Saw this news article and just had to share here where I will give the most credit for my son becoming a bookworm!
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/10/10/how-the-brains-of-bookworms-compare-to-those-of-bibliophobes/
" A new study that looked at the differences in the brain development between children with different reading abilities may help answer the question. "
“Reading depends on connections among several areas of the brain that process visual, auditory, and linguistic information.”
“Reading depends on connections among several areas of the brain that process visual, auditory, and linguistic information. In particular, two bundles of nerves that connect key language areas in the brain have been shown to be associated with reading skills: the arcuate fasciculus, important for understanding the sound structure of words, and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), which is important for seeing words. Researchers already knew that in better readers, these neuron bundles were fatter and better insulated. They wanted to know if the neurons of weaker readers simply started off with skinnier nerve bundles or if their neurons developed differently.”
neat. i wonder how these nerves differ between those who are early, early, readers … and evolve into speed readers who no longer associate sound to words, but instead intuit the meaning … like looking at a picture of an elephant. before you can say the word elephant, you know what it is - same thing with seeing the word. hmm. thanks for sharing 
But the children in the two groups exhibited differences in the arcuate fasciculus and the ILF: In strong readers, these nerve connections started weak, then strengthened; the neuron bundles got more myelinated. In weak readers, they started strong, then were pruned away—the nerves died back.
This mirrors (or perhaps the same study but different article) that was posted in the last few weeks about synaptic pruning taking place while kids attempt to learn to read and fail vs myelination taking place (with no or substatially less pruning) for successful readers learning to read. This makes sense to me - if you’re actually learning, then your brain is getting stronger. If you’re not learning, it’s atrophying. K2Y for the post!
Very interesting article. I’m intrigued the idea that reading weakness (or strength) eventually becomes embedded in the physical brain itself. Thank you for the link.