Why Early Reading Is
a Sign of Giftedness
Carol Bainbridge - Gifted Children Expert
Carol Bainbridge - Gifted Children Expert
Reading is an essential skill for someone to master to be
successful in school and in life.
It's no wonder, therefore, that so many parents work hard
to ensure that their children learn to read as soon as possible. Some parents
buy phonics DVDs, flash cards,
and start teaching their kids
at home almost from the day they bring their newborn baby
home from the hospital.
As a result of some of this early training, we see more
and more children who seem to be able
to read, so many in fact, that many people are beginning
to say that early reading
is no longer a sign that a child is gifted. But is that
true?
1. Cognitive
Development
To understand why and how early reading is a sign of giftedness,
we want to understand the cognitive development of children.
Most teachers have learned about Piaget's theory of this
development,
which is why so many don't believe parents who say their
children can do
more than other children of the same age.
For example, according to Piaget, children in the Concrete Operational Stage (ages 6-11),
can logically think about concrete things, things you can
see or touch,
but still can't manage to think logically about abstract
concepts, which include concepts like love, peace, and life. But parents of gifted kids know that their children may have been
thinking logically about those issues even before they were 6. More
»
2. Language
Development
The next step in understanding how early reading is a
sign of giftedness
is to understand the way children learn language.
Children do not need to be formally taught
how to speak. Learning a language requires nothing
more than exposure to language.
That just means that a child needs to hear people talk
and have people talk to him.
That development follows a typical development,
and children around the world will follow a similar
development. More »
3. Gifted
Children and Language Development
Most children follow a similar pattern of language
development and pass through the same stages, but gifted kids may go through those stages more
quickly than other children. Or they may seem to skip some stages, although it
is more likely that they simply progress through the stages differently. For
example, a gifted child might not speak until he is two years
old,
but then speak in complete sentences. It may look
as though the child skipped over
the two word expressions, like "Me cookie," but
they may simply have not expressed those ideas when their language development was at that stage.
More importantly, though, some gifted children progress through those
stages more quickly,
speaking in full sentences long before their age mates do. More »
4. How Do
Children Learn to Read?
Learning language, even at an advanced rate, is one
thing, but learning to read is something
else altogether. Learning to speak is a natural skill,
while learning to read is a skill
that must be taught. Not only does it have to be taught,
but the brain must be sufficiently developed before a child can learn the
skill. A child cannot learn to walk until his muscles
are sufficiently developed. We can support a child and
help him learn to walk,
but until his muscles are strong enough, he isn't going
to be able to do it on his own.
The same is true of reading. We can help a child memorize
words,
but until his brain is sufficiently developed, he is not
going to be able to read. More
»
5. The Role
of Memory in Reading
The first thing people might think of when they think
about memory and reading
is that children need to memorize the alphabet and
memorize words.
That, however, is just the beginning of what children
need to be able to do in order to learn
how to read. Learning
the alphabet and the sounds
letters represent is just the beginning.
Even memorizing words really isn't enough for a child to
become a fluent reader.
A reader must be able to remember what he read at the
beginning of a sentence
before reaching the end of a sentence, what he read at
the beginning of a paragraph
before reaching the end and so on.
6.
Self-Taught Reader
It should be clear unless a child's brain has matured
sufficiently,
he won't be able to read fluently. That requires
much more than memorization.
It requires the ability to comprehend the meanings of the
words, and the sentences,
and the paragraphs, and the whole story. Reading is a
difficult skill to master
when it is being formally taught, and many children have
a hard time reaching fluency
when they are in
third grade. If a child reaches fluency before age five
after having been taught to read, there's a good chance
the child is advanced,
since his brain has to have reached a sufficient level of
maturity. But if a child has taught himself without any formal
instruction, there really can't be any question about his giftedness
You can TCR specialist and language dictionaries that
are spontaneously
accessed.
I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what
I’ve read.
I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.
A
practical overview of
Turbo Charged Reading YouTube
How to choose a
book. A Turbo Charged Reading
YouTube
Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like
to join my FaceBook group ?
Perhaps you’d like to check
out my sister blogs:
www.innermindworking.blogspot.com
gives many ways for
you to work with the stresses of life
www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com
take advantage of business experience and expertise.
www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com
just for fun.
To quote the Dr Seuss
himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn; the
more places you'll go.”
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