The psychological, social, and economic consequences of reading failure are legion. The majority, however, were initiated in the early and mid-1980s with youngsters at five years of age, and have studied these children longitudinally over the succeeding years.
Some children learn to read and write with ease.
Even before they enter school, they have developed an understanding that the letters on a page can be sounded out to make words. Some preschool children can even read words correctly that they have never seen before and comprehend what they have read. Research has shown that some of these children, before school, and without any great effort or pressure on the part of their parents, pick up books, pencils, and paper, and they are on their way, almost as though by magic. However, the magic of this effortless journey into the world of reading is available to only a relatively small percentage of our nation's children. The research literature suggests that about 50 percent learn to read relatively easily once exposed to formal instruction, and that youngsters in this group learn to read in any classroom, with any instructional emphasis.