I’m fascinated with orthographic depth, and I’m curious about how the orthographic depth of one’s first language affects what age they are able to read and write.
My first language is English (I’m from the US), and I really couldn’t read fluently until I was maybe 8 or so—and I would regularly misspell words in my own writing until maybe age 10 or so. When I didn’t know how to spell or pronounce a word, I would “sound it out,” which often doesn’t work for English. I’m curious if children who speak languages with a shallow orthography (like Italian, Spanish, Finnish, etc.) are able to proficiently read and write at a younger age—and if so, by how much.