To be very sceptical about the 'Your Baby can Read' program?

[michaelschumacherismygod]

My MIL has suggested that I buy this for my 7 month old son. Obviously I want to do the best for my son but I am just not sure if this is the best way for him to learn to read, whole word approach rather than phonics, watching TV for half an hour a day and large portions of his day dedicated to this system. However my MIL thinks I am being unreasonable and should pay the £150 for the program.

Would appreciate your opinions/experience, thanks!

Sounds like a whole load of rubbish. Just let your baby explore the world. Really huge waste of money!

Half an hour of TV a day for a 7 month old?! No way!
Read to your baby, talk about letters and their sounds as he gets older and he'll read eventually.

it is complete and utter bollocks.

I saw this at the Baby Show and stood there aghast! Of course the idea appeals as everyone wants their child to do well at school etc. But really, it's cack. Very exploitative of a natural parental urge to have successful children!

From what I remember it's just repetition, reinforcement and as you say, whole words - FWIW I learned by word recognition BUT I was old enough to decode the phonics rules myself IYSWIM?

The results this system gives is NOT real reading, that's the point. Just like when you stand your tiny newborn up and he moves his feet as if he's walking, he's not REALLY walking!

Save that £150 for buying him books when he's 9 or 10- that is when spending on reading really matters. The important thing for your future is not how soon you start reading but how long you carry on.

Babies don't need to read! They need to learn how to communicate and socialise... primarily with you.

Folk who hothouse their children baffle me. As Riven says, who will care when he's older? My brother didn't learn to read until he was 7 and now has a master's degree.

My advice FWIW is to enjoy your son. My DD didn't get any of that lovely nurture time with her birth mum and her "connections and whatnot" are faulty .

It's not bollocks. My almost three year old is reading a lot of words (and really, really enjoys it) and my nephew (2.5) is reading extremely well. Not just the words he learned on the system, but through phonics and sounding out new words all the time, so he can read himself a story etc. Whether you think there is a value in learning early or not is another issue, but it does work - anyone who says babies aren't capable of it is speaking out of lack of experience.

Why would a baby need to read?

DS1 (6yo) can read now, it doesn't actually matter that he has learned in the last year or so rather than when he was a baby.

I think it likely that DS2 will pick it up earlier because DS1 reads to him.

They are busy with physics at that age anyway.

michaelschumaker

Can you google this system/articles about baby development/artcicles abotu brain development and reading, that support your argument ie it's too early, no point, they'll learn when they're ready etc and show them to her?

Then also print off stuff which says about how children who have parents who read to them/with them etc have wider vocabs and read better?

And then say that together you could spend some of the money on suitable baby/toddler books and read them to her and that will be tremendous and might shut her up?

Is it her £150 or yours?

ive got it but wouldnt recommend, its quite rubbish. just read books with him yourself, 'thats not my dinosaur' and that kind of thing

I would have thought looking at loads of books is the way to get them to read/ be interested in reading. My 18 months old currently sits on the sofa and "reads" a story to her toy squid.

Wouldn't spend 150 quid on a programme, but I daren't total up what we've spent on books for her so far...

ie act as if her idea was just fabulous and so you researched it at length and that now you have come to the conclusion that this is a better way of doing it

Or can you get your OH to have a word and tell her to stop being silly

Cory - I am interested in your comment that spending on books at 9 or 10 is when it really matters. Why do you think that?

wise words cory - early reading doesn't matter, it's the lifelong enjoyment of books and learning that is desirable surely.

£150 is to us a massive amount of money, you could get some fantastic baby stuff for that - toys that involve cause and effect, that's a more important concept at 7 months than reading.

Why doesn't your mil buy loads of books, get a magazine subscription for this price & read them aloud & do the activities in the mags. Great fun as your ds gets older.

Not reading, but what about some signing? My dd loves it and we still use some signs, and all toddler mindees use a little bit.

My daughter did learn to recognise some words by 2 - her name, family members name etc. It's not Reading tho. And it was from looking at letters in the post- ie, oh that one says bob, so that's grandads, that one says Karen, so that's nanas etc. Not through a program!

I would start phonics at 3 ish but no earlier.

My DM is an ed psych and she thinks this is lunacy. Even if a baby can be taught to recognise words, that is a long way from them understanding what words and phrases mean.

Children learn to read when ready, whether or not their parents have spent £150 on some system.

The whole word approach is better for some children (like my DD) but the reason this system uses it instead of phonics is presumably because the children in question are too young to sound anything out.

Why is extreme early reading seen as a good thing anyway? Surely socialisation is a far more beneficial way to spend that time? Good people skills are always going to carry you further than recognising words as a baby. Put it this way; I learned to read at 2 (by myself). My DH learned at 7 and you really can't tell the difference .

A baby's brain would not be able to process the meaning of the words so would achieve no actual understanding and would be better off posting shapes in a shape sorter...

I read very early. I made sure that my children love books, and learn about reading together, but did not expect or particularly encourage reading until they showed an interest. So DD at 6 is reading in the top group, having really been a non reader last September. DS1 at nearly 5 is able to read some small words and uses Jolly Phonics (he has a really strong interest in it as they use it in his SALT.)

I was reading at 18 months old. I think that it was spontaneous, according to my mother, but it did me no favours really, I cannot read aloud and I don't (apparently) read in the same way as other people.

Not sure why so many are so obsessed with the skill of reading early.

of course reading is desirable but early reading doesn't appear to me as much fun or as useful as painting, dancing, hammering in nails ,gardening, doing roly polies, helping to make a cake.

And for most NT children learning to read isn't even that hard.

(OP -not suggesting your 7 month old baby should be doing all of that btw! )

Thanks for all your comments - I agree with you all - already do lots of reading with DS and baby signing (which MIL thinks is a load of old tosh).

Just to update you MIL has just rung and told me that she has purchased the trial for me! A bit in shock that she just went ahead and bought it (also heard that they are a nightmare for refunding the money) just mumbled an 'ok' down the phone. Off to have a word with DP to get him to explain that we don't want it - this will be fun!

mummysaurus I have got him doing some DIY as we speak!

My mum did something very similar with me and my brother when we were 18 months. I could read by the time I was 2.

Mr sister is doing it with her son. Its the Doman method which is all flash cards. Her boy is 3 and he can read, he was able to recognise the flash cards when he was about 14 months. You'd ask him which one said "apple" and he'd point to it. Maybe a coincidence but he is very bright.

I didn't do it with DD. Kind of started it due to pressure from my mum but neither me or DD could be bothered.

Say thank you and then don't use it. she is just a doting nana - don't make her feel too bad.

Family can be suckers for TV sales channels.
My dad once bought a cctv system for us to monitor my first baby in his room - we lived in a tiny flat and he had excellent lung!

It gathered dust for a while and then went on freecycle.

mummysaurus glad it's not just my family who buy crap from TV sales channels. My Dad was addicted (I swear) to Bid Up TV - we used to get some real rubbish for birthday and christmas presents.

I will be kind to MIL - she really is a doting Nana and has been great in lots of ways - but I really don't want her to buy the rest of the set beacuse it will cost another £100. Will just to tell a white lie -that he does not like it! Hopefully she will be able to get her money back.