Baby Can Read

Hi,

I have training in this area so I wanted to comment.

Buy it if you want to, but realize what you're getting first. "Baby" may be able to learn to recognize words, but it does NOT mean he is reading. He does not yet have the ability to hold a sentence of "read" words in his head long enough to make sense out of them. He is not comprehending. He is simply learning the name for a word of a certain shape, just like he learned the name of other things. It's probably not harmful, but it doesn't benefit him in any way. Instead, spend time interacting with him for maximum cognitive benefits.

Actually, someone asked this not too long ago, and some people thought it was a good program, but I really think it's a waste of money. As a former teacher who is married to a teacher, I know what babies are capable of learning at what ages, and in the Baby Can Read program, children are just memorizing sight words. This is useful, but it can also be done using a few good books (Dr. Seuss books are good for this because of their pictures and repetitiveness) and some flash cards. The game Memory is also good as they get older. And since you have older children, just having baby around them when you read to them and talk with them is a great learning tool. I really wouldn't spend the money on something that you can do so easily yourself.

The one I recommend is Teach Your Baby to Read. It's one book that you can get online that has an excellent method. No big expensive program to buy. It's highly effective. One thing the book says is that any method you make to teach your child to read will work. Children want to learn. Teach Your Baby to Read was developed by a team of doctor's, teachers and specialist who were trying to find the best way to help brain-injured children deal with life. They figured out reading was the best thing to do and developed this method. What they found was that the brain-injured children were learning to read faster than "normal" kids. When they worked with regular kids on the same process, they were learning to read at incredibly early ages--2 etc. This sets them up for lifelong learning, success in school, great achievement and more. We used this process and others with my 7 year old. He's in first grade, reading on a 5th grade level. My 5 year old isn't in Kindergarten yet and he too can read almost everything. I don't think that you need a big expensive deal. Your time is the best investment you can give. Library books are also great. All the best to you!

Hi P.,
I asked the same question not a long while ago and got a lot of mixed responses (around 17/18). I ordered the set "Your Baby can Read" last month as my 25 yr. old daughter, Esha, loves looking at books, she recognizes all alphabets and numbers. I received the set a few weeks ago and since then I have been playing the DVD and showing her the books and flash cards. The material is really impressive and it does work. The volume 1 DVD (I have not checked out the rest) is little boring and cannot keep Esha occupied for more than 10 minutes though. But, the books and flash cards with pictures on them are effective and Esha does remember the words. She also could read the same words when I wrote them on different piece of paper. People say kids are memorizing and not actually reading with the help of this program, but don't we memorize the ABCs and numbers? Its okay even if they memorize, they are going to learn the spelling after a while. But its a very good push start for them and they love those big books with sliding pictures.
I would suggest you first make sure your kids know the ABCs, capital and small letters.
I definitely recommend it if you can afford it.

I have actually had a wonderful outcome with each of my children due to this product. It is based upon years of research. It does work. The younger you start the videos the better though. Once a child gets to kindergarten age they may lose interest in the basic song, etc.

You will notice that the videos are very low key and not flashy...but this down to earth (read not over done multimedia) approach works. Perhaps you could buy a set of these on ebay or just buy one to try it?

A.
Mom of a 12 year old, 7.5 year old, and 4.5 year old.

Read Better Late than Early. Free from library, save yourself money and your child from being pushed to read too early.