Babies Learning to Read?
Friday, January 13, 2006
I know I'm supposed to be on "bed rest", but since my fetal fibronectin test came back negative, I thought it would be safe to attend a free seminar at the hospital about infant learning.
The seminar was amazing! It was taught by Robert C. Titzer, Ph.D, the creator of the "Your Baby Can Read" DVD's. He's spent his life researching how infants and babies learn. I never would have imagined that it was possible to teach a baby to read and went to seminar full of skeptism. After all, I'm the type that rolls her eyes when I hear somone say they put earphones on their belly to try to teach the baby in the womb.
After giving us a wonderful talk on the language development of babies, Dr. Titzer put on a DVD so we could see babies reading. It was absolutely incredible. They were showing a 9 month old baby flash cards with body part words in bold, lowercase letters. The baby, not quite able to talk at this point, simply pointed to the body part on the flash card. After about 20 of these flash cards, you could see that the baby really understood the words she was "reading". Then, they showed a series of 15 month olds who were able to read the cards audibly. It was amazing. One boy was even spelling other words with magnetic alphabet letters while he was reading the flash cards. Then they showed three-year-olds who were reading books out loud.
These babies were not taught to read in the standard manner. They didn't learn the alphabet, what sound each letter made, or even capitol and lowercase letters. Instead, they were simply shown the entire word on the DVD which was followed by a visual and auditory description of the word. For example, the word "tiger" was displayed with an animation going from left to right under the word. Then the word disappeared and was replaced with a video of a tiger playing in a zoo and some audio about the tiger and usually asks the child to do something. Another example was the phrase, "arms up". A word was shown, with an animation going from left to right (to draw the baby's attention), then a short video clip of babies raising their arms was shown while the video asks the baby to put her arms up.
It sounds so simple, yet was so impressive! There were about 50 people in the class (with their babies and monster travel system strollers - which I refuse to get) and I think every one of us bought a set of DVD's. Before, Hubby and I agreed that we would not expose Baby to TV until she was much older. I don't want the TV to be a babysetter and have her watch mindless, passive entertainment (including Baby Einstine). But, I bought these DVD's because they were just that impressive. I'll start showing them to Baby when her eyes develop the ability to track (2-3 months).
By the way, Dr. Titzer pointed out that the current issue of Time Magazine has an interesting article on Babies and Television - espeically "educational television".
I just realized something. Motherhood is my new job. It's not just a matter of feeding the baby and keeping it healthy and happy, but I need to do my best to give the baby the best possible start in life. This is my new and most important job. I don't know why this didn't hit me before now, but I'm actually pretty excited about it.
posted by Avorie @ 10:01 AM,
3 Comments:
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At 11:55 AM,
Drea said...
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Hey speaking of learning. You should consider teaching your baby sign. I use it with my 17 mo. old. I have since he was under a year... and its been such a help. He cant talk yet... w/ the acception of saying Mama and Dada... or "stop" LOL... but he is able to communicate with me signing... tells me when he is hungry... when he wants a drink... its awesome.
My friends 16 mo. old knows 40 different signs... Her names Providence. Shes so smart for her age. She is potty trained. She signs poop and pee to her Mommy when she has to go. She also can sign "I'm sorry Mom... or I'm sorry God" haha... and she even signs "I hurt.." and points to where it hurts.
Its amazing stuff. Check up on it if you get bored. You'll be amazed at the resources. -
At 1:52 PM,
Corinne said...
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Wow, that sounds pretty cool! Also sounds like you're feeling a little better. Isn't it exciting that we're about to become mothers (I mean technically, we already are, but you know what I mean!). Craziness!!!
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At 9:26 AM,
Isabel said...
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How interesting. I had never heard of this.
Good thing I got about a million books for the baby at the baby shower.
