Your Baby Can Read - Cleveland,OH

I have asked the question of people who are experts in the field of Early Childhood Education and not one has felt that this was important for children. All responded with the same answer. The best way to help children become good readers is to READ READ READ. Reading to children and with children is so important. Providing interesting experiences and helping children extend their own vocabulary will also assist their reading ability. What we as adults need to do isinstill the love for reading and the child will pick up the ball and run with it.

We love it! Our daughter, a little over 2 had been doing it since last Christmas and still loves the program. She can read about 150 words now and it has really improved her vocabulary. We just started our 15 mo old on it and he can do 2 words. We think it's a great program.

It depends on what you mean by "read". Yes, the program works in the sense that a baby/toddler can memorize some short words and therefore read short baby books and some common label words (coat, tv, shoe, dog, etc).

However, most educators will agree that, that is not entirely 'reading'. True 'reading' involves comprehension and being able to generalize what you learn and using phonics. For example... you teach a 5 year old how to read the word "cat" and the next time he sees the word "hat" he knows how to read it even though you never taught him that. He took the rules of phonics, combined with the letter sounds that he knows and sounded it out. This is why a kindergartener can sound out a long word like 'astronomy' even though they never saw it before (my son did that).

Many many studies have been done over the past 20 years on the advantages and disadvantages of teaching babies/toddlers how to read. In short, there are few advantages (something like 99% of them are equal/average to their age peers by 3rd grade) but MANY disadvantages. The disadvantages are things that most parents do not realize because they do not recognize the importance of the stuff they do not know as well... peer interaction, social skills, imagination, problem solving, pre-reading & pre-math skills (sorting, grouping, patterns, etc), etc. The best way to teach your child how to read is for him/her to have a solid understanding of those basics -- which most kids learn through free play (and a little guided play) by the time they are age 4-5. The kids that are taught how to read early have less free time (in today's busy schedules, even missing 20 minutes a day is big). Once down, they can learn to read very rapidly.... most kids in my son's kindergarten class couldn't read at all the 1st day of school but by the end of the year every single one of them were reading chapter books for 3rd grade or higher (this was in a public school).

A great book to read is "Einstein Never Used Flash Cards". It has the science and numurous studies to back up the invaluble lessons kids learn through free play with multiple age groups. As they put it... the best way for your child to learn is to set them free in the backyard or, better yet, the local playground with new kids with little direction and interaction with the adults. Kids learn problem-solving and how "think outside the box" with open-ended toys and free play -- that is the number one best thing to teach your baby/toddler because he will use it for everything else he does in life. Some studies have shown that kids who learn to read early (and miss out on having alot of free play) actually do >worse< in school after 4th-5th grade - simply because they haven't developed a good set of problem-solving skills and have difficulty using what they know to extrapolate solutions for harder situations.

And just FYI, my son learned to read in kindergarten and is now reading at 8th grade level (just started 2nd grade). My oldest daughter just turned 4 last month and is reading a few words because she taught herself and learned the old-fashioned way -- asks us to read the same books over and over so she has it memorized and when she 'reads' to herself she points to the words as she says them. She's been asking to learn to read so last week we started teaching her the sounds to letters that she doesn't know... phonics is the building block to sounding out words. We are not pushing it but not holding back since she's asking to learn.

Hey A.,

Glad you decided not to waste your money. The data does not support this kind of early learning for babies, in fact, even if your child learns to read early, and some kids have the capacity to learn very early, all other things being equal, they will be at the same spot academically once they reach the end of third grade as they would if they had not had any formal instruction early at all.

An early reader may enjoy having learned to read and reading books for pleasure earlier than most, which might be the only reason to help a child with such a program, but you would be surprised how much a child who has the capability for early reading will learn just by reading along with you. If they are going to learn to read early, they will learn just by sitting on your lap as you read to them. Some kids won't, and that is fine too, they will learn with structured reading instruction once they get to school. Both learning styles are fine, and with mild variations, both kinds of kids will be at the very same point at the end of that third grade year.

As long as they enjoy reading and you enrich the environment as much as you can to expand their vocabulary they will do just fine. Since you are looking for ways to enrich them, you are probably already doing every thing you need to just by talking to them and setting a good example of reading to your self and reading to them and talking to them all day.

M.

We have the videos, but I bought them used on ebay because I thought the price was outrageous. My son was about 15 months old when we started and he loved watching them. After a couple months he would recognize many of the words, especially body parts and animals. So I suppose they did what was promised, but I don't think it's worth the cost unless you can get them pre-owned.

I have some friends that got this, and it worked like you see on tv. I will say that I have read that kids who read that early end up evening out with all the other kids, and the advantage is short lived (there have been some research studies on this, but it escapes me this early who authored them)....We decided to pass and let our kids learn naturally through play, etc

I asked this same question about 9 months ago. Only one responder had actually used the program. I didn't buy it. What the wonderful infomercial DOESN'T tell you is that it's VERY time consuming and expensive. You basically will dedicate your entire day to working this program in order for it to work properly. I took a different approach, and Kaitlin's not READING but she knows the letters of the alphabet and is learning the sounds each letter makes. She was 2 on 05/18. She counts to 20 without problems. I talk to her all day, putting words to objects instead of saying "give me this or that." She knows her left and right. She doesn't really like reading time, so the program probably would have been a HUGE waste of money for us.

Good luck to you and your littles! C.