For all of those whose children were reading before they were 5/6, would you please share if/how you feel this may have impacted their personality? Do you feel that they were socially equal to their peers? Or did you notice a preference for socializing with older/younger children? Were they hyper, shy, independent, curious? Do you think that these traits were more genetic, more environment, or more impacted by their ability to communicate more effectively - a result of reading and prepping them to read?
I do not believe that early learning affects a child’s personality so much as the interactions with the people who are educating the children. If you cuddle your child and pay them a lot of attention (with or without early learning) then you may grow a more confident child with a higher self esteem. But its not as simple as that either. Both my sister and I have taught our children to read before preschool and yet the two girls have entirely different personalities - the elder of the two is more driven and more competitive in nature, the younger is more active and less focused. That is part of their personalities and possibly it affected the way we taught them rather than the teaching affecting the personality.
Queriquita
I agree with tanikit. Early learning has no adverse or advantageous effects on the children - at least not in the immediate short term. My daughter started reading before she was 1 and she is hitting 4 in just a few days. She is way ahead of her peers at school (albeit she has joined school almost a year earlier than her peers). However, it is entirely dependent on the child’s personality. She is neither ambitious nor competitve and the words and facts come to her so ‘by the way’ - she is innocent enough to think all her friends know details about the brain or the digestive system for instance… its a matter of fact and never really makes them any different. I think the differences are more obvious when they grow (which would have happened anyway - only early education helps them get a solid foundation and makes them more confident).
Having said that, every child really takes his or her own time in development. My daughter’s motor skills really developed much later and she still is much more innocent than many children her age. It all depends on the overall environment you are able to give her… the best thing I can suggest though - the combination of a mother’s constant attention coupled with early education is unbeatable.
Indidee
It seems to be the case that smarter kids socialize easily with kids their age in the early years. But they tend to gravitate toward equally smart children as they get older. Like Indidee said, I don’t think most young children realise that they know way more than most kids their age.
I do wonder about an impact on personality though. Surely knowing more in general impacts who you are and how you look at the world. PhDs and high school dropouts likely have very different worldviews due to education levels alone. Why would kids be different? Surely kids who know a lot think very differently than kids who are less knowledgeable. If a 4-6 year olds knows about things that many kids don’t learn about until middle school, how does that impact how they think and see the world?
This likely wouldn’t impact things like hyperactivity or shyness. But I wonder about things like level of maturity, concern about social issues and the like.