Myth 7: Kids who learn to read early start off at an advantage, but end up the same as their peers.

In fact, studies have shown that children who learn to read earlier (at age three or four) maintain their advantage over children who learn at an average age (five or six) or late age (seven or eight) for as long as eight years.

What’s more, being able to read well from an early age has an impact on learning as a whole. Since reading is the gateway to acquiring knowledge, early readers have a head start when it comes to learning just about anything.

This has a tendency to make them perform better in a range of academic subjects.

For more on the scientific support for early reading, go to The Promise of Early Reading, part of the Why Teach Reading Early? article on BrillBaby.

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On to myth number 8…