How can you tell whether a child will be academic

[Ritamarghita]

Had a chat with a friend today. She got 2 girls, one is year 3, the other is a 3.5 yo pre schooler going to the same nursery as my 4 yo.

She is confident that her older DD will be very academic, however she thinks her younger DD will not be. She says that her older DD was a lot more advanced at 3.5 with reading and writing than the younger DD, also younger DD 'doesn't do well under pressure', whatever that means for a 3.5 yo. I felt a little deflated tbh as my almost 4.5 yo DD cannot read yet, apart from sounding out about 10 basic 3 letter words. She's very good with phonics and a fast learner but we've not focused much on the reading and writing part yet. I come from a country where we start school at 7.

I do want my DD to do well, but hearing of children reading at 3.5 yo makes me feel like I've not done enough for my DD. Can you really tell at this age whether a child will be academic? Is there real value in teaching children to read so early?

The child will learn at their own pace, a good reader at 3 may get board at 5! They’ll know everything and give up or become distracted.

Id spend more time talking to her, reading to her, answering questions so she’s ready to learn, I don’t know any adult who can’t read - so it’s not as if it matters at what age you grasp reading.

You can't know at that age.

When I started primary school, I couldn't even write my own name. Some other kids had been to nursery schools and were already reading (probably not reading much, but I was very impressed as a 4 year old!)

I soon caught up, did well at school, and now have a PhD.

@Siepie that's lovely, great to hear that! x

I don’t think you can. People who announce this often do so for one upmanship. Just ignore these declarations and enjoy helping your child to learn through play. There are some great books on how talk to your child in a natural way to help them expand their vocabulary. For example you can talk about any object. Eg a pencil. What it looks like what it is used for what is feels like

The most important thing you can do at that young age is encourage curiosity. Encourage them to ponder how things work or what something means. Children who are curious about the world around them will enjoy learning. And people who love learning will always do well once they find the subjects they most love learning about.

You can't know when they are so young.

Some children will be very advanced at that age. A proportion of those children will no doubt turn out to be exceptionally bright. However, others are just precocious and their early achievements will level off to a point that they are average for their age.

Other kids will be quite behind for their age. In some cases, they will stay behind for the rest of their academic career. Others will just be late bloomers and will quickly catch up with or overtake their peers.

Some kids are pretty average at that age. They might stay average, they might zoom ahead or they might fall behind.

There isn't much point when they're tiny in trying to analyse how they will develop in the longer term. All kids develop at different rates and their learning isn't usually linear. Just wait and see how things turn out!

I also don’t think you can tell - my dd is now apparently working at greater depth in yr 6 for her sats but started reception only just able to recognise her name. She is still adamant she will be leaving school as soon as she can and is very definite about no uni or even college but she loves school so am hoping this will change but who knows 🤷‍♀️

My DD could be academic if she chose but is the laziest child I have ever met!

My DS is clever but he will be sporty if he chooses. I don't think academia would suit him.

I could tell both of these things by their second birthday.

You can see traits such as curiosity and ability to concentrate, which bode well for school.

You can encourage kids to ask questions and ask them for their ideas and opinions.

In the end, what matters is that they are kind and able to stand up for themselves.

@Wilburisagirl

The most important thing you can do at that young age is encourage curiosity. Encourage them to ponder how things work or what something means. Children who are curious about the world around them will enjoy learning. And people who love learning will always do well once they find the subjects they most love learning about.

100% this.

Most people can be taught the technicalities of reading/writing/counting etc at whatever age.

Intellectual curiosity and an inquiring mind - even if they don't quite yet have the tools to mine it - is what makes them shine.

There’s absolutely no point comparing your kids with their siblings. My dd10 could read well early but I don’t then say ‘hmm her little sister can’t so she won’t be academic.’ They just all do things at their own pace. I mean my oldest two are 11 & 10 and although dd read well in preschool and ds didn’t really read confidently till year 1 guess what? They both read exactly the same now! You wouldn’t listen to them read and think ‘obviously this child could read at 3.5.’ It all evens out basically. As long as you’re there supporting your dd in school and helping her with home work she’ll be absolutely fine. To be honest the child I’d feel sorry for is the little one being branded as ‘not academic’ because she didn’t meet a milestone as quickly as her older sister.

@SparkleSpangle

My DD could be academic if she chose but is the laziest child I have ever met!

My DS is clever but he will be sporty if he chooses. I don't think academia would suit him.

I could tell both of these things by their second birthday.

