Band 4+: Children who start reading earlier in life, perform better later on in their school studies. How important are early reading skills in a child’s academic performance? What other preschool factors influence a child’s later academic achievements?

To begin with, reading is a very important thing in our time. It’s unlikely that you will meet anyone who doesn’t know how to read. Unless, perhaps, in a remote area from civilisation.

Basically, children learn how to read between the ages of six and eight, and after that, they just improve their skills. They do this in order to learn the material, which is mainly presented in writing. And in my opinion, since they can understand written material earlier, it is certainly easier for them to study later in life. Equally important, teaching the child numbers and counting will also have a positive effect on his understanding of the school curriculum. For example, I started learning maths and reading when I was very young, around the age of four. I had a positive effect on my memory – pretty much easier for me to remember anything.

Also, it made it easier for me to study in elementary school and affected my marks. As an another example, I will take my brother, who was almost not prepared before school. Right now he’s in the fourth grade of elementary school, and I honestly, can’t say that he knows as much as I knew when I was his age. Nonetheless, my brother’s success in understanding the material is much lower than I had.

All in all, it’s better to prepare child before educational institution. The faster he starts to get an education regarding their ability to read and count, the faster his brain will begin to develop. And as practice shows, this will never be superfluous.