<p>I heard someone saying that one can never become a great reader if one weren’t a regular reader since one were very young, before 13 years old. Starting to read when one is in high school or beyond will not make much difference.
Is this true?
Once you pass the certain age range, will it be really impossible to be a great reader?</p>
<p>I think reading regularly from a young age is of utmost importance. Once I hit middle school, I stopped reading regularly, and to be honest…I still read and write WAY more effectively than the majority of my peers in college. Obviously, devouring books in elementary school really cemented skills in me that just couldn’t be “lost,” although I have certainly experienced periods of weakening or strengthening of said skill depending on what and how much I read.</p>
<p>But I disagree that one can’t “gain” skill from practicing reading later in life. I’m just looking at my own personal experience, but I think that yes, compared to someone who has started reading earlier, you’re going to appear to lack “natural” talent, i.e. they might not have read a book in years but may still turn out a better paper than you. Also, it’s going to take these people less work to improve their pre-existing skill than it might take a person who missed that “critical period.” If you work hard at it, though, there’s no reason you can’t be a “really great” reader, although that takes years of consistently reading well-written novels (so don’t expect a change overnight). It’s like becoming fluent in a second language - easier for a kid to do, but certainly not impossible for somebody picking it up late.</p>
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Thanks for your post, groovinhard. You give me hope. Just out of curiosity, do you know of anyone who started reading after critical period but still managed to be as good as or better than those who started at the critical period (the time before or during kindergarten and elementary school) and continued to read constantly up through high school and beyond?</p>
<p>My niece didn’t start French until 9th grade and is amazingly fluent now, she converses normally with French native speakers about all sorts of esoterica. :)</p>
<p>Not true. My son is dyslexic and did not learn to read until age 11 – he became an avid reader and always has a book – he likes “deep” or complex stuff - for example, he read a lot of Dostoevsky on his own in high school. My d. was a precocious early reader who could read anything at age 4… but she doesn’t read much on her own for pleasure. She reads very quickly and finds it easy to keep up in college – but she is simply not a bookish person.</p>
<p>In a way, I think that my son’s early difficulties contributed to his love of reading – for him it was like a forbidden fruit and once he could read, he really cherished the ability and already had formed a long list in his mind of books he wanted to read. In contrast, I think my daughter’s early reading caused some frustration – she read so well that children’s books geared to her age level were boring, but books geared to her reading level had subject matter that was beyond her ability to truly appreciate – so she came to take reading for granted as a way to get information, but not as a particularly pleasurable activity. </p>
<p>In hindsight - at age 13 my son was reading far more sophisticated and deep material than my daughter did at the same age (in terms of independent reading). It’s all about motivation.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe. OTOH I think it’s similar to my ability to draw which an art teacher used to describe as a “practiced hand”. Others in his drawing course made incredible strides, but it’s hard to catch up with someone who has spent thousands of hours drawing. You just don’t have the hours to put into it. I think the problem is similar when you are trying to catch up with a devoted reader. My older son read about 100 books a year in high school and probably nearly as many the years before that as well. Luckily I think with reading there is some level that is pretty darn good. You can become a faster reader with good comprehension.</p>
<p>My family is more like calmom’s. When I taught my daughter to read, her three year old brother was sitting there learning too, and he could read by three. However, she reads classics and much more than he does. He scored higher on Verbal SAT’s, but she has read Anna Karenina. He has no problem reading the Aeneid in Latin (well, he has some problems, but he enjoys it) but he rarely reads for his own pleasure.</p>
<p>My brother read only comic books until he was about 14, and now he is an avid reader.</p>
<p>It may be hard to actually learn how to read once a window closes, but “getting the bug” can happen at any time.</p>
<p>I used to read constantly, everything, anything, it was the family joke, but now I’m often on CC with my reading time.</p>