Reading Early

OK, I have a question: Does the age at which a child learns to read affect their eyesight? There's someone on one of the homeschooling websites insisting that children who learn to read at an early age (ie before are somehow more prone to myopia. They keep citing some non-medical/scientific people called the Moore's. Is anyone here married to or know an opthomologist? Could you guys ask your spouses if they've ever heard of this and whether or not it is based in reality? Jon learned to read at 3 and has near-perfect vision. I learned to read at 6 and have severe myopia. I am NOT going to stop my kids from learning to read early (ie when they want to), but I wanted to know if this is based in science or imagination! Thanks!!!



Jennifer

That should be "before 8 " in my post and came out as a greamlin -



Jennifer

[DCJenn]

Jennifer-



I just asked Rick and he says that in his few years experience as a pediatrician he has never seen this!



Jenn

[mommax3]

The Moores (Raymond and Dorothy, I think) are proponents of keeping kids out of school until at least age 8, from what I recall. A lot of homeschoolers follow their philosophy. They have a book called "Better Late Than Early" that ariticulates their philosophy. Obviously, cautioning that early reading causes myopia would fit in with their general mindset -- other than that, I have never heard of this either.



Sally

Thanks, Sally! I think that what these people are referring to is "meta-research". The Moores took other people's studies and drew their own conclusions of the research findings - and seem to have jumped to quite a few conclusions that the research did not prove. I HATE it when people tout incredibly unscientific things as "science" or credible research!



Jennifer