ABSTRACT
Children who stray from the road to proficient reading should be brought back to it as soon as possible. The farther they go off track in reading, the more difficult it is to help them, because of the cognitive and motivational consequences of reading failure. As we discussed in the previous chapter, children who are poor readers in school can go on to have successful and productive lives in adulthood. Obviously, however, no one would choose to be a poor reader rather than a good reader. In some cases, long-term reading failure has disastrous effects on employment and on opportunities in adult life. Moreover, as we will discuss shortly, early failure in reading can be an emotionally devastating experience, even if the individual ultimately attains a high level of achievement in reading. Thus, there are some compelling reasons to intervene early with children who are experiencing reading difficulties and, if possible, to try to prevent these difficulties from happening in the first place.
