"Your baby can read"

Lifestyle Parenting, Household Affairs and Cuisine corner
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I was watching an infomercial today about a reading programme for babies “Your baby can read”
Check website http://www.yourbabycanread.com/ for more info.

Basically it stimulates babies to recognise and read words from a very early age (from approx. 6 months). I watched tons of video’s on youtube with little babies actually reading the words. It is actually quite mind blowing!

Is there anyone here on GS who has tried this? And also, what it your opinion about teaching your child to read at such a young age?! Would you rather have your child pick up on reading at ‘normal’ schoolgoing age?

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It sounds great and I am sure it must work, but I don't see the rush, I mean we all learn to read and write and learning any sooner surely isn't going to be a huge advantage for our futre. Sure if you have the time and want to have fun and encourage the child then go for it. Or else let them enjoy their kindergarten/nursery years and encourage them from 4 yrs old plus.

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Re: "Your baby can read"

I looked into this and it really does work. Too bad it's so expensive (at least over here).

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Re: "Your baby can read"

reading and comprehension are two different things. does this also teach 6 month old babies to understand what they're reading or are they just pronouncing the words by recognizing the alphabets? confused

Timepass March 2015
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my best friend recently had a baby back in august and someone gave her a set of that as a gift. So as he grows up we do plan on using it and seeing if he does respond because a lot of family and friends are also curious.

Timepass March 2015
Timepass March 2015
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From my understanding, they don't say the words. They read the word (or hear it) and then point to the actual object that is being said.

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I've read Glenn Doman on this.

I didn't try his program for babies, so I can't say anything about it. But I noticed, that a lot of "activities", “exercises” and so on, that are mentioned in the book that you can do with your child from birth - we do naturally, instinctively when we play with the baby. This way his brain develops.

I tried with my 7 mo.old - to show him words - it did NOT work, b/c he did not know the words I was showing (I started from Arabic, b/c that's my primary goal, and it is not the language I speak (with my son too)). We had busy summer and once I decided to try to use my cards (I made them myself, it's so easy, u don't have to by the fancy thing). He was 20 mo. old. It really works!!! I was amazed. He learned about 20 words in 2 weeks!!! He "shows" me the “meaning”, or says a word (if it is simple). Like, for instance, for "legs" he shows legs, when I show him word "eyes" (w/o saying anything), he points to his eyes : ))
It really started to make sense for him when he knew words and what they mean, and then learned how to read.
He gets "bored" fast, he would show me a couple of words and then run : ) They learn so-o fast, that it's hard to keep up with his speed not to get him bored.
I had to stop our “reading”, b/c don't have time now (I study and see him only about one hour a day), but will continue over the winter break! I feel sorry to lose valuable time…

It really is simple: you write words on cards, then a couple of times a day you pull them out and show them quickly, one by one, pronouncing the word for the child. Do not have to hold one word for him long - he get's bored (and when he does - it's a great discouragement for "lessons", he might refuse to do that if you don't keep the pace, praise him, really enjoy this and have fun!)
It is really not that hard as it might seem!

I believe it IS great when baby learns to read early, because he can expand his vocabulary greatly, much earlier than otherwise would.
He will also skips "boring" part of learning to read - when they do not have this capacity of the brain to learn so fast anymore, they have to study it in a slow pace, (at 4 years old of later).

I was 2 hands up "for" the program, but now, that I tried it even more so.

Arabic is harder to teach this way, b/c words change sometimes depending on their position in a sentence (we didn’t get to “reading a sentence” so we didn’t face this problem yet).

English suits for this program really great!
Try it, it's worth of a try.

But don't buy anything (unless you already have it) just yet. Read Glenn Doman’s books from your local library, then make your own cards, and see if both you and your child like this.
Share your results with us, here : ))

P.S. for the first "words" I chose something that is around him, simple, and something he likes: "car", "train", "clock", names of parts of body etc.
Good luck!

