Chapter 7 Reflection

The second question of the pre-reading anticipation guide for this chapter says “Early interventions should not be started too soon, because some students may simply need more time to mature.” I want this to be developed further. How soon is too soon? When does too soon become too late?
According to Sulzby, emergent literacy can be described as the reading and writing behaviors of young children that precede and develop into conventional literacy. I believe that a more straightforward definition is that emergent literacy is the reading and writing kids do before they actually know what they are doing. So this would include scribbling, looking at pictures of books, listening to stories, writing letters or trying to write letters, and similar activities.
The chapter includes a reference to a study where 5-year olds with little to know help before school have the same literacy development as 4-year olds with an enriched literacy background. I think that this study may be fairly true, but I know that there are always exceptions to the rule and that there are more studies out there with different results. I believe that the 4-year olds would be more advanced than the 5-year olds, not at the same level. I have a 3-year old son who is an emerging reader. He memorizes stories that have been read to him and he his making up stories to match pictures in books that he does not have memorized. He looks at the pictures to draw conclusions of what may be going on in the picture. I believe that 5-year olds with no previous literacy experience would not be at that level yet. I think that they can get there, but I would not put them on the same level as him.
I really believe that reading starts at home. It is great to be at a preschool or daycare where books are read and reading is encouraged, but if parents or guardians are not reading with their kids at home then the kids are missing out, and as a parent, I think the parents are missing out too. The experiences that parents can have with their children when reading are unbelievable. It is something that as an outsider looking in on the situation, it would be hard to understand and appreciate, but for me, as a student working towards becoming a teacher, and as a parent, when my son wants to read to me, it is the best feeling in the world. There is nothing like it to know that he wants to read and wants to be smart. I wish I would have wanted to do that at his age.