ABSTRACT
For children and teachers in the early years classroom, the greatest source of pressure and anxiety is usually, ‘when will the child start to read?’ Parents get stressed, teachers try not to get stressed and of course the children sense the anxiety when people they love are concerned. Reading is such a difficult process to understand, how is it that some children pick it up effortlessly whilst others struggle painfully? I have only ever had one child articulate the experience amongst the hundreds of children I have worked with. When this little girl became a reader she told me that it was very, very scary. She had tried for so long to please her mother and me, had tried so hard to concentrate and then suddenly, as if by magic, she could read almost anything by just looking at the print. She didn’t have to do anything. In fact, she couldn’t stop herself from understanding print. She found it frightening. I’m not surprised. For a young child capable of that level of thought it would be alarming.
