Can a Tome Dragon PC ever be on par with an LA-less party?

[Jigokuro]

Both wyrmling and very young Tome dragoms from dragon 343 look really interesting as PCs, but I'm concerned that they LA is just to high to ever hold up in a party of 'normal' races that the same ECL.
wyrmling is 3HD +5LA, with 3rd level sorc casting, and arcane sight at will, telepathy 100ft, SR 11, fly 90(good);
very young is 6HD +5LA with 5th level sorc casting, and the total* metamagic level adjustment of 1 spell a round is at -1, SR13, and above stuff.

They have at or near full caster progression per HD, and their extra abilities are strong but +5LA is just so much. Could this work in a somewhat high OP game? how would you go about building it to?

*as in all feat adjustments added, then the total -1, not -1 per feat. So silent+still=+1, empower+maxi=+4, etc.

P.S. anyone know what the 'precognition' ability mentioned in the progression and example creature but not described in the SQs text is?

[Flickerdart]

Precognition probably refers to the dragon's insight bonus to AC.

As for whether a 3rd level Sorcerer matches with an 8th level character? No. Not even close, and nothing you get from being a dragon closes that gap. Steel dragons are slightly better, because you can get the wyrmling at a lower ECL (I think 5) and then start taking normal Sorcerer levels.

[ZamielVanWeber]

The best I can think of is a battle dragon. They can jump into most bard PrCs after a level of bard due to having perform as a class skill.

[Jigokuro]

Precognition probably refers to the dragon's insight bonus to AC.

As for whether a 3rd level Sorcerer matches with an 8th level character? No. Not even close, and nothing you get from being a dragon closes that gap. Steel dragons are slightly better, because you can get the wyrmling at a lower ECL (I think 5) and then start taking normal Sorcerer levels.

Deep down, I knew this. :(
Automatically knowing all div and conj spells as a sorc just seemed really fun...