Most 3 year olds don't read, that's true. However, rare and doesn't happen are 2 different things. I have no specific recollection of reading at 3, my mother told me the story of teaching me to read when I was 3 with the newspaper. Could it be a tale similar to her having "the whitest laundry on the clothesline?' Sure. But I can't say for sure. I do know I was an odd kid and I loved books and paper and pencils way more than toys.

However, I do have very specific recollections of reading stories to my kindergarten class while sitting on my teacher's knee and I was 5. So somewhere between 3 and 5, I learend to read.

I also have very specific recollections of my oldest son reading at 5. The other 2, not so much.

I'm not sure where you're from, but in Canada, 7 is the most common age to start grade 2, not grade 1. We start kindergarten at 5, grade 1 at 6, and so on.

I really have no idea why anyone would lie about when they learned to read though. It seems a silly thing to hang your hat on. It's like saying you learend to walk early. So what, it doesn't make you any better at it as an adult.

All that said, I enjoyed your article. In general you're absolutely correct, but there are outliers to every general rule.