Watch this amazing girl, Emily reading (credit to her parents though):
put "Emily", "reading" in search on you tube

P.S. “your baby can read” web-site used to sell their sets of words separately (you could afford buying one or two “parts” to just try it), but now they put it in a one big set, which costs a lot : ((

If your baby is able to say words (depends on his age), then he IS gonna say it!

It teaches them to comprehend!!! They just learn auditory (as they hear it) and written (image) of the word at the same time!
They will not be able to say it untill they are able to talk though, but they DO understand it!

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Re: "Your baby can read"

How does it help to have a child read without comprehension of the context? Its not right. Infancy and childhood is to learn about the world around them by experience and observation.

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First you teach them words, then you put words together, then - into sentences.
This "teaching" takes a couple a seconds three to five times a day (I did two times a day). Is this ammount of time going to take away from his observation of the world much?
I don't know, maybe my child is different, but when I started showing him pictures from childrens books he did not understand how they "relate" to real life objects. For example he could not recognize that a drawn teddy-bear is a teddy-bear. He learned after I showed him drawings in different books (not photographs) of different bears, and now he can show you a bear in a book he has never seen before. It's the ability of the eye (to see details) brain to "understand", recognize abstract drawing. And that's a skill. It's not a given. Those who have babies of 6 month or a little older can see this.

This "program" is not to teach a baby to say a word like a parrot, without understanding. You teach them language, written language. Same as you do to teach them your language in auditory way (by repeating a word and showing the object). You do teach your child, you spend many of your hours and many of his hours asking him over and over: "What's this?" It realy takes a lot of his time that he could spend on observation : ) but you can't say the time is waisted.
You don't teach words w/o context, I think that would be wrong, and ineffective. Just as I wrote before, when my son didn't "know" the meaning of the word, he could not learn to read it. It is the same if you are going to repeat word "imagination" to a one year old. He might be able to repeat it, but he dosn't put any meaning to it.
So you choose words for your baby to learn, the words, that he can relate to, something that she/he knows already...
The truth is so simple and obvious, but just hard to digest. I would never be able to think of teaching (what a scary word) my child to read this early, if I didn't learn about Glenn Doman's institute, and their experience.
Human babies learn fast! They can learn anything, any language, any skill. When they get older - they lose this ability.

If you start teaching one year old letters, he'll learn, w/o putting any meaning to it. Letters are abstract.
The way we all learned to read - was to be able to deconstruct the word into letters, and be able to put letters into words.
Babies cannot do that. But they CAN learn the picture of the word, and they know(!) what it means! And they have fun being able to read. My son loves to look at words in books, on signs, packages etc. And he tries to read them, to understand. A huge part of understanding this world is in ability to read...

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Re: "Your baby can read"

I pulled out our "cards" last night, after I did'nt have a mitute to show them to my son for TWO months. He was not able to takl before as much as he does now, he used to show me the word (like eyes, ears etc.) Yesterday he started READING them aloud! I was astonished by this fact and also (most importantly) that he didn't forget them! SubhanAllah!

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Re: "Your baby can read"

^wow!

First thing you say to your friend who....
First thing you say to your friend who....
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Re: “Your baby can read”

Isn’t it stupid to teach a baby reading before he’s able to talk properly?

Please do read this article. “Rush, Little Baby”. Researchs suggest that in their rush in creating brilliant babies parents are increasing anxiety in children and that the old way of natural play is the way to a child’s normal development.

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Re: "Your baby can read"

ShinNo, I personally would not buy it mainly because there is no reason to believe that a kid who starts to read early would benefit more in life than the kid who starts reading at say at age five or six.

Just like those kids who start walking early do not necessarily grow up to be marathon runners.

All parents have this natural instinct to give our children the best but it has to be balanced with common sense.

The born leader , the only hope
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In my personal experience we don't need to buy this thing if we can we could, we should read a story book to our child every day.And we can start as early as 6 mnths and it develops a really good listening and reading habit in children when they grow up.

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I think people should have to be more polite to each other.

We all have our choices all our life and we can't call other people stupid just because you do not agree with them.

I think this article is very worth reading. I 've read a lot of other books "con" and "pro".

