You Need /r/ /ee/ /d/ to Read - News Features & Releases.
But, she adds, that doesn't mean learning to read should be rushed, as has increasingly been the case with competitive parents in the United States, where it's not uncommon for preschoolers to begin the formal reading process. In contrast, in place like Finland, students don't start learning to read until the age of seven, says Thomson, and then it takes only about three months to learn. "In the United States [where we start earlier]," she says, "it takes two-plus years."
And it certainly can't happen, no matter what age, by just using a bunch of flash cards, as guaranteed by popular your-baby-can-read TV ads. Children really do need guided instruction when their brains are ready for the task. As Wolf says, each of the neural networks and systems that a reading brain connects to first needs to be fully developed, and developed in a certain order. Otherwise, an emerging reader will struggle and become frustrated with reading, and at best, only memorize. This development is affected by something called myelin -- a fatty sheath coating the axons, the primary transmission lines for the nervous system. The more myelin around the axon, the faster the nerve cells work. Although each sensory and motor region is myelinated before a person turns five -- the visual nerves myelinate by six months, for example -- the regions in the brain that support reading, such as the angular gyrus, which supports language comprehension, doesn't myelinate until at least five years old, and often more slowly in boys.
So while parents and caregivers should support and nurture these systems through fun, pre-reading exercises such as making up rhymes, singing, and playing with language, they shouldn't feel that it is a reflection of their caregiving skills if their child hasn't mastered learning to read independently by the time the fifth birthday party rolls around. It's a process.
As Mason points out, "We're all, in some sense, continuing to develop our reading skills. If you gave me a book on astrophysics, I'd be sounding it out, too."
