Our kid effectively taught himself to read very early. We had been reading to him at every opportunity, and I think he teased out what was going on and, on some

Our kid effectively taught himself to read very early. We had been reading to him at every opportunity, and I think he teased out what was going on and, on some level, decided to learn on his own. He's been reading well above his age level for years now. As the OP mentioned, one of the primary short term benefits is that this child is, comparatively, a breeze to parent. If he gets frustrated, he goes and reads. If he gets bored with playing a video game, he goes and reads. He appears to be a well-adjusted kid with a close and functional friend group--within the limits of the COVID generation anyway--and he gets on fine with kids who aren't big readers. It's his thing, his intellectual space. One thing OP didn't address directly is that the most significant lesson of watching our kid on this journey has been learning on a practical level how early individuality and complex reasoning show up. Before I was a parent, I thought kids were blobs where parenting unlocked skills. Since becoming a parent, I've learned that kids, on some level, are experiencing frustrations and joys that are shockingly similar to adults' and that a lot of their development isn't just bits and pieces turning on over time but affirmative effort on their part. I don't know why that should be surprising given we're the same species, but it really struck me that this little person on some level realized he couldn't read, wanted to, and learned. That affected other areas of our parenting, e.g., addressing his frustration as if it were a rational human response to a challenging situation from his perspective rather than irrational childhood reaction. (Note: He's still a child and we don't parent him as if he's an adult, but we have subtly adjusted our approach to be more ... I don't know, respectful of his individual motivations as a thinking, feeling person with comprehensible goals and desires, even if the underlying support infrastructure is still a bit in flux.)