As an experienced parent of 3 children, ages 20, 16 and 2, I am naturally cynical about any product that makes a claim as extravagant as teaching your baby to read. I taught preschool for more than 15 years and believed that children learn to read by being read to, and by learning phonics when they enter public school at age 5 or 6.
I stumbled across such a product recently called “Your Baby Can read”. It is the first reading video series specifically designed to help teach infants and toddlers how to read. The full set includes 5 DVDs to be viewed sequentially over a period of 6 or 7 months, and then reviewed occasionally for reenforcement. Your Baby Can Read was developed by Robert Titzer, PH.D. Dr. Titzer is a professor at Southern Louisiana University, and the founder and president of The Infant Learning Company. Your Baby Can Read has been featured on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNN, and MSNBC.
I brought this set of videos home to my 2 year old and the 4 children who attend my family home child care. The children were immediately enthralled by the first starter video. All 5 toddlers, ages 10 months to 2 1/2 years old, watched as short video clips, music, and 22 different words danced across the screen.
I was impressed with the DVD’s ability to hold such young children’s attention for more than 2 minutes. The video clips of babies and children demonstrating each word are very short. Each word appears on the screen multiple times and in different fonts. As a word is read out loud, an arrow scrolls along under the word from left to right. There also familiar songs from childhood. If You’re Happy and You Know It, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, were big hits. The arrow scrolled along under the words as my toddlers danced and copied the movements of the children on the television.
I began letting the children watch the first DVD everyday just like the introduction by Dr. Titzer had suggested. After a few days they were requesting it. They even chose it over Elmo’s Potty Time, our previous must see TV. So we continued to watch daily and after a month or so I introduced disc number 2. Again a big hit with my 5 little product testers.
I liked the fun ambiance and the very cute kids on the videos. I was baffled by the choice of words on the starter disc. I am accustomed to giving beginning readers simple words with one syllable, like “see Matt run”. This system began by introducing words like tiger, gorilla, arms up, smiling, and eating, as well as eyes,ears, nose and mouth. The kids obviously enjoyed watching, but were they learning?
The great revelation came on a 3 hour road trip with my daughters ages 16 and 2 in the back seats of the minivan. In an attempt to distract her little sister who was strapped in her car seat, my eldest picked up the MagnaDoodle and started writing each of our names. I was astounded to hear my baby read mommy, daddy, and Zoe. Wow! We started writing words we had seen on the videos. Zoe read monkey, elephant, cat, dog, and mouth!
Several days later my youngest toddlers were touching their heads when they saw the word head and raising their arms when they saw the words arms up.
I was sold on the Your Baby Can Read Early Language Development System. My kids were recognizing printed language. The research suggests that babies and toddlers can learn to read words at the same they are learning to speak them. I can’t wait to move on to the next DVD.
I would recommend this product to everyone with young children. They would probably even help older children who struggle with reading. The DVDs are available separately and as a set. The set includes 5 double sided flash cards and some other extras, depending on where you buy them.
