Nancy Ewald Jackson

Precocious Reading Ability: What Does It Mean?1

The results of studies of precocious reading ability are reviewed, and the implications of these results for parents, teachers, and educational policy makers are discussed. Precocious reading ability is a complex skill, and levels of specific subskills vary widely among individuals. Although precocious reading ability is moderately associated with general intelligence, some highly .intelligent children do not read early and some precocious readers are of average or subnormal intelligence. Although parents should not expect to be able to teach their infants to read, they may encourage the early development of reading through natural and mutually enjoyable activities.

Letter Naming Time, Digit Span, and Precocious Reading Achievement.

Abstract In two 6-month longitudinal studies of intellectually advanced preschool children, letter naming time and backward digit span were moderately good predictors of concurrent reading achievement (PIAT Reading Recognition Score). None of the remaining measures in a battery of standard cognitive indices, including Stanford-Binet MA, was associated with reading achievement. The results of cross-lagged correlation analysis of data from one of the two samples suggested that individual differences in time to access name codes for visual stimuli predict, but are not a consequence of, individual differences in reading achievement. The results of the cross-lagged analysis for the second sample were inconclusive. As a whole, the results are consistent with findings from other populations indicating that both short term memory span and efficiency of retrieval from long term memory are related to reading ability. The results also indicate, however, that the relationship between retrieval efficiency and reading achievement in precocious readers cannot be described by extrapolation of threshold estimates from the performance of older, unselected groups of readers.

Predictive significance of early giftedness: the case of precocious reading

Results of a longitudinal study of 59 10-12 year olds who had been precocious readers when first tested at 5-6 years of age suggest that extraordinary early achievement in reading predicts above-average, but not necessarily extraordinary, ability in reading and related skill areas during the middle elementary school years. This study illustrates theoretical and methodological issues that must be addressed in other investigations of early development of giftedness

Kindergarten and First Grade Teachers’ Attitudes toward Early Entrants, Intellectually Advanced Students, and Average Students*

The consistency of kindergarten and first grade teachers’ attitudes toward academically talented early entrants, relative to other types of students, was assessed in a survey conducted in a suburban school district. Teachers were asked to rank hypothetical candidates for their classrooms and to indicate the kinds of information about nonintellectual qualities that would be most helpful in evaluating each potential candidate. Kindergarten teachers consistently assigned lower ranks to early entrants than to other types of students; the rankings of first grade teachers were less consistent. Teachers who had taught early entrants did not assign higher ranks to these children than did teachers who lacked this experience. Information about a childs social maturity level was chosen as most helpful for evaluation of all types of children at both grade levels. Teachers suggested a variety of techniques for working with intellectually advanced students, but few made positive comments about the practice of early entrance. Procedures that might reduce teachers’ concerns about the social competence of early entrants are discussed.