"Your Baby Can Read" Program?

[HLAuburn]

Does anyone have any experience with the "Your Baby Can Read" DVD program? I have a 4 year old who's starting to read and a 4 month old, too, so I'm thinking it might be good for both of them (on different levels, of course). It's not cheap though, so I wanted to see if anyone's tried it.

Thanks!

 

[Aristomommy]

I have heard great things about Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons, if you have a child that is showing reading readiness.

The DVD series from what I understand is based on memorizing words, instead of reading.

You can read a bunch of reviews on Amazon on both programs to get various opinions.

 

[HLAuburn]

Thanks! I picked up "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" from the library, and I just couldn't get into it...I guess it wasn't as straightforward as I expected.

The "Your Baby Can Read" website says that while young babies DO memorize in the beginning, they eventually learn the concept phonetic patterns. My 4 year old knows all the letter sounds and can sound out basic words, so I thought it might be good for her too.

 

[harleyquinn]

Thanks! I picked up "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" from the library, and I just couldn't get into it...I guess it wasn't as straightforward as I expected.

The "Your Baby Can Read" website says that while young babies DO memorize in the beginning, they eventually learn the concept phonetic patterns. My 4 year old knows all the letter sounds and can sound out basic words, so I thought it might be good for her too.

Librarian here!

The program is basically just sight words...yes EVENTUALLY the baby will learn some basic things from the process, but a child MUST have phonics teaching to actually learn how to read.

All of the programs from 100 easy leason to Hooked on Phonics are a very large time commitment...especially HOP. The problem isn't that the products don't work,. it's that VERY few people have the time or skills needed to see the programs through.

I'd give it a bit and see if your library purchases the new program...

I think your 4 yo would get a lot more out of HOP, which many libraries carry.

 

[NotUrsula]

Another librarian, and I've got to say that I find HOP to be too pricey for its value. Most of the public libraries I've worked at bought it only because patrons demanded it, but almost every patron who took it out disliked it, because as Harley said, it is VERY time-consuming to do according to the instructions. I don't have experience with YBCR, but if it is sight-reading, I'd have reservations. IME, phonics is always key to early reading skill.

You really don't need to buy a "program" as long as you work up the concepts a bit at a time. Go buy a couple of phonics books from a teacher supply store and look at the order in which the concepts are introduced. Then read to them often and from a variety of books, and work the lessons into the reading. Let them finish sentences, supply words, sound things out, and connect the pictures to the words in context. I had mine reading at three this way; we just kept at it as a constant game.

 

[Judy from Boise]

Why ? Why when all research shows that peers catch up by the time children are normally taught to read? I believe there are no scholastic or cognitive benefits, and actually possibility for harm.

All babies really need to do developmentally is decide the world is a safe and predictable place. All further development is predicated on this. Spending quality time holding, snuggling, and meeting basic needs is actually more valuable....free....and a limited time joy you can never replace.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I would not buy them. I believe the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend any screen time until two.

My 10 year old basically taught himself to read at four. Somebody had given me the first set of Bob Books, and I worked with him on those. We never got the second set, but he just took off with other books. Same thing with my daughter, but she was five.

Babies need love, cuddlng, and you reading to them. This is the best thing you can do to develop reading readiness.

My 10 year old is now reading at a 12th grade level. He is in a gifted program, but the teachers really individualize. IMO, this is the key to keeping kids reading at a high level. Many teachers don't do this which is why, I believe, reading levels even out in third grade.

Disclaimer - former el ed teacher, now SAHM who still doesn't believe they learn much from t.v. no matter how "educational"

 

[Aristomommy]

Why ? Why when all research shows that peers catch up by the time children are normally taught to read? I believe there are no scholastic or cognitive benefits, and actually possibility for harm.

All babies really need to do developmentally is decide the world is a safe and predictable place. All further development is predicated on this. Spending quality time holding, snuggling, and meeting basic needs is actually more valuable....free....and a limited time joy you can never replace.

I think there are two scenarios:

1. Child is interested in letters and wants to learn to read, but mom is not sure how to guide this process.

2. Child is or is not ready, but mom wants child to have exposure to reading which may or may not work.

If the OP is in the first situation, then the child will follow their own development and learn to read regardless. But having some tools would be nice too. DD read chapter books before kindergarten, I didn't teach her and I have no idea how her brain figured it out. DS is 4 and he is more of a mathy kid, but from preschool he has exposure to letters and is now interested. I have considered the 100 Lesson book because I have no idea how to guide his interest in reading.

I'm sure the OPs child is cuddled and loved as are mine, one doesn't exclude the other.

As far as "catching up" comment: some kids will level off by 3rd grade and some will continue to accelerate. How frustrating would it be for a child to be slowed down if they were ready and motivated to learn though...

 

[Judy from Boise]

Children are quite different than babies, if I had a child that seemed to have a developmental imperative to read, I would buy books and let them have at it with support from me when they requested. This is a highly different scenario that a parent led "program". and very very different from an infant in the same program.
The "catching up" is related to the skill of reading, not the application of knowledge. Reading is like walking, they seem to be skills that almost everyone achieves when they hit a certain level of maturation. an 8 month old walker has no skill advantage over the average 3rd grader, neither does an 8 month old reader.