How and Why I Taught My Toddler to Read (2010)
I had friends who learned how to read when they were toddlers and it had literally no effect on them later in life other than that they were bored in school until everyone else had the chance to learn who did not have their parents expose them to this.<p>On the other hand I learned to read in kindergarten like most people but had trouble reading until late in 1st grade when it &quot;clicked&quot; rather quickly and from that point forwards I was reading a higher level than most of my classmates until things evened out over the period of several years. My point is that development happens at different paces for different people.<p>I would like to know if there are any pediatric studies on how this teaching affects a child and if trying to make them learn too early could have negative effects. Most parents just think &quot;the earlier the better&quot; because they can then talk to other parents and say &quot;did you know my kid is already reading.&quot; I don&#x27;t think this is necessarily a productive approach and when children are not able to live up to their parent&#x27;s expectations it can cause confidence issues.<p>Edit: I also have read more of this now and the author makes the point that children did not need to &quot;re-learn&quot; to read but from what I remember my friends did in fact have to re-learn because they had learned to memorize words, or read incorrectly some way or another so it was in fact more difficult for them as they had already learned bad habits.