How could you possible tell your child will be sporty but won’t suit academics by their second birthday? And don’t you think it then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy? Obviously if I looked at my child aged 1 year 11 months and thought ‘nah he’s more of an athlete than an academic’ I might then strongly encourage him to athletic clubs and sports and not press academics. But if I just said ‘well he’s just turned two so has a lot of developing to do’ then he might shine in academics. I mean most children haven’t been exposed to all different subjects/styles of learning by their second birthday, so you really wouldn’t be able to predict what will and won’t catch their fancy/be a hidden talent inside.

Of course you can't tell.

All children develop at different rates.

I could read exceptionally well before I went to school and was reading classic literature when at primary school. DH and I met when working in the same Academic dept as junior staff.

I knew DS was the same as us from a very young age. I was however more interested in how social he was and how he interacted with other children. DH and I were outsiders at school and did not bloom till we went to University where we remained and hung out with the other mega nerds.

I should add DH didn’t really speak till he was almost 4 and I spent most of my years very uncommunicative with other children and only enjoyed speaking to adults.

You can't know. It's impossible.

My DD (16) needed tutoring to learn how to read, I’d tried to teach her but she just wasn’t picking it up. Dyslexic runs in my DH’s family so I wondered whether she was dyslexic.

Fast forward to today and she’s in advanced classes in all but one subject ( French). She’s considered very academic. It’s honestly too early to tell at 4, OP, don’t be concerned. 💐

*dyslexia.

It’s far too early to tell

To be academic requires intelligence/inquiring mind but also persistence and self-discipline, those qualities come later on (teens) as parts of the brain controlling this mature

I have twins. One is academically gifted but lazy, reading and writing very soon after he started reception (I did not want to do this at home and he went to a great nursery that did the groundwork). He's very gifted at Maths. But he's also got less and less motivated by school as time has gone on. Now at secondary he is more motivated by sports and drama. His sister on the other hand, not gifted at all, I'd say average in the younger years. But she's get self motivated, works really hard. She's now out performing him at secondary school. I was very careful to keep them apart in school as she was quick to say 'he's so much cleverer than me' and only now it's gaining confidence that actually she is 'clever'. It helps that she's in a school with great teaching but not many academic or motivated kids,v which had massively increased her confidence. I'm now seeing just how much of 'academically gifted' is linked to confidence, as well as working hard - and being in a similar group of friends! I'm convinced she will do very well in her exams. She wants to be a vet, she wants to go to Cambridge.

So, in short, I couldn't tell from a young age! Certainly not nursery, where they should be playing anyway. Early primary looked like it was going one way, but secondary school has really shown it for what it is.

My DD is in Year 6 and has very academic aspirations, we've picked a secondary for her that pushes for good GCSE results. She regularly asks me to discuss university entrance requirements and course structure with her! At a very young age she showed signs of curiosity, she always wanted people to read her non-fiction books about science and nature instead of stories. Her favourite TV programmes were educational ones. She used to like inventing gadgets, building things and drawing maps at nursery, and got annoyed if her friends wanted to play families or with dolls. The interest, particularly in science, has continued.

She was an average reader but I never pushed her to read early, preferring to spend pre-school days out and about exploring museums, parks and farms. Now her reading is at the top end for her age.

I went to university, although I'm not particularly academic. My parents and grandparents are fairly academic (my mum was a maths teacher, Grandpa was a scientific researcher).

Certainly I've always encouraged a well rounded set of interests and pushed her to try out sports and creative activities to balance it out. I think if you give them options they follow their own path.

Fwiw DS is in Year 2 and is showing signs of curiosity about the world and his focus and concentration to a task is excellent but I think it's too early to tell what sort of path he might take.

I'm not sure you can predict it. I have a 4yo who reads fluently in two different alphabets. It's largely down to how much we've pushed it at home. I suppose what I want is for her to be confident in school and able to readily engage, and I hope early reading will help with that, even if in a year or two other children are at her level too. But I'm not sure I could predict that she's on course for a stellar academic career because that's not the same thing; there's more to it.

I think you can see the potential from a very early age with some children. However, focusing on that too much may blind you to other abilities they may have. Different things come through at different ages, and people can be in their 30s, 40s or sometimes even older when they discover their real forte.

Look around you - there are some careers that suit people with life experience and the wisdom that comes from losing everything else!

But I'm not sure I could predict that she's on course for a stellar academic career because that's not the same thing; there's more to it.

Academia can be cutthroat and requires much more than just brain power. Not sure I would hope for that for my DCs.

I meant school career rather than "future Oxford don" poly.