Have You Heard of the "My Baby Can Read" Program?

Hi A.,

Your son will read when he is ready. Continue to provide him with language rich materials and developmentally appropriate toys and allow him to discover text through play. Just read to him at bedtime, stimulate his vocabulary by talking to and with him, but there really is no need to make him read just now.

Reading is more than just reading. It is making inferences, comprhension, decoding, recalling, inflection, annunciation, pronunciation, technical pragmatics etc. You see, these things come with time and there is no real benefit according to many studies that reading as an infant will make a difference.

Play with your baby and you & he will be much more rewarded and fulfilled.

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Sounds like BS, especially since it's a DVD based program. Babies should not be watching any TV until age 2- and even then it should be less than 1 hour per day.
I would just read to your son every day at his age. As he gets older (18 months or maybe 2), start trying to teach him the letters and eventually the sounds that the letters make. Don't push anything on him and when he seems disinterested, move on to something else. Young children have natural curiosity but short attention spans, so you have to be aware of both so you don't stifle his love of learning.
The mom who was talking about seeing someone else's 2-year-old reading is mistaken. That child is not reading. That child has memorized some words on flash cards. This is no different from a child being able to tell you that a picture of a cat is a cat. He does not know any grammar and could not sound out a new word. It sounds like the poor kid has been drilled to death and is performing for adults so the mom can brag. I think many moms want to have smart kids to stroke their own egos and don't worry about what all the pushing does to their poor neurotic kids.

I was an early reader (I went to kindergarten at 4 and could read already) but my mother never used any special programs and never pushed me. I was an early talker and was interested in reading so my mom read everything to me a lot and helped me learn. I learned in a very natural, unrushed way. However, I do remember sitting in kindergarten at 4 years old bored out of my skull while the other kids were trying to sound out the words one at a time when I could read the whole sentence. I do feel like I had an advantage in school, but unless there is a gifted program in the school, the child may be bored if he learns to read before his peers.
Don't feel guilty about anything. Your son is only 6 months old. There is no way to tell at his age if he is gifted or not, but don't worry about it. Your son will learn when he is ready. Enjoy him while he is a baby!

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Before I responded I read the other replies. If you notice the moms with babies think its a great program, while the moms with older kids and teachers dont like it. My experience with my daughter would tend to agree with the negative. My daughter was my first born and I read to her every night and often during the day. She loved Green Eggs and Ham and I had to read it over and over. At 3 she was pointing to the words and really reading them. I was soooo excited. My baby can read. I taught her to count and add and subtract. WOW what a genius I had. Fast forward to kindergarten, first and second grade and she hated school, was bored, fidgety and told the teacher she knew all that stuff. By the third grade she was learning new stuff and began to like school, she was no smarter than the other kids (well maybe a tad smarter..lol).
Enjoy your baby, read to him, play with him, but dont try to teach him. Learning the ABC's is ok, but at 2 or 3 not at 6 months. Peek-a-boo at 6 months.

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I have not heard of this program, but as the mother of a 6 year old who "learned" to read just by being read to and sorting it out himself, I would never want to take away his pride in his own accomplishment, done when he was ready in his time, when he was 4. He now reads at a much higher grade level (haven't actually tested, don't think that particular number is important) He got a King Tut book for Christmas and read a whole section on how to make a mummy and didn't need help with a single word (not a kid's book). The look on his face, he was so proud of himself! Priceless.

At 6 months, learning by exploring his environment is age appropriate. Motor learning--getting ready to crawl and walk and just move in general is important so they build strength and mobility.

I am a propronent of providing a rich environment and letting them figure stuff out and focus on what they are interested in before they go to school. If your child goes to a mainstream school, there will be plenty of time down the road for structured learning. Now is the time for exploration, developing interest. To best help your child develop, provide a safe environment for him to explore, educational toys, read to him, talk to him a lot without talking down to him, don't change your vocabulary when you talk to your son, teach him to ask when he doesn't understand a word or concept

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A.,

Please don't try to teach your 6-month-old to read! The most important thing that needs to happen in the first year is for him to develop a secure, loving relationship with you. At this point, his "intellectual development" is focused on learning that objects exist even when he doesn't see them (object permanence). Playing peek-a-boo is the best thing you can do to help him with this cognitive milestone.

Rather than focusing on helping him learn TO read, try to help him develop a love OF reading. While he can be taught to read in school, teachers can't necessarily teach him to WANT to read. By reading to him from a very young age and having him observe you reading, you will give him a gift that is much more important than the ability to recognize words on flash cards. Research shows that talking, singing, and reading to your baby is all that children need to help develop the connections in their brains. You can check out the "I Am Your Child" dvd to learn more about this research:

http://store.parentsactionstore.org/prostores/servlet/Det...

