You may say “yes” but I doubt that you can.
A 7 year old can read better than a 12 year old! How can that be? The answer is simple. Our children are losing their ability to concentrate for long periods of time. The quickening pace of Internet guided life throws off so much information that our children cannot process it all. Information must be dropped in order to keep up with the fast pace. They read the title and a line or two of the article and move on, thinking that they have digested enough of it to form a knowledgeable opinion. Subject after subject, perusing just the beginnings until they find something that really interests them. Give them credit, that’s when they study. Your child may now know the most intricate movements and keystrokes needed to beat the new video game!
So, the answer to the title question is yes, they can read, they choose not to. The seven year old will read the entirety of what is put in front of them, at the end, they will look for more pages to turn. Their focus slowly turns off and they begin to look for something else to read or do. By the time they are teenagers, they can turn off focus in mid word. Not only mid paragraph, or mid sentence, but yes, mid word.
What could be so wrong with our children getting just a little information about a multitude of subjects, compared to getting a lot of information about a few subjects. The answer is criminal. Don’t worry, few if any of them is still reading this article. The criminal offence being used by the propaganda induced media is to hide the truth, down here in the article where no one reads anymore. If you just read that, then you can read. If you didn’t read that well, you can’t really read now can you?