the quantity and quality of vocabulary