Is it actually harmful to teach reading "wrong"

My son is 2 and he's getting to the point where I think he might start learning to read soon. He knows the letter sounds and some combination sounds (i.e. ch, oo, ay, ai, oi) and he is taking an interest in words and what they are now.When I was probably a bit over 2 ½ I learned to read and it was with no specific instruction although I remember my mum ran her fingers under words when she read to me.Nowadays phonics is all the rage and a lot of people online say you mustn't teach your child to read because you will do it "wrong"... and... well I am not sure here. I didn't learn to read the way they teach reading in school today and now as an adult... it doesn't matter how I learned to read as long as I can read... which I can.I understand spelling is one potential pitfall - even today I spell words by writing them out enough times and somehow knowing they look "wrong" rather than by building them from phonetic blocks or anything. Obviously this means I am hopeless at spelling unfamiliar words. Equally I often mispronounce words I've only ever read and never heard actually spoken but I don't think phonics would help with that (my husband still laughs at me for saying "epitome" as epi-tome instead of e-pit-oh-me.I don't really find that a massive deterrent, I think having an extra couple of years to independently enjoy literature - and there's so much beautiful and beautifully illustrated children's literature about - is worth a lot more than doing things exactly according to the current scheme schools do it, which will probably go out of fashion in a few years anyway.But I am open to hear thoughts about it. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2tIp1ol