I utilize multi-sensory learning techniques to teach babies and toddlers throughout the world to read. Today, I am in Scotland for the Scottish Baby Show and preparing to be interviewed by Scottish TV News about early language development.

In my previous posting, I described the fundamentals of multi-sensory learning, which is to employ as many of a baby’s sensory systems as possible while they are experiencing the world around them. These methods have been used to successfully teach babies as young as nine months old to read. Studies show there are many advantages to early reading. In this posting, I am going to list some of the most important advantages.

The following are key benefits a child can derive from early reading:

• Early readers stay ahead of children who are taught later in life.
• Some research indicates that the gap between early readers and later readers actually increases over time. This is sometimes known as the “Matthews Effect” where rich learners get richer and poor learners get poorer.
• Studies from all areas of language (spoken language, second languages, sign language, receptive language, etc.) show that it’s easier to learn the patterns of language early in childhood compared to later in childhood.
• The window for learning language begins to close by age four.
• Reading is the most important skill a child learns.
• Reading increases learning skills and it helps children succeed both in school and later in life.
• Children who enter school with reading skills have higher self-esteem than children who cannot read when they enter school.
• Children who are taught to read earlier prefer to read more than children who are taught at age five or later.
• A Yale University study says “activating children’s neural circuitry for reading early on is key.”
• It’s likely the baby brain will develop more efficiently for reading when the child learns to read early in childhood compared to later in childhood.
• The current methods of teaching reading and the age where it begins are not working for hundreds of millions of children around the world.
• Teaching reading earlier may eliminate most reading problems according to a U.S. National Panel of Reading Specialists and Early Childhood Educators.
• Better readers are more likely to stay in school than poor readers.

– By Dr. Robert C. Titzer