Early Readers and Academic Success

Abstract

This study examined the degree to which the age that a child learns to read affects his or her future academic success. In recent years, society and school districts, as well as an increasing number of parents, have been urging children to read at earlier ages. Therefore, in order to investigate the research question, an extensive survey was developed and electronically dispersed to individuals eighteen years of age or older. The survey was completed by 220 respondents, collected, and evaluated. The survey results provided quantitative data on respondents’ demographic backgrounds as well as their childhood reading and academic histories. A significant number of respondents, 85%, said they regarded the age a child learns to read as important. Over 82% of early readers, ages three and four, described their overall academic success as either “Excellent” or “Very Good”, which was 12% higher than the respondents who did not learn to read until age six or older. The factors that were not impacted by the age the respondents learned to read was whether or not they went to college or earned advanced degrees. Therefore, while academic success is often perceived as getting good grades in school, is that really enough? The respondents who learned to read at an early age generally earned good grades in school, but that did not necessarily translate to being more likely to go to college or earn an advanced degree, which is a strong measure of overall academic success.