You may also want to check out sites like Babycenter.com to find out what kinds of activities are developmentally appropriate for an infant. I have a degree in Child Development and still find their suggestions to be helpful with my second child (who is 7 months). Please, don't worry about educational achievement at this point in his life... there is plenty of time for that later. For the next few years, just PLAY PLAY PLAY. Play is how young children learn, and there likely won't be enough time or opportunity for that later, as you will soon see.

A.

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Hi A.,
I just saw the infomercial yesterday and I too was really interested in this program. I have a 4 year old daughter and thought of getting it for her. I went online to their website and the program does actually cost $200. But I still considered it. I'm so glad you posted this question b/c after reading the responses from the other women, I think I'll just continue to read to my daughter and let her learn at her natural pace. So thank you for posting the question. Good luck in whatever you decide is right for your baby. BTW- I'm an A. H also! Happy New Year.
A.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi A.,
As a mother and a teacher I can understand how you want the best for your child. After years of practice, experience, and research I have found that early reading only exists in about 5% of children, early meaning before age 6. This push for early reading in schools right now is damaging vocabulary skills, reading and understanding in context, and spelling. The children are learning loads of small sight words and not how to sound out words. They are learning to visually recognize so many little words that they barely have a working oral vocabulary. The best thing to do would be to read to your child every day, twenty times a day if you want, but relax on the reading. Build your childs vocabulary skills and understanding words in context skills. Enunciate words so that they understand the sounds that go into the word so that reading and spelling will come easily and naturally to them.

There is no 'window' on learning to read. You can learn to read any time after 6 years old.
Learning to read early does not make a better student or learner. It may damage a childs future to push early reading, my brother is a prime example.
The age that the brain is ready to learn words visually is around 6 years old.
Before that, their vocabulary needs to be built up and their understanding of words in context and in sentences needs to be learned.

They don't call them 'baby steps' for no reason.
Sorry if I was on my soap box, I just get a little passionate and excited about this subject.

Good Luck mamas,
I am here for more discussion and lesson plans and anything you may want to chat about or pick my brain about.

P.

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You can ask you doctor but from the literature I have read, these things can be quite dangerous. Babies are not meant to read. They are meant to be read to, talked to, shown lots of unconditional love by those special people around him and given age appropriate toys. According to the positive dicipline literature, flashcards and the like may damage a child's brain because the first two years is when the main connections occur. Just love your baby and enjoy him. I am sure lots of parents have good intentions but really, things like this make me wonder if some parents do it to show off.

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I followed the advice in Sidney Ledson's book Raising More Intelligent Children. He also has a book about teaching your child to read in 60 days. I never bought that one. My daughter never learned to read before school but when she did, she learned to read pretty much instantly in two languages and was fluent within a couple of months.

Learning is not a chore before age four so whatever we can get them to do before that age will make life easier for them in the future. Better to be a bit bored in school than to struggle with something because it wasn't learned at an easier stage.

The books I mentioned will do the same thing as the more expensive TV program. I heard the author being interviewed on the radio one day which prompted me to buy the book and I am very grateful for it. My daughter is 16 and is a rare child because she knows how to think. I give the book's methods credit for this since she learned so much early on that she had time to develop her brain more.

School teaches children how to memorize. It will not make them intelligent! Most of the geniuses and American billionaires do not have college or university and quite a few didn't even finish high school. You can check the billionaire profiles when Forbes comes out with their annual list. I was quite surprised. The other nationalities seemed to have a bit more education than their American counterparts. Okay, I could go on for hours about this, LOL!

Check out the books before buying the program. Would love to hear from you sometime in the future and see the results.

Another awesome book that I found very helpful regarding learning was The Continuum Concept.

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PLEASE just enjoy your baby. Forget this reading
program. At six months, there are many other things
to be doing with your baby-like having fun. We
teach our children on a daily basis without knowing.
Please do not spend time trying to teach a 6 month old
to read.

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Hi A., I went to a Christmas party and saw first hand the result to that program. A 2 year old was there with his mother and she had some flash cards with her and the two year old was reading them, being the person that I am I did not believe that he knew what he was reading. The mom told me to pick the the words from the cards and try to pick something that was in the room. I did, I picked chair, tree, lamp and ceiling. The baby read each word and then I asked him to show me those things and he did with no hesitation. I was very impress so I told my brother about the program for my 5 month old nephew. Not many things impress me but this, this I wish I had when my daughter was a baby. At the party I even joked about having another child so that I could try the program out. Good luck.

