In order not to let children lose at the starting line, many parents let their children become literate early, and even enroll in classes! So is it true that the earlier your baby becomes literate, the better? Today I will uncover the secret of “literacy” for you. Rumor – the earlier a baby is literate the smarter he or she is. The earlier a child becomes literate the better, the smarter he or she will be in the future, and the more advantageous he or she will be when entering elementary school. Truth – Children should not be forced to become literate too early. Children should not be forced to read too early, otherwise it will affect other aspects of their development, and early literacy is not a good thing. Are babies smarter when they are early? Some parents believe that the earlier a child becomes literate, the more right-brained he or she will be, and the smarter the baby will be. Is this really true? Let’s take a look at the answer given to parents by experts: As early as 2007, American sociologists pointed out that “artificial intervention and guidance can indeed improve IQ, about 7 or 8 points, but as soon as this dry disappears, the IQ level will still drop”. Look at our neighbors, it is known that Japan places great emphasis on early intellectual development, so it is not uncommon for preschoolers in Japan to be literate, while Austria, on the contrary, the country strictly prohibits children from being literate before the age of seven. Then look at the two countries’ Nobel Prize situation, you will find that Austria’s number of winners is several times that of Japan. Therefore, early recognition of words is not much of a boost to your baby’s intellectual development. Many parents believe that letting their children read early is to lay a good foundation for elementary school, so that they will have an advantage in reading and better academic performance. This idea is also wrong. American psychologists once did an experiment on two preschool classes, one focused on learning knowledge and the other on learning social interaction. Indeed, the former produced students who knew more words and numbers before age 5, but by age 6 these children had no advantage to speak of. On the contrary, the latter group of children become better and better, they have more enthusiasm for learning, and their creativity is amazing. The key to a child’s success depends on his ability to learn and to think proactively and positively, rather than forcefully instilling knowledge to get excellent grades. In addition, babies at this age do not have much energy to take in words and numbers and do not yet have a good understanding and judgment of things around them. Even if it can remember words at the time, it is difficult to understand and cannot absorb them. If parents over-teach, they will also make it averse to learning. Don’t force your child to be literate if he or she is too young to develop this ability, it is likely to affect the development of other skills, including communication, motor coordination, musicianship, etc. A child’s understanding of things is often from concrete to abstract. Chinese characters are abstract symbols, and knowing them too early will only make a child feel stressed. For children 0-3 years old, they are very interested in symbols, animations, and other picture information that they can understand at a glance without much explanation. If parents begin to make their children literate at this stage, children’s sensory abilities are not yet well developed, and not only will they not learn words well, but their learning and emotional abilities will be affected. Respect your child’s interest and exposure to written information Of course, although it is not good to expose your child to words too early, do not stop your child from becoming literate if he or she is interested in learning. This is because each child’s development is different, just as some children speak early and others speak slowly. When children reach a certain age, they can’t help but want to know more about the outside world and gain richer knowledge, so they will naturally be interested in words. At this time, parents should learn to guide their children in the right way, the most common way is through games and sports to contact words, implicitly teach the child, while interacting with the baby more, care for the child’s interest, so that he really like to literacy.