Windows of Opportunity for Readers

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"This window of opportunity also explains why one of the strongest predictors of a child's reading ability in school os the amount of one-to-one conversation between caregiver and child in the first three years of life.

The ability to differentiate sounds is the first crucial step to the path to associating sounds with letters. Kids who don't learn to distinguish sounds during that time usually have trouble learning to read later on.

Reading's first lessons don't happens in school: They happen in the crib during that important window of opportunity."

- David Walsh, PhD. No: Why Kids - of all Ages - Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It. Free Press, Toronto. 2007. pg 45