1) Reading comprehension as a skill and reading comprehension as evaluated by early elementary school teachers are not the same thing.

2) "Sarah" is spending most of her reading time reading alone, whereas "Aaron" is reading with adults. One is interacting with educated people and learning to analyze text, the other is not. Should we really be surprised that the one doesn't learn how to analyze?

I think this teacher has made a valid observation, but then she says, "Here is what I think is happening," and her hypothesis is wrong.

Also, I didn't get the impression that her observations extend past 4th grade. I think she might be surprised if she were to look at Sarah and Aaron in 10th grade.

And this part was just plain hilarious:
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Children who begin to read independently at an older age approach the reading process more systematically and with more maturity. These students employ a variety of comprehension tools such as accessing background knowledge and drawing on a much larger bank of vocabulary.

Errr... late readers have larger vocabularies? In what parallel universe?