How Effective Is Early Instruction in Reading? Experimental Evidence

Opinions differ greatly about the optimal age to begin formal reading instruction. The issue becomes especially pertinent in view of the great amount of time many young children now spend in preschools. In the studies reported here, the role of maturational factors in reading acquisition was investigated by way of exposing differently aged children to identical learning experiences. In Study 1, the 12 members of a kibbutz kindergarten class whose ages ranged from 5;2 to 7;0 were taught to decode. Within 4 calendar months the six older children but only one of the six younger ones acquired the rudiments of decoding. In Study 2, the five oldest and five youngest children in three different kindergartens were instructed by well-trained first-grade teachers under controlled conditions. There were significant differences in achievements among the two age groups. Study 3 was an examination of reading comprehension of first-graders and confirmed the results of the first two studies with regard to reading comprehension. Once again older children significantly outperformed younger ones.