When should children be able to read and write?

Reggio Emilia International Study Group 2016

In our lecture today we heard from the pedagogista that many parents in Italy believe the transition to primary school is when children should be able to read and write.

Naturally, this belief and fear results in some opposition to the Reggio Emilia approach. However even the Italian Curriculum does not place this expectation on children, instead proposing that children learn to read and write in the first 2 years of primary school or, as our pedagogista puts it (drawing emphasis to the conceptualisation of language as a code) to "construct their understanding of reading and writing codes". 

At the Loris Malaguzzi primary school they pay very careful attention to the wording of the Italian standards and expectations before applying them to their approach. In this case they believe this 2 years gives full licence to allowing children to freely explore all their other 100+ languages. In the words of today's speaker "Why would we push the pace?"