I haven't read any of the prior responses, so I'm not sure what advice you've already gotten. But here's my take:

It's possible that a program can help kids memorize words, which is one component to reading. Just like "Hooked on Phonics" can help kids learn one aspect of reading- sounding out words. But I was a teacher before I became a stay at home mom, and I have a very strong opinion on this stuff! :) DON'T PUSH IT! Your amazing little boy will totally learn to read, easily and naturally, from just a couple of awesome things that you do with him:

1. Read to him every day! (I bet you already do, right???) Read him all types of books, especially books with easy patterns. (Ex: Ben loves his bunny. Ben loves his teddy. Ben loves his ball. etc.) Once your son is older, he'll start looking at the pictures and saying the words along with you. So fun!

2. Read in front of your kids. If they see you read, then they will read.

3. Turn off the TV. This is the best thing you can do for kids! Most TV is edited in a way that actually makes the reading process PAINFUL for kids. I did a tone of research on this, in my Master's Degree program! People don't realize that TV and video games actually make reading printed words so much harder for kids. Now I'm not talking about 30 minutes of Sesame Street. I'm talking hours here, as some kids watch.

4. Once your child is in kindergarten, talk with his teacher. Kids learn to read so quickly, once they hit K-1st grades. I loved teaching 1st grade, and watched in astonishment as little ones who didn't know their alphabet learned to read and write in a matter of weeks/months!

There's no need to push here. Reading should be super fun, not a flashcard based task. Once your son has the dexterity to turn pages, he'll start doing what my little guy does: frantically turning every page in every book while briefly glancing at the pictures. He doesn't even want to hear me tell the story! But that's ok, because he LOVES books. And that's the first step toward becoming literate.

Ok, off my soapbox. Sorry! :)

I saw it last night for the first time on T.V. and thought it was amazing. I don't see how it can hurt and I'm thinking of buying it for my nieces baby...
((((www.mybabycanread.tv in case any one else here is interested in checking it out.))))

As a librarian the advice I can pass on is to simply read to your son. Lots of great picture books from the library and get him some board books and toss them in with toys. The biggest thing is to get words into those cute ears, the more they hear the more their little database builds up. Read, sing, dance, rhyme and have fun. Ask your local librarian and here are some resources:

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/ecrr/resourcesab/b...

http://www.getreadytoread.org/

http://onlib.org/website/kids/parents.htm

I heard of it, but never tried it. I can tell you that I watched signing time videos (www.signingtime.com) and my son picked my signs and words from it- he is 2 1/2 and we just were looking to put him in school ,but the school said he is already above what they are teaching the 5 year olds--- he can read over 1000 words that I know of (I stopped counting at that point)We read to him alot, constatly infor I think us reading constantly to him and his understanding language really helped him with his reading skills...

I have the dvds, and believe me I wouldn't normally spend that much money on something like that! However I love to read, and Dr. Titzer's explanation of how it worked made alot of sense to me.. In the parents' guide, he explains how it works and alot of babies' development.. So I decided to keep it.. (I bought the one on tv, but you can also get them seperately on the yourbabycanread.com website. I started showing the videos to my daughter about two months ago(she is 14 mos old) and I do like them..She seems to like the flash cards and books better, her attention for the video doesn't last the whole thing. I don't show it as much as they recommend, but I do show it almost every day..(thats pretty much all i let her watch besides the occasional baby einstein) I do wish I found it earlier and started showing it earlier.. She doesn't read any of the words yet, but it has helped her with recognizing things and actions.. For example, after watching the videos for just a little bit, she learned to clap, put her arms up, and body parts...
As for complaints about them not teaching phonics - Dr Titzer says that at first they learn by memorizing, then they do learn patterns and phonics..
Overall I do like the videos and the books and flashcards. Its educational and only time will tell if it will teach my daughter to read.. But at the very least it teaches her to recognize some words, actions, body parts and animals. I think it helps her be more aware of and interested in words.. She loves books and loves flash cards...
If you are interested you can just get the trial and return it if you dont' want it... Or buy the starter dvd to check it out..
Good luck!

