Babies Reading

Memorization is not reading, its a start, but it isn't actually reading. Just like we teach them colors, they know when they LOOK at the color what it is, but if you put the word in front of them, they can't tell you what it is.

Yes...I bought the $200 system. Like another mom I purchased it for my speech delayed child and thought this might help her learn new words and heck if it worked reading would be a bonus.

I must be honest I have not been keeping up with the daily dvd's. But she loves the books and cards! And get this...she learned how to read the word "HI"!!! I was in shock!

i am sure what the others said is true...that it is just memorization. but isnt that part of reading? Like I said it isnt something that we do on a daily basis like your suposed to and yet she remembered what the word HI looked like. To me that is remarkable. Esp. with a child like mine who has delays and possibly PDD - pervasive developmental disorder (on the autism spectrum.)

So...i would say yes it works and my daughter loves it - I just need to keep up with it. She loves it so it is worth the money if you are able to spend that much. I purchased the whole system from (yourbabycanread.tv) but there are smaller and cheaper pkgs to choose from.

I saw an infomercial about weight loss. I'm still fat. But I have less money. Save yours.

If it worked - you'd be teaching your baby look-say. This is a horrible method of reading instruction that has hurt thousands of students in the past few decades. There is a limit of several thousand words that can be memorized - and kids top out on this at about the third grade. Then you have a sudden drop in reading scores and confused parents of a frustrated kid... they have to learn to read all over again, phonetically, or they're screwed.

Leapfrog videos are EXCELLENT - The talking letter factory is 30 minutes long, $9.97 at Wal-Mart, and introduces the Upper and lower case letters and their sounds in a very non threatening fun way. By the time your child is two, they'll be walking around singing the A says /a/... every letter makes a sound the A says /a/.

After this happens, you can get the talking word factory - same price, same place - a phonetic approach to blending sounds (phonemes to those early reading teachers). You'll sit in shock after a few months when you see them sounding out C - A - T, etc.

You can follow this up with the talking story book factory, the math circus - you name it..

My five year old didn't start formal reading until he was 4... We got the BOB books ($13) before he started Pre-K, but he was sounding out short words (we wrote with chalk on the side walk, stick in the sand.. )long before that. He is an intuitive reader, comfortable enough with phonetically regular words to memorize the weird ones and read at a level 2 grades higher than the one he is in... My two year old recognizes every letter of the alphabet and can tell you its' sound.. he's on his way...

all for $20 bucks and several hours with T - A - D.

HTH
S.

You will serve him better to have him outside playing! I've read a lot of material about when to teach children to read. When they are that young their imaginations need to be stimulated. Playing is their work! Deductive reasoning and many other skills come from how they play.

I was so worried about my daughter when she was @ 18 mos because she didn't seem to like books even though I read to her every day. She would rather be outside building things or playing with her many plastic animals in the sand. She's in 4th grade (9) and is reading consistently above a 7th grade level. She loves to learn, loves to read and it came from me NOT pushing her.

Enjoy your son, take him on nature walks. Talk to him constantly and read to him when he's in the mood. Doesn't matter if he learns to read at 4 years old or 8 years old, he'll learn to read. More importantly is the love of learning!

Blessings!

L.

I am a product of 3 generations in the optical profession, some of which are specialists in Vision Therapy. BABIES' eyes are NOT meant for reading. In fact, much of the visiual problems kids have today is from starting TOO SOON with letters that are TOO SMALL! There's plenty of time for your child. Don't rush it! The infomercial is trying to sell you something and they don't care if it is good for your child or not! Even preschoolers shouldn't read letters that are less than 1 inch.

I agree I think they just memorize the words which is not reading. My 3 year old daughter will resite her books that I read to her word for word just after a few nights of reading a new book to her. She is just good at memorizing the story if she really likes the book. I can't get her to remember what each letter looks like so I know there is no way she is really reading. Don't rush it they grow up fast enough.

I agree with most of the posts--this is memorization. Recognition is certainly a beginning part of reading. However, you could achieve the same result on your own. Most bookstores sell picture flashcards and more importantly they sell books. The best thing you can do for his speech and language development and to instill a love of reading is to spend time daily with your son in your lap reading to him. I don't think you need an expensive DVD program.

Yes, we have the series. My son started watching it at 13 months and followed the 7 month watching schedule they suggest. He loved it and begged for more. He is almost 3 now and still asks to watch it every so often. We did NOT do the flashcard portion as I agree that babies really don't need to read. We used it more as a vocabulary builder because he was slow speaking. It helped a lot in that regard.

BTW - if you do buy it - check Ebay. We got ours and another for a friend (w/ another speech delayed child) for about $50 for the 5 DVDs alone.

I jsut purchased this video and started it last Monday. My daughter is 15 months and very active. Seh does not like to sit still. She did watch it every day last week , and a coupel of times it was with me sitting there trying to get her to sit thru it but we succeded. She can already recognize wave, arms up and sometimes arms down. I love the video and think it is well worth the money. I bought the 79.00 dollar package. Hoep this helps. I figured that with a 30 day money back guarentee what do you ahve to loose.

I might be alone on this opinion but I am thinking to myself, "Why rush a baby to read?? ...they grow up so fast as it is. That's crazy and I would never even try to do that to my baby". But seriously, let your baby be a baby as long as possible. Trust me, they grow up sooo fast. Then one day your going to realize that you missed out on alot because you were in such a hurry to make your baby boy grow up. It will happen soon enough, let nature take it's course. That's my opinion anyways.

Memorizing what a word looks like is not the same thing as reading. Reading is when you know what sounds the letters make and can sound out a word. It might be cute as a novelty trick. I knew a little kid who had a place mat with the names of country's with their capitals and after a while he had them all memorized. I like the idea of using it as a vocabulary builder, but even the advantage in school kids gain from preschool is usually gone by second grade, so it doesn't sound very useful.

Dont know much about it, dont see any real reason to! I agree with Mary that we are rushing kids to grow up way too fast, and while it may be cute to see an 18 month old read, in the end, it wont really put him ahead of his peers. Maybe for a few years, but they all catch up to the same place eventually. And, really, each 18 month old is so different, that I would not believe such a claim for all kids. I think you should read to your children, and often. Sing songs, show pictures, talk to them about the world around them, but really that is enough. ~A.~

Everyone's right, this will only make your child memorize. He will not be able to read anything outside of the set. If you really want to work on reading early, get or make cards with each individual letter (qu together though). Don't get ones with pictures or they'll memorize the pictures. Then go over the sound that each letter makes. This will be one step closer to real reading than an expensive system. Then you can move into the Bob books. The library has them. Then you only spend a dollar or two.