It's about our choice. Nowadays I think when you do not teach anything to your children it should be you choice, based on the info you have.

I do not encourage anyone to follow Glenn Doman's way of bringing up a child, I say you have to read it to have your own opinion on it. And decide for yourself, and for your child. What's better for both of you.

Surely it's is not a panacea, for bringing up smart child. And not every parent can follow this track. But it makes you think what to do for right development of you child. How we may help.

You already teach your baby words - they have auditory representation, writing - is just another representation of the same word. You don't mind teaching him words, and pushing him to say it even though his migh not be able to pronounce it yet, but you patiently wait for his organs of speach to develop abitity, meanwhile you keep repeating, and "drilling" all day long : )) but you don't like to show him a written word.

Kids like to understand world around them, and they like to be able to read! They enjoy this.

There is a lot to say about this article, but just few remarks:

The author takes fun of :"reading" from his daughter to just keep away "happy, magical" moment when she finally realized she can read at the age of six. That was his choice, as a parent. He went to Institute, he read different books, he made his choice. If you did the same - great.

The author feels sorry that little girl does not know names of all the princecess. What a targedy.
Austria has more Nobel price winners, b/c their kids are taught to read at 7. Where is the connection of these two facts. It's a logical flaw here (too big of a conclusion he makes based on nothing). There must be proof these two facts are connected, it could be many million other reasons why they have more Nobel prise winners...

I am not planning to "create" my child a Nobel prise winner or even go to Harvard (although I would like him to, as any parent would). I just think there are many more things given to us by Allah, that we are not using. Such as this ability of our brain when we are infants, toddlers to absurb information.

Personally I do not think my child will benefit a lot knowing to which class this buterfly of bug comes from (I don't teach him that).

But this ability of the brain sould not be wasted. Or better to phrase it this way: this ability sould be used as much as possible.

At this age it is best time to teach your child about the world using all means you have, as a parent: read books, go outside, explore, etc. And play!

The autour of the article is trying to say that Donan's programm is against play - it is simply not true. To show a child 5 words, 5 times a day, takes a minute. All other time he is playing.

Parents sould chose what they can do, and what they cannot. As for me, I do not have time to create picture "flash cards" with facts on them. I just bought calendars and big books with big photographs of different animals and I show them to my son, we "read" them, - I tell him all I can about this animal.

You have to ajust to your time, means. I cannot forget my personal life and dedicate ALL my time to the baby. He plays by himself a lot. Normal family.

Buttom line: parents should be aware of those programms, and take any ideas if they like them. Do not have to follow everything. Have to make their own choice, based on their opinion, well founded on the info available.

Water fast
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Re: "Your baby can read"

UZ I agree with the old fashioned way of reading story books. Its the best way to enrich vocabulary, fuel imagination, improve their attention-span, concentration and teach them to focus.

My daughter was a late talker. It was very worrying. But she loved me reading to her. I kept it up and now since she started talking (Thank God) and goes to school, her teacher has commented she is way above her age in reading skills. I am pretty certain its due to all the reading we did together.

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I said the logic is stupid, not the people.

A child who starts reading at 5 and a child who starts 8, at the age of 13 they will be on the same levels so why the rush? That was my point.

The COLLAPSE of Pakistan...
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Re: "Your baby can read"

ahha this is cute:D the video on the website i mean

China Readies $46 Billion for Pak Trade Route: WSJ
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Re: "Your baby can read"

tormolynx

For you it might be 5 mins 5 times a day but for a baby it's a lot and you can study on how kids feel the stress of reading in an early age but it might differ from kid to kid.

Just because a child can recognize 50 or 60 words doesn't mean he can actually read. He won't be able to "read" anything besides those 50 words on the flash cards because this is not how you you teach a child to read. You start it from Letters and phonic sounds.

I'm glad that you read through the link I posted though.

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Very much worth to read:

google search:

Stoner, Winifred Sackville, 1902 Natural Education

Has anyone read this book? What do you think about it?

Morals and \ethics of Pakistanis living abroad
Morals and \ethics of Pakistanis living abroad