Of course not, I agree with you and not all cases are due to bad reading and writing skills, but it most often is. The inability to read comprehensively is one of the biggest influencing factors when children fail at school.
Every child I know of (and I was a computer teacher) who failed or achieved consistently low marks, came from homes where children were not read to as toddlers and where reading was not part of the family culture.
A child that has weak reading skills, inevitably also has bad writing and spelling skills. This inability to do comprehensive reading then causes lower and lower achievements as that child progresses to more senior grades. This inability to read well, does not indicate a lack of intelligence, simply a lack of a fundamental skill, which unfortunately influences that childs overall progression academically for the rest of their lives. Weak readers rarely achieve university level, but not all weak readers are unsuccessful in life or at higher learning colleges where more practical skills are taught and less emphasis is on reading 600 page textbooks as in university.
Comprehensive reading is a skill that has great advantages, it promotes excellent communication skills, both vocal and written, it also promotes the ability to comprehend what is being read, it increases overall academic fluency.
A parent who consistently reads to their preschool child and engages in conversation with that child is a parent who is giving their child the fundamental skills needed to build on.
A parent who fails to read to their pre-school child and fails to have proper interactive conversations with them, is failing to give their child the fundamental skill to build on.
John was read to every day from birth, his mother engaged in long conversations with him, he was carried around on the hip and taught the names of every visible object within the home and environment, John was lucky, he developed a comprehensive neural tree from birth.
For John, learning languages whether english, afrikaans, xhosa , music or mathematics or C++ is not a challenge, for Peter they are obstacles to overcome, and so Peter loses interest in school, debilitated by his poor comprehension skills, he resorts to activities that does not involve comprehensive reading.
Peter uses his pc to play games, watch movies and chat on Facebook or mixit, John uses his pc to play games, watch movies, interact in debates on forums, to compile programs and attain high level photoshop skills.
John comes from a home where one parent is an engineer and the other parent is a writer, they have an extensive library, Johns dad plays piano, has an extensive technical workshop (wood/metal/glass), his mom reads extensively, is a writer, makes jewelery, design websites, does gardening, photography, and other crafts.
Peters parents have no hobbies, are superstitious, watch a lot of tv and do a lot of shopping.
John and Peter are nephews.
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