What do we know about reading? Chapter 5,6,7

The reading I feel as been going pretty smooth, except for some parts, which require me to reread them. I guess I will start with a summary of the chapters and what I thought about each chapter.
Chapter 5 discussed the different theories of literacy development. It discussed six main theories. The first theory Cognitive Development believes that "the quality of children's thinking changes over time" p. 77. There are four factors that are believed to affect this. One major point that I took away with this theory was that "teachers need to understand the ways in which children think at different stages of development in order to create lessons and activities for them". Knowing these various stages can help teachers understand the child in a better way to know what they are ready for and how they will learn best. The theory, maturation theory seemed a little strange to me. It explains how you shouldn't teach a child to read until they are 6.5. That seems a little late. It explains how if you started earlier it "would cause damage to children's reading ability if they attempted to teach reading to children who were too young". I think that is extreme, but this is the start to my lessons on teaching reading. The theory of Literacy Development focuses on parents being very important in the child's learning to read. I do think that when parents are involved with their children and read to them and show them that they read it helps a child appreciate reading a little more. The stage models of reading suggest that children approach reading in different way, as they get older. It discusses the various techniques used to teach reading. The Emergent Literacy Theory explains that the development of literacy starts at birth and continues on. It also explains that children “who come from literacy-rich home environments tend to have stronger, more accelerated, literacy skills”. This makes sense to me I think it is similar to the Literacy Development theory, in the sense that parents play an important role. The Family Literacy Theory was a little confusing for me explaining that children learn to read in the home without direct instruction. I wasn’t clear if that meant that they didn’t receive any reading instruction at school? Now that I have gone on about these theories I think I should move on since I have already written so much. This chapter really stood out for me because it was pretty easy to understand.
Some things that really didn’t make sense to me were waiting until after the age of 6 to teach a child to read that seems so late.
Chapter 6 discussed the social learning perceptive. It explains that social interaction has a great deal to do with literacy learning. It emphasizes that different cultures can affect a child’s literacy learning process.
Chapter 7 takes us to the later years of 1950s to the 1970s. It focuses on the information/cognitive processing perspectives. This chapter was very confusing for me and I need to reread it but I don’t think I will have time to reread it and be able to post again to the blog with my ideas by tomorrow. It seems very technical and was difficult for me to get the important points out. I understand that it discusses the ways in which we process and how we decode things. I am sorry but I just need to reread this and I feel if I say anything about it, it just won’t make sense.