"your baby can read"

well i got this as a christmas present and i'm wondering if any of you have tried it, think it works or is a total waste of money/time/energy and is just a marketing ploy to get suckers to spend hundreds of dollars on products that don't work.

a friend of mine says she used the flash cards starting around 4-5 months and now her 12 month old can say 20 words and know what they are, like he can say ball and point to and hold a ball...things like that. she swears by it.

other friends have said it's a waste...so what's your opinion??

 

It probably appears to work. The baby isn't reading with comprehension, but can memorize a particular shape as being a particular word (much the same way they can tell the Taco Bell logo apart from the McDonald's one, by shape). IMO, babies have so much to do and learn, and "reading" isn't really that important or helpful at this age. I think there is more value in reading stories to them than in having them practice flashcards.

 

I couldn't agree more. This is nothing new - with repetition babies have the ability to do this stuff, but for what? Comprehension is the key ingredient for success in literacy and that is not what this is. This is memorization. Reading stories and talking about the world around you and them is what builds comprehension. Don't waste your time. Read, sing, play patty cake, and interact. My opinion of course. It does look fabulous, especially in a world where there is so much competition between families and their children's development. Snazzy marketing.

 

Ugh. I've seen the ads. I think its sad that people play on parents to be "competitive" and that there is something wrong if their kid can't read by age 4. My mother teaches elementary school and my father teaches learning disabled/behavior disabled students. Both of my parents roll their eyes about young kids learning to read. Kids who are not reading by 3 or 4 are caught up with those kids who were "early" readers by 2nd-3rd grade and can even surpass those "early" readers. My nephew didn't start reading until 2nd grade. He is graduating high school with a 4.0 taking advanced placement courses (he is in the gifted program). I was an "early" reader and there was no place to note it on the college application. The point being it really doesn't matter in the long run when they learn to read as long as they learn.

What is the most important thing you can do to help your baby/child is read to them. And don't stop when they start school. That makes the biggest difference. My mother can always pick out the students who had parents who read to them.

 

I agree. I don't think its scam but a waste of time and energy? Yes. Only bc you can do those same things with small word/picture books and talking to them. If its the same program that someone was explaining to me they want you to watch a movie for 15 minutes like 3-4x a day....I can tell you I would LOVE for the boys to sit and watch tv for an hour a day but its not gonna happen! I'm sure some of the tools might be useful but again, its not different than reading them the same book over and over...which they do enjoy

 

I've never understood why people would want to teach their babies to read in the first place. They have so much they are learning in the first years of life without the pressure to learn something that they have no need for at such a young age. ardon:

 

i haven't looked into it - but I agree 100% with Ruby. Read and talk to your babies!

 

Why would anyone want their baby to read? They are babies.

 

There is plenty of time later...just let them be babies!

 

IMO children already have 12+ years of school to look forward to - I don't think they need to learn to read by the time they are 2 years old. Since it was a gift, you could use it for fun or sell it on ebay! LOL!

 

My opinion is this....
The most important thing is that children are happy, healthy and loved. Reading is not an essential function of a toddler and there are other important things they need to be mastering in this time. My goal for my children so far is that they can read by the time they finish kindergarten and they haven't let me down yet. My son actually began reading before kindergarten because he's just that kind of kid. Either way, I'm confident that they will both be successful in school, life and go to college and have careers.

 

Kids will learn to read when they are ready. Actually, there is research out there that shows pushing kids towards academics early can actually backfire in that the kids will "burn out" long before they are ready to graduate. (There is a difference between a child who reads on their own at 3 and one who is pushed with flashcards, etc.) I have both sides of the spectrum, one who read on his own at 3 1/2 and one who didn't read at all until Kindergarten. And guess what, in 2nd grade, the one who didn't read until K is now reading on a solid 4th grade level, and the one who read at 3 1/2 is at the end 3rd/beginning 4th grade level. Babies need to be babies, and learn to roll on the floor and play, not sit and memorize flash cards.

 

Well said Sharon. I was trying to think of how to say all that!

 

I don't trust anything that is sold on an infomercial on TV! I think it is total crap and just feeding into our competitive society. Kids are slowly losing their childhoods with all the pressure to grow up too soon. None of us were being taught to "read" as babies and we are all just fine!

 

I tried to look for the thread that talked about this before... someone mentioned some interesting points about the series being cheaply made, and looking like a power point, and things being very black & white, and zooming on and off the screen. anyway, they mentioned that all that screen stimulation was too stimulating for young babies/children... and that having them watch it wasn't as beneficial.

I know I'm not explaining it right, but thought I'd mention it. My husband also recently was chatting with a lady from an Early Intervention program here in FL and she mentioned that tv watching before 2 yrs old is something that they believe contributes to attention disorders. of course anything in moderation is probably fine.

like another poster said, you got it as a present.