anyone tried
My baby can read? My son is 18months and saying about 20words or so and i would like to take advantage of this time to help him learn as much as he can. I feel like reading and playing with letter and numbers wi th him isn't enough.
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“No,” said Dr. Nonie Lesaux, a child development expert at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. “They memorize what’s on those cue cards … It’s not reading.”
“It’s an extraordinary manipulation of facts,” said Dr. Maryanne Wolf, director of Cognitive Neuroscience at Tufts University.
From coast to coast, TODAY found 10 experts who were all of the same basic opinion: Young children can be made to recognize or memorize words, but the brains of infants and toddlers are just not developed enough to actually learn to read at the level the way the enticing television ads claim they can.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39953918/ns/today-money/t/your-baby-can-read-claims-overblown-experts-say/#.UGuxEU3A98E
Yes children who use whole word may read sooner than kids who learn with phonics, but in the long run they pay a very big price. They do not know how to decode words and spell - they can only half read - easily skimming over words they think they have memorized and never gaining full comprehension of what they are reading. Yes whole word will give your child confidence in reading, but it will be bad confidence and hard to correct later on.
http://www.epinions.com/kifm-review-F50-5791DC-38C97B3A-prod4?sb=1
The problem with these types of educational products appears to be twofold. First, doctors and scientists who have tested the products have reportedly found that infants using the products are not reading, but rather are memorizing the shapes of the letters presented. Second, as the CCFC points out, the program can actually be harmful to children, as it encourages them to sit in front of television screens and computer monitors, getting them “hooked on screens” too early in life. In fact, the group notes that if parents follow the “Your Baby Can Read” instructions, by nine months, babies would have spent more than a full week of 24-hour days in front of a screen.
http://ftcbeat.com/2012/07/25/your-baby-can-read-targeted-for-dubious-ads-closes-its-doors/
The charges ban the company, Your Baby Can, from claiming that its reading products benefit a child’s brain development, cognitive ability, or reading and speech development.
http://www.consumersdigest.com/news/ftc-says-your-baby-can-read-ads-are-deceptive
In short, don't waste your money. Spend the time with your child/ren to teach them how to read properly. Memorizing is one of the worst ways to learn how to read. They need to gain comprehension on how and why they are doing what they are. Sounding out the different sounds, etc. We need to stop trying to take the fast path to everything and have patience to do things properly. No offense to anyone who likes this produce. Just my two cents.
...and yes, I used My Baby Can Read with my first child...she did learn to "read"...except now at four, we have to re-learn and re-teach which is much more difficult to do than beginning fresh. Kind of like a civilian diver trying to become a Navy Diver, relearning what they already have and usually do worse than the ones who came in with no knowledge of diving. Or a Navy Corpsman getting out and becoming a nurse. It is much more difficult to adjust.