Parents: Believe in Your Toddler/Preschooler

When experts tell you your child has a developmental lag, keep believing that you and he can do anything together. Maybe he doesn't fit in some larger grouping and has to go to a special class for now, but the future is still wide open as long as you keep on reading and enjoying learning together.
The nurturing experience he has with you, one-on-one that includes picture books can establish neural pathways that become very significant in the long run. Lifelong learning skills are the point, and believing in him, seeing his open possibilities.
I say "his" because I'm thinking of 2 specific boys and their parents. One boy's mom who had always loved reading picture books with her toddler, was told he was too young to go into regular kindergarten, and again by his kindergarten teacher that he wasn't ready for first grade. Mom believed in him as being very bright , with great potential. She found a private school that had small class sizes, and individualized subject levels. They tested him and found a co-ordination lag that they felt would possibly disappear with normal growth. "Boys often have co-ordination lags at his age that effect reading readiness," they said. She was able to keep him at that school through first grade, where the teacher remarked on his advanced grasp of theoretic math, specifically negative numbers. He was able to progress in every subject at his natural rate. They gave him encouragement with reading skills in class, all positive, and mom continued enjoying reading picture books with him daily.
By second grade, mom could no longer afford the private school. She was concerned, hoping her son had received enough individualized support to blend with a regular class. He did very well, got A's in every subject. Mom only had to ask his public school second grade teacher not to yell so much at the children. Mom explained he had a very kind supportive teacher the year before and found her yelling distracting. She tried a more gentle approach, which benefited all the students, and he led his classmates even in reading.
That boy just graduated from college summa cum laude, with a strong literature curriculum, and advanced writing, in a generation that is generally considered to be lacking in literacy skills. Also, as a young father himself, he has always read to his son, always believed in him , who is doing well now in second grade.