Now will you leave our children in peace?
At the end of last year, I blogged on the stupidity of pushing literacy on children at ever-younger ages, often before they are ready for it. Today, a report from a leading New Zealand university shows that early reading makes no difference to the reading age of children at the age of 11. The author of the report states that he believes that forcing children to read at a young age may breed resentment, which can put them off reading for life.
Sue Palmer, an author and former head teacher, told the Telegraph: “The evidence is clear. Children start later in Scandinavian countries and still outperform British children later on, yet we seem obsessed with doing everything at an increasingly early age. The way things are going, we will start to have phonics lessons in maternity units if we’re not careful.”
Our daughter, now 13, grew up in a house full of books and was reading at an earlyage – although we didn’t realise that she could read until she started at nursery. All of us are delighted that she has continued to read prolifically, enjoying fiction and non-fiction alike. But not every child enjoys reading at a young age. Forcing them to progress through whatever reading scheme is in vogue (we hated Chip, Biff and the rest of the Oxford Reading Tree) is painful for all and risks depriving children of a love and enjoyment of real books in their future lives.
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