The benefits of teaching a child to read and write at a very young age are in some cases very difficult to measure precisely, but the overall benefits are widely accepted as huge. Teaching a child to not only read and write, but to enjoy activities involving literacy helps immensely with critical thinking, both written and aural comprehension and their ability to retain information.
A child that has been taught to read and write at an early age in a fun environment as well as rewarded for their efforts with games and attention develops a positive association with knowledge and intellectual pursuits from a very young age. The product of many independent studies and researched situations shows that children of parents who focused on literacy before school age will excel in all areas from the very first grade and will tend to continue to do so throughout their schooling career.
Beyond the school environment, a children who reads whether extensively or recreationally are associated with increased maturity at a young age provided they have read appropriate, comprehensible and relatable material. Though stereotypically bookish children are often perceived as being socially outcast and awkward, in the majority of cases the exact opposite is true. Intellectually developed children have been shown to have very little trouble developing many meaningful relationships aided by the knowledge of human interaction gained through reading, which is the focus of almost every novel available in one context or another.
It has been proven that literacy in youth can be directly related to long term socio-economic success and the ability to overcome adverse situations. Education is an incredibly powerful tool that shapes the world in ways that would be otherwise inconceivable and early literacy opens doors for young adults and children allowing them to make choices for themselves in later life rather than being held at the beck and whim of their intellectual superiors. As Time magazine titled an article on the future of the world in 2005: “The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth.”