Already Reading in Early Childhood: Issues of Identification, Accommodation and Collaboration

Abstract

Children who are precocious readers, or able to read at an unusually young age without having had formal instruction, have attracted considerable interest from literacy researchers (Henderson, Jackson & Mukamal, 1993). This is because precocious readers enable researchers to identify children's reading strategies and methods of decoding. This paper presents data on precocious readers as they transitioned into school from their early childhood education setting (see also Margrain, 1998). Primary questions considered include: how do precocious readers emerge? What role do parents play? And what happens when children who can already read go to school?

A fundamental premise of this study was that parents have valuable observational knowledge of their children. This study explored how the parents knowledge, including their recognition of their children's dispositions and abilities, as well as their responsiveness to, and advocacy for, their child, was utilized when children went to school already able to read.

A further purpose of this study was to examine whether international findings about precocious readers are pertinent to the New Zealand context. Since New Zealand-based research on examples of precocity is limited, results from other countries, such as the United States, often need to be called upon. It is important therefore to confirm whether findings from overseas are relevant to our own cultural setting.

This study explores a range of issues relating to transition to school including parents reports of the effects of beginning school on their children's emotional well-being and reading behaviour. It reports on the experience of transition to school for parents, including school consultation and collaboration, and teacher practices.