Babies and toddlers learn from a variety of techniques and approaches. When children are very young, their minds are able to absorb and are eager to learn. Children love to be read to and can even learn to read well before school by using different methods. Read on for a Your Baby Can Read review.
You have probably heard the hyped up commercial on one of your local radio stations that claims you can teach your baby to read. As many parents, I am eager to try programs that sound like they can help my child improve their academic skills or aid in early learning. I decided to order the program from Amazon.com. This product was also available to me directly through the manufacturer for a 14 day trial at a discounted price during the trial period.
The Your Baby Can Read is a program that teaches through a series of videos. The set features 5 videos developed by Doctor Robert Titzer and also include “Word Cards” which are a type of flash cards and books that work along with the set. The final video is a review of the previous four. The videos show pictures of objects and their corresponding words and then states the words. They feature children in the video with illustrations that are mediocre at best. The doctor recommends the child be away from toys and other distractions, does not watch any other TV while using the program and possibly be put in the playpen so that they have little tempting distractions. The program can be used with children rather than just babies as it is recommended for the ages of 0-4 years old and was used for my 3 year old with autism.
This product can work for many young toddlers, but does not teach how to sound out words. It also may limit the words to the ones used on the set of DVD’s, unless you create additional flash cards of your own. After a while these videos may stop being an interest for your child, as they are not particularly exciting. They also teach in a way that may be controversial for some, as people may argue that simple memorization techniques are not practical to use when teaching to read. These videos are great to give your child a head start on learning a few words, but probably not to teach them to completely read or decode words themselves. The type of reading ability involving sounding out words can be unrealistic for toddlers, as their brain may not be capable of such complex academic performance. This is especially true for children around the age of 2. Nevertheless, memorization is not a recommended form of teaching reading as stressed by many reading specialists. Although this program aids a child with word memorization and possibly early speech development, I cannot recommend this product as an advanced reading tool.