Your baby Can Read ?

my children are all grown now.. but i watch that infomercial and can not believe how well these kids can recall or read the words...it is so cute.

I disagree with the whole concept, personally. I believe a baby should be a baby. Forcing them to memorize letters so early doesn't make them smarter later in life, it simply cuts their "babyhood" short. The proof is already coming out that things like "Baby Einstein" can actually supress creativity and intelligence in babies and toddlers, what will eventually come out about programs like this?

I also believe 20/20 (John Stossel, maybe?) debunked it anyways. But that's not my point. My 7 month old should be stacking blocks, eating bugs, learning how to crawl and walk; reading comes around 3-4-5-6, when she's biologically ready to learn it.

Just my opinion, though.

Does eating cat food count? I had to wrestle away a tiny morsel from Lilly today. Maybe she thinks that she is being raised by cats since we have three of them. I will do a search of the 20/20 program. Thank you.

I agree with Sandra. Babies would learn to read on their own, just expose them to educational things and trust me, they would pick it up on their own without being pushed. My first son learnt to read at 2, when i read to him then, he would always repeat what i say, including when i sneeze and say excuse me. He started reading and writing at 21/2 years. Just expose your daughter to books and read to her the normal way. She'll start reading on her own in no time.

I agree....my son loved books and he could read on his own by the time he turned 4. He's a 16 yr. old high school senior now, and he still loves to read.

I don't know what kind of teaching method they use, but you might want to read about the Baby Einstein recall. Good luck!

I have not heard anything about the Baby Einstein recall. she has two videos but has only watched them a few times. I will go check out this link. Thank you Doug.

have never seen this but I wish they would have had it when mine were babes. What is the age groups on there. Do five year olds use it?

I am not sure on the age range. Maybe someone can tell us? The funny thing is that I teach phonics. I have taught Hooked on Phonics ( which I highly recommend). I also teach a phonics program that is exclusive to where I now work. I begin the phonics program with three year old and up.

Hooked on Phonics only works for certain kids...

Thank goodness we didn't use BabyEinstein much!

Some babies teach themselves to read at about age 2. If your child is one of those, you are in for a wild ride with lots of home schooling if you want the best result. Those children are extremely rare.

For most children, the ability to read develops sometime between age 4 and age 9. Intelligence has little to do with it. It has everything to do with brain development.

If your child can remember the shape of letters from one day to the next and can remember the sound that letter "says" then they are probably ready to learn to read. Before then, don't worry about it. It will come in its own good time.

If you want to teach your child to read get the McGuffey Primer (long out of copyright and available in paperback, cheap). It is the proper way and works on about 999/1000 of all children. In about 15 minutes per day, you can have your child reading far above grade level within a year (regardless of their age).

See

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/valderbooks/ValderLearnS/program.html

for further information on teaching reading to your child, especially if they are having trouble reading in school.

There is no point in trying to teach anyone under 3-4 to read since they do not have the experience to make it meaningful. Be patient. Let them explore freely. It's okay if they get dirty, that helps their immune system.

You are so right. Do they still have those? When I was growing up we used the British Queens Primer and it was so good.

Thank you Larry. I will do some research on the method that you have suggested as I have not heard much about it before.

Donna,

A friend of mine earns her living by doing tutoring. She gets the students who have failed to learn in school. For those who take reading from her, she has a 99% success rate in having them above grade level within 9 months. She only sees them for an hour per week and 15 minutes a day is much better. These are the kids whom the schools could NOT teach to read. The only ones she cannot help are those that are so dyslexic that they cannot distinguish the shapes of the letters.

Larry I agree that when teaching a child anything the time frame should be no more than fifteen minutes. I once heard that childrens attention spans are about as long as their age. Kudos to your friend she is indeed a rare gem.

I have a daughter that is severly dyslexic and has a terrible time reading. Compounding her problem is her hearing issue....hard to sound out words if you can't hear 'em.

Janet,

Can she remember shapes at all? Can she recognize letters or numbers? If so, and if she can understand what you say without seeing you say it (might be lip reading) she should be able to learn to read given the right lessons. I strongly suggest visiting the web site I gave and using the McGuffey reader series. They were used by frontier women to teach their children to read before sending them to school. (And you know how much time they had away from chores and how many college education courses they had taken. :-)

I never used any of those things for my children and they did great. I feel we no longer let natural things happen, we push and force things to happen. Just my own thought though.

No, timi, you are correct. If we try to push that makes learning an unpleasant experience. If we let them follow their interests, they find learning to be fun. This is one of the basic truths that shows why our prison/factory model of education is such a failure.

I tend to agree with you Timi. Kendra is a young mother and only wants what every mother wants for her child. She is yet to learn the secret which is your child only needs you. The parent is the first teacher and the child is a Tabula rasa (Latin: blank slate) refers to the epistemological thesis that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception.

I tell Kendra to give baby Lilly many different experiences. Children have different modes of learning, some need hands on experiences, where as some are visual learners etc.
As far as reading goes let children read what interests them. If they like super heroes let them read a comic book. Whatever sparks their interest just begin at their level and go from there.

