This is a post I sent to the people in the Early Reading program.  It is a step in the evolution of Education for the 21st Century.

Your personal expressions about Early Reading and its effectiveness in all areas. Isigi said from the first but I am just now understanding the implications. The goal of ER is child comes to school reading and writing. We have that goal within reach.

But then what is the goal of Primary Education? 

You have said the child is learning all areas faster. One reason is that the teacher has more time for other areas if they spend less time Reading. In addition the printed words to parallel what the teacher is saying and can serve as a reference. It can evolve into a notebook for the student.

Make a volume of one page stories for the student to read. Then ask the students questions that are answered in the stories. It will become a game for the children and they will be learning to read as simply as learning to speak. 

Are any of you interested in trying ideas with your students.

Early Reading began when I was 7 years old and realized that I did not have visual imagery that everyone else had. I have no mind's eye. I cannot see pictures in my head. 

About 20 years later, I mentioned imagery to a graduate student and she surprised, and said "How do you think???" To her thinking meant pictures and for me thinking was more in words. That started a trail to dyslexia in 1983 that demonstrated the you can know the meaning of a word even though you could not say it.

A long introduction to a question. Do you have visual imagery and what is it like. 

There is a wide diversity in visual imagery and it has direct implications for education.  If you are interested in exploring this, share what your imagery was like.

 I have spoken with many on this and there are surprising variations.