What's the deal with flash cards?

[NapaCab]

I've heard parents mentioning flash cards and seen them for sale on Amazon, Baby Einstein ones etc. What are they for and from what age do you use them?

There are cards that are aimed at 'infants' and have contrasting colors and patterns etc on them but wouldn't babies get that kind of stimulation from toys or objects in the home anyway? Some of them have people's expressions on them or babies' faces, for example, but I'd imagine it's better for babies to just interact with people than have some faces printed on a card.

Or am I missing some holy grail of parenting that I should be doing to make sure DS (currently 7.5 months) doesn't end up in a borstal or something???

Yes. You must buy them, otherwise your child will be behind for ever more. They will fail at school and be unable to secure a job. They will then be unattractive and fail to secure a husband/wife. You will never have grandchildren and will have no one to look after you in your old age.

Your child will blame you for this.

And it will be your fault, because of the lack of flash cards.

Quick! Flash cards!

Books are infinitely better.

My comment on the borstal was meant to be ironic Ozzie - hence the use of the antiquated term 'borstal'.

Well, that's what I would have thought, Babydolls. Surely a toy or a book or plain human interaction would be better than flashcards? It doesn't make any sense. I can't imagine who uses them, except maybe for very young children learning to read.

I must admit the thought crossed my mind. My DD is 15 months and has had an explosion in words lately so it'd be interesting to see what she knows in a quick-fire, flash card kind of way, but I think a) she'd get bored very quickly (vocabulary vastly outweighs attention span at the mo) and b) it's a bit one-dimentional, ie it's the the difference between just seeing an image of a cat on a plain white card compared to actively finding a cat under a flap in a book within a particular context and narrative. I think that's far more enriching and they learn through fun first and foremost.

they are a bit of a party trick, not helpful imo
books,toys,real life are much better.
and when they are starting with letters, fridge magnets, signs outside, books, finger painting are more fun.

we have some on a loop attached to the buggy. DD loves the pictures and they tend to be the words she is learning/using. She prefers books for sure, and toys. But rather than carry a toy cat/house/truck/girl/boy/sun/sheep/tree around she has cards to look at and shout about. I dont expect these to get her a PHD. Just keep her occuppied for a while (whilst I drink a coffee)

These card were originally produced to give large classes of infants some simultaneous reading practice. If you only have one baby, she will learn much more through everyday interaction with you. It is much the same as when a teacher writes on a blackboard at the front of the class; you wouldn't do that if you only had one pupil.

Flash cards are for the pointy-elbowed brigade. Ignore them and talk to your child. Infinitely superior to any gimmick.

I used to joke about these with my nct friends. I only realised after a couple of months some of them thought I was serious [ blush]

OK, looks like my instincts were right then - books, interaction, toys etc are the norm and flash cards are the exception (and indeed weird).

Interesting you say they were originally used for classroom instruction CecilyP as that's what they looked like to me and I couldn't fathom why you'd need to use them with your baby.

Books and interaction are far better than flashcards by a country mile. Those are the two most important things you can do.