Haven't heard of that program but read to your little one and point to the words. It helps them learn and you will be amazed at what they learn. My daughter talked at 9 months and QUIT at 1 year old and 1 week. The doctors said she was learning so fast her brain could not keep up with everything. At 2 she did 9 months of speach therapy and they stopped it because she was talking and comprehending at the 5+ year level according to all the "tests". They are like sponges but even sponges can only soak things up so fast. Read, talk (normally not baby talk), sing, dance, show and have fun. Your little one will learn more than you can imagine. A.

One thing I do know is reading to your baby goes a long way. I've been reading to my 14 month old several books a day since she's been born and her vocabulary is great. She already can already put 2 to 3 word sentences together.

Below is something I found online regarding the "Program". Still looking for answers myself so I'm interested in seeing what other mom's think as well. Thanks for asking about this! Good Luck!!!

Resolved QuestionShow me another »
Has anyone bought the "My Baby CAN Read" system? I want to get it but want some real input.?
I want to know if anyone has tried it? At what age? What are the results?
2 months ago

Harmony
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

The My Baby CAN Read program has some drawbacks. The first 18 months is a critical time for babies to be learning vocabulary. They need to learn thousands of words. Focusing on memorizing 1000 sight words by watching videos is a nice trick, but it takes time away from what their brains need most. Trust me 18 months goes by quickly, don't waste a moment. The larger the vocabulary you can help your child attain, the faster they will expand their reading ability when they start. They learn new vocabulary best by being read to frequently.

Another drawback with the program is that it teaches sight words before teaching that a word must be sounded out from left to right. About 10-20% of children will suffer reading difficulty or dyslexia if they aren't taught phonics and decoding words left to right one sound at a time. As many as 80% of children will suffer delayed reading progress by starting with sight words, because sounding out words is more difficult for them than it should be. The reading program I used was designed to be started from ages 2-6. The child learns about 20 sounds and can then read a thousand words on their own the first time they see them without watching boring videos. Doesn't that sound easier than memorizing 1000 sight words????
2 months ago
Source(s):
My reading program cost about $15, it was all in a book called "teach your child to read in just ten minutes a day" by Sidney Ledson.

You can buy a kit for $50 online as well
http://www.readin10.com/?page=institute
100% 1 Vote

Hi A.,
I don't know of this particular program, but I can tell you that there is simply no need for infants or toddlers to read. It's great to read to your baby starting in infancy and provide him with plenty of age appropriate books. If this is a dvd program, remember that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television til age 2. I work in the public school system, and I can say that parents who teach their children to read at an early age are not necessarily doing them a favor. If your child enters kindy reading, he will be bored. 95% of children entering kindy can't read, and the whole curriculum is based on teaching them to read. These programs that you may be able to buy may be very different from the reading programs such as PAF and others that are used in your school - some children need to unlearn bad habits when their parents have tried to push them ahead academically - we have a really tough time with the kids whose parents have taught them to write their names in all uppercase letters for example.
Good luck and enjoy teaching your baby about a love of books :)

Hi A.,
I have taught school, work as a parent educator, have 2 kids in public school and I have attended many, many educational lectures.

Very few kids read at age 3. Some read at 4 - but, not too many. It's about age 5 to 6 when more kids learn to read. I once had a girl I worked with who began to read at age 6 1/2. This child did not have special needs.

Read simple board books (photos ones are great) to your little one. Talk in complete sentences when you can. Point out surroundings and talk about them. Ex: That's a cardinal in the tree. It's such a beautiful, red bird. Now, he's flying away! I would always sing songs, recite nursery rhymes and do fingerplays with my eldest. We'd go on playdates at least once a week.

Guess what? I spent more time reading to my older child. I spent more time talking, signing and singing to my older one. We never skipped a bedtime story. I thought she'd read with ease. My second child came along. I had less time to read to her. We did not always read bedtime stories or sing to her. I went back to work and felt a tad guilty.

My little one is the stronger reader. My older daughter has a beautiful voice and would rather sing and avoids reading as much as she can.

I am skeptical about any such program, too.

Kris

That is so funny, I just saw a program this pass weekend about the same thing. I to feel guilty because my daughter at 1 1/2 years of age could make out the pages of a story and read flash cards. But work full-time and now have to help her with homework and take care of my son. Girl 6 /12/ and the boy 1 1/2. My husband tells me all the time how I do not give him enough learning time. I have to work, do the homework, cook the dinner and take care of the house now when is this going to happened. And when I pick him up from the sitter he is so exhausted because he really does not nap for her so when we get home for the most part he is ready for bed. I would not feel to bad. It just this crazy life. If you have only one I would do a little at a time before bed. Thats just me. :)

Seen it on the T.V. . I would also like to know if it works myself.