Or was 5 actually too early to learn to read?
To find answers, I did what I’d always done as a parent – I Googled it. Immediately it became clear that there’s a study to suit every parental hypothesis if you look hard enough. I closed my many open tabs feeling more confused than when I started.
So I decided to go directly to those who create our curriculum, as well as independent education experts, and a child neuroscientist in the hope of some better answers.
Does age matter?
According to the Ministry of Education, the New Zealand system considers 5 an appropriate age to formally begin learning to read.
Antony Harvey, general manager of business operations at the curriculum centre, says the Years 0-3 English curriculum is developmentally appropriate for most children and is informed by evidence in New Zealand classrooms as well as international research.
He points to the 2024 Better Start Literacy Approach report, which shows that within the current reading curriculum, after 30 weeks of instruction, more than 90% of students were reading at or above the expected level.
But child psychologist, teacher and neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis argues that rushing to formally teach children to read could see them miss out on developing other skills.
In his new book What Were You Thinking, Wallis says children who learn to read at 4 or 5 show no lasting advantage over those who begin around 7. By about age 8, most reach similar reading levels regardless of when formal instruction began.
Wallis argues young children are often not developmentally ready for a strong focus on formal literacy because their emotional and social learning systems are still developing.
He says before the age of 7, there’s more long-term value for children to focus on building creativity, resilience, self-esteem and positive learning dispositions through play, exploration and relationships.
Nathan Wallis.
“Scandinavian countries start the formalised teaching of literacy at 7. Before that, those kids are allowed to make up their own script,” he says.
“If we’re busy teaching the 4-year-old to read, I worry that not only is there no advantage to that, but we are limiting the child’s resilience because we’re cutting short that period of developing those dispositions,” he explains.
Wallis says that by the time most children hit 7, they will feel ready to read on their own terms.
I noticed this first-hand. Weeks before my son’s 7th birthday, he suddenly made huge leaps with reading and wanting to; suddenly he was meeting expectations, and I wondered what all my worry was about.
Was our education system in Aotearoa using too much of a one-size-fits-all approach?
Best is better
The Government came under fire for fast-tracking structured literacy in 2025 by educators, who said mandates were counter-productive when students have different needs and changes took away teachers’ ability to teach the individual.
Under National’s new Teaching the Basics Brilliantly plan, the Government requires all primary schools to spend an hour each on reading, writing and maths every day. The policy doesn’t contain information about when a child is developmentally ready for that duration of structured learning.
In policy documents, the party says: “If we continue to allow children to reach high school without mastering the basics, we’re just setting them up for failure.
“Structured literacy teaches children in an explicit and systematic way that aligns with the science of how our brains learn best, starting with the smallest units of sound (phonemes) and building up from there.”
Education Minister Erica Stanford chose not to comment when approached, but in October 2025 she celebrated new data showing a “significant boost” in phonics achievement rates at primary schools.
The data showed 58% of students were at or above expectations at their 20-week phonics check in Term 3. This is up from 36% in Term 1.
Dr Sarah Alexander, chief adviser of the Office of Early Childhood Education and early childhood expert, believes we should be asking whether the current curriculum is flexible enough to meet children where they are, if it allows teachers to do the role they know best, and if children are actually being allowed to still be kids.
Alexander says parents, teachers and children themselves are best placed to judge readiness to read and she believes much of the anxiety around literacy comes from the “plethora of advice out there”, alongside curriculum expectations and pressure on early childhood education.
She says there is an argument in academia for delaying formal reading and writing until children are 7 or 8.
“It really comes down to the importance of both honouring what we know about how young children’s brains develop and at the same time still work within a school system where children do start school at 5. And that’s where we need to see adjustments and how things are done, in 5- and 6-year-old classrooms,” she says.
“The greatest harm comes from narrowing children’s experiences, because it limits opportunities to explore, think, learn independently and develop motivation.”
Dr Sarah Alexander.
For parents worried about what test results mean for future outcomes before the age of 7, her advice is simple: don’t be.
“That’s an important message for teachers too; these tests aren’t an indication of later success. They’re just an indication of performance on a particular measure that the school was required to report on.”
Wallis expands on that idea, noting that before the age of 7, “the biggest predictor of success is what kind of learner you think you are”.
He warns that labelling children as being behind other students or milestones can become part of their identity. Instead of focusing on comparisons, parents should encourage perseverance and recognise strengths in all forms.
“We need parents saying things like, ‘All different people are all good at all different things’. Because you’ll be able to find something that your child’s way ahead of [compared with] other people. Even the kid that’s not good at learning, he might be way better at telling jokes. He might be way better at noticing that the plants need to be watered. There’s always something that people are better at.”
So I took Wallis’ advice, maybe because it pertained to me, maybe because, as a parent, it reduced some anxiety in me, and I asked my son what he thought he was the best at at school.
His reply? Being a good friend.
A fantastic skill, one of the most important a person could learn, but not one that our education system counts as a measure of success.
Taking Wallis and Alexander’s advice about dispositions, I asked my son how he felt about himself as a learner, and he told me he’s “so good” at it.
The only thing that seemed to need some work was my belief that comparing him with other children was the right way to predict his outcomes.
I realised parents shouldn’t rely solely on what our education system deems important; we should also do our own research and always advocate for our children’s needs.
So, I talked to his teachers and made sure I felt empowered about his learning, but I also asked them about other important things: was he kind and respectful? How did he handle failure and success? Did he give up, or keep trying? What kind of friend was he? The answers to those questions mattered far more to me.
I learned from these conversations that a successful, well-rounded human is far from determined by their reading test scores at age 5.
What should you do if you are worried about your child’s schooling progress?
Dr Sarah Alexander explains:
Talk with teachers, but also trust your knowledge of your child: Listen to the teacher’s feedback while remembering that your child has plenty of time to grow and learn.Focus on rich learning experiences: Keep reading together, exploring interests, visiting places, playing, and engaging in activities that build curiosity, confidence, and language skills.Avoid making learning a source of stress: Support your child without turning challenges into a problem they feel responsible for fixing, as anxiety can ruin enjoyment of learning.Keep concerns in perspective: A low score does not mean a child cannot learn to read. Children develop skills in different ways and at different rates.