Tape Assisted Reading Programmes (TARPs), and more recently, other forms of audio recorded stories, have been used in New Zealand schools to help students with reading difficulties. Many claims are made about the positive effects of such programmes on general reading ability and progress. However, this paper, informed by research, states that such…

This article reports some of the findings of a study involving 11 New Zealand 4-year-old precocious readers (Margrain, 2005). The children, aged between 4:01 and 4:10, had reading ages three to nine years above their chronological age. Assessment of precocious reading abilities is discussed, including how assessment findings are influenced by the…