I agree with Timi on this one. It really does seem like the kids are constantly pushed nowadays.

It's so sad

I agree with the overall attitude to allow the baby to develop as a baby and not rob its babyhood from it/she/he. I strongly would discourage the early reading idea. It does rob a child from creativity. Except for a child who reads spontaneously.

Susan I agree with you. All a parent needs to do is provide a language enriched environment and model reading behavior. Just look at the child that can read environmental print. How many children drive by McDonald's and see the yellow arch and say McDonald's. Learning happens throughout everyday experiences. The number one thing a parent should do is take time to hold their child in their lap and read. Just read to your child everyday. Take them to the library and circle times.

I know your baby is smart. Keep reading to her and i know she'll catch it.

My suggestion is that instead of spending $50 on your baby can read, what you could do is buy flashcards with words, letters and maybe playing a game with your child and point out each part of the body, like touch your nose and take the babies hand and touch his nose, feet, hand, legs and maybe get some easy books and read to the baby daily.

$50 could by a lot of good books.

Yes you are right and she'll love them

I don't think most kids have the abilities necessary to read by age 2. At that age they're still trying to figure out what a sentence is and how to form one.

A few weeks ago I heard a developmental psychologist on the radio talking about how children learn to count. At 2 many children can recite the numbers between 1 and 10 but when asked to count a small group of things they'll usually stop at 2. Any number greater than 2 they'll generally call 2 regardless of what it is. As they get older they can make the association between the sequence of numbers and the number of things.

My son is 14 now and a great reader. He loves to read. I didn't have anything like this when he was tiny to start him out. I think it is a great idea, if it works. Any way of advancing children before they even start school is a good idea.

Would I buy it? No. I expose my two year old to words, letters and other "educational" concepts every day, in fun ways, but I wouldn't spend any money to do that. Right now, his favorite way to practice letters is to learn the sign language associated with it, so that's something he and my husband do together--it's their thing now. When he has trouble using the bathroom and we're sitting for awhile, we use flashcards to distract him. We do buy the $1 workbooks, but we only work them when he wants to, I don't force him. We just kind of go with the flow right now...

Books are our best friend though!

If you want to try the whole concept of it, I agree with someone else who said to make your own flash cards and clap your own hands. I have never known anyone to use a program like that, but I wouldn't call it reading--memorization or assocation at best.

that's true

I would think that if you want your children to learn to read, you should just do what my mom did and read to them. Programs like this are a crutch. Millions of dollars spent on "educational" toys, and the cashier at McDonald's can't figure out how to give me change if the register breaks down.

The old fashion way, you are right

never too early to learn....

I agree with the consensus here. The best way for a child to learn? Spending time with mommy, of course! Read to the child and interact with the child. Don't force and push. The child will learn. My younger brother learned this way. I don't think we ever saw flash cards or anything growing up, except in school. My younger brother learned to read my first grade primers before he ever started school, only because my mother sat him in her lap and read to him and spent time with him. One time she mentioned that she had thought my younger brother had memorized the stories word for word in the primer. So, what did she do? She randomly pointed to words and asked my brother if he knew what these words were. He did. But, was he just a little toddler or a baby only a few months old at this time? No. He was about four years old. Was he forced to read too young or too early? It doesn't seem so. Now days pre-schools and daycares tend to employ this same kind of teaching for basic reading--but not too early.

I believe you will learn how to be a teacher in an age appropriate manner as you go along as you and your child get to know each other.

babyhood, childhood is so short
let her be a baby and you encourage it, but not make it happen.
give her alot of experiences and read to her alot

enjoy her being a baby

I am a guy and I am not pregnant!

i am a guy too but still iam sure dads would like there kids to learn they didn't have this when i was little maybe they should have if it doesn't cost to much you could try it you never know i don't know if you can teach a baby to read when they have to learn to crawl and walk and talk frist whech is a lot i can see maybe doing it when they are around 2 but what do i know i don't have any children

let them be babies

How neat!

My first kid learned to read in spite of me being determined not to blunt his creativity by teaching him to read.He was around three. He was ready, he was read to, and nothing was interfering with his learning. My daughter did not learn as early, she could not see, but we did not know it. When she got her glasses at 5 she picked up a book and could read. At the time they were little, Parent's Magazine said that teaching academic skills at a young age inhibited natural creativity. Friends of mine were trying to make their daughter learn to read and write using a book called "You Can Teach Your Baby to Read." She just cried about it. An educator I knew at that time explained to me that the methods used for early reading were the same that were used with brain damaged persons, Idetic reading, I believe she called it. Phonetic reading, according to the people I knew at the time was preferable. My kids did learn to read phonetically. That would be my concern, does the system teach Phonics?

Wow, I have to agree with some on here that I would wait. My daughter who is now 14 months is doing well and is smart for her age already. I'm always rerading to her!!!

I have a year old son and he can talk a little not much, I'm not so sure i wan't him too lol learn too fast..i wan't him too learn on his own but i don't know if it would work.. have not used it at all ever.