Subtitles on for pre-schoolers

[pastaplease]

I suspect that a couple of my friends use subtitles on TV prorammes to teach their children to read. Tne reason I say "suspect" is because they seem to want to hide it. I don't know why? To give children the edge, or something??

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else does this and does it work?

Thanks. :)

oooo interesting. I have no idea if this would actually have much effect but if two of your friends do it, they've got the idea from somewhere haven't they?
Marking a comfy seat.

It won't work.

How old are these children, btw?

I can't see how it would work, admittedly I haven't used subtitles for ages, but it was always about 5-10 seconds behind the audio when I used to use it.
Interesting though, again can't think why they'd hide it

A friend of mine knows a fluent reader aged 2! It's because her dad is deaf and they always have subtitles on. Don't think it can do any harm.

My ds learned to read from the subtitles and just memorising books as they were read to him.I didn't know he could read until he used his magnetic letters to spell Oracle (the text service at the time) because he couldn't talk. He could read fluently by three but has autism.

I have subtitles on all the time as my Dcs are very noisy and if I want to follow something it is the only way.

I was hopping that it could help the Dcs with their reading but when I put Cbeebies, DD4 always ask to "take the subtitle off because I don't like it"

If she did not mind so much I would leave it on though, it might never result in her learning to read but it would not be damaging her either.

Maybe I'll give it a try. DD can watch two things at once iyswim, she likes copying the signing at the weekend.

I think I will start labelling, I used to have it in French when I was small (not very small, 9ish praps) and that put me off on ponce grounds as DD is four. But that could be a good work-avoidance activity for today

The other input - crucially reading individually to the child - will have a major effect.

As pointed out, subtitles do not always appear on screen exactly with the relevant speech, and may be amended from the actual soundtrack. Unlike a book, the words vanish and cannot be studied, compared or explained, as happens when an adult reads individually or can happen when a child has enough of a grounding to look at books themselves.

Also, the soundtrack of programmes is not geared to "reading age", so subtitles contain plenty of trickier spellings. This would easily be overwhelming.

It would expect it to be especially negative for children later assessed with SPLD (dyslexia) though I don't know if this has been specifically researched icw subtitles.

Good points onimo. It may have some effect on the child's ability to recognise words and letters though?
I run my fingers under the words when reading to DD (4), is that a bad plan or OK? I don't do it with longer story books (Blyton etc), just with picture books.

Sue: good plan!

She'll pick up loads by familiarity, repetition and interest, and an interacting adult is easily the best way to enjoy and learn.

[PS: I don't mean to say subtitles are harmful. Just that they're not helpful].