"Too much, too young: Should schooling start at age 7?"

Article in The New Scientist, 18 November 2013 by David Whitebread and Sue Bingham
Magazine issue 2943.

If we consider the contribution of play to children's development as learners, and the harm caused by starting formal learning at 4 to 5 years old, the evidence for a later start is very persuasive.

This evidence comes from anthropological, psychological, neuroscientific and educational studies. For example, research on children's play in extant hunter-gatherer societies, and evolutionary psychology studies of other mammalian young, have identified play as an adaptation that enabled early humans to become powerful learners and problem-solvers.