Your Baby Can Read update #6

Ok, so since we started this program almost a year ago I can't even count how many times I have been asked "does it really work??"

I normally refuse to give a straight answer. It's just not a simple "yes" or "no" that answers this. First of all I always want to know WHY their asking--if they're interested I feel they should understand more about the program before going any further. If they're interested in the program or considering it I'll give them a much longer answer than someone who's just heard of it & is just looking for a "yes" or "no" answer. I honestly can't just say "yes it works, get it!" The age of the child & so many other factors have so much to do with it all.

But the reality is that you "really" can't answer that question if the child isn't yet speaking. This is usually the answer I give people who are just curious about the program. And I sometimes, in the end, give this answer to those who are actually interested in the program. The bottom line is that it's a REAL answer. How can you really know?

Now I have to admit that I don't follow the program like they recommend. It appears to me to be designed for those parents that are overachievers with their kids. I would love to see my son get a head start on a very important skill in life, but he's also a kid & should be allowed to just "be" a kid. I refuse to make this program our whole life. I also feel that there are actually more important things (as well as other equally important things) in life. The Bible is definitely more important than reading in my opinion & so it is the Bible that we visit daily, every single day. Reading & Spanish we visit frequently, but not as much as Bible.

Now I did for the most-part follow the video plan guideline they give for the program. He viewed it twice daily for a really long time. Once it became optional to view once daily we did that, but only because lil J was becoming a bit bored with it & wouldn't watch it when he had to see it that often. And now he only views the video once or twice a week, otherwise he gets bored & won't pay attention.

But I did not do the flashcards & books "several times each day" as the instructions say to. I just felt like that was tooooo much, at least for us. But I could definitely picture other people going full force with the program & I assume that those are the types you see on the infomercial.

And it tells you that once you finish the video plan you should go visit libraries & sit & read as many books as possible together. I did not do this either, simply because lil J refuses to sit still & read a book with me. Up until very recently just me reading out loud to him was very difficult. He would try to grab the book, try to close the book, try to turn the pages from the one I was reading, or just sit his bottom in the middle of it all so I couldn't see to read it. And even though that has recently stopped he still runs all around while I read out loud to him. He absolutely will not sit & look at the words as I read. He's a boy, & a very active boy at that. There's only so much you can do & I'm not going to FORCE him to sit & read with me. In my opinion that would only create a negativity towards reading books for him.

Having said all that in review I must say that lil J is now starting to get verbal. He still likes to sit & look at his books by himself & flip pages, etc. I've been watching him closely, but I still cannot tell if he is able to READ. But I have noticed for the past couple of days when I put him in his highchair to eat. Long ago I customized the tray of his high chair & it has a lot of stickers on it, mostly pictures, but also has his name spelled out. He has always pointed to the stickers & enjoyed looking at them. But the last couple of days I have noticed him pointing & very quietly verbalizing something. As I listen I swear he is trying to sound out what it says. I can hear the "j" sound & the "s" & I clearly hear that there are 2 syllables. I do not think he realizes this is his name, but I do think he is trying to pronounce the word that he sees. And he has to be going off of what he has learned in his videos.

So at this point I guess I would have to answer "yes, it does work", but only time will truly tell. My guess has been all along that it will give him a head start, but how much of a head start is still the big question.

"Your Baby Can Read" update #5

Well little J has officially finished this program, he actually did a couple of days prior to his birthday. Now he is supposed to randomly view the videos daily & we are supposed to be reading books, lots of books.

The problem is that little J is bored to death with the videos. He doesn't want to watch them anymore. I was starting to have this problem earlier on. I moved to the last two DVDs a little early because he was bored with the previous ones. I also had changed his viewing schedule to once a day instead of twice a day & that helped a lot too.

He also will not sit & read a book with me. He likes to look at his books & flip the pages & look at them, but he won't sit with me & do it like that, at least not yet.

So I feel like we're a little stuck for now.

In the morning while I workout & shower I have changed up his viewing schedule & it's working well. I record two shows on TV for him (auto b. good & cherub's wings). So here's an example of how his weekly viewing goes. Monday: auto b. good Tuesday: cherub's wings Wednesday: Your Baby Can Read Thursday: Spanish Your Baby Can Read Friday: Veggie Tales Saturday: Spanish Veggie Tales Sunday: Your Baby Can Read

Decreasing how many days per week that he views the Your Baby Can Read DVDs does increase his interest in them. And he still loves the flashcards.

Last Saturday we took part in a research study on children that have done the Your Baby Can Read program. Two psychologists came to our home & did various testing on little J & I filled out lots of questionnaires. They also had an IQ test, but I was hating it (the way it was being done anyways) & made hubby take it instead. He was a great sport & did it. They really don't tell us anything, just that they are collecting data for research. We have no idea how he did by their standards. A lot of the testing they were doing I didn't get to see because I was filling out so many questionnaires. I did, however, see them holding up 2 flashcards & saying one of those words & he had to choose one. At first he was carefully looking at both of them & most of the time choosing the right word (I was amazed at this!), but then he quickly lost his attention span & was just quickly grabbing stuff without taking a good look. I was encouraged by that, though, & plan to continue doing that with the 2 flashcards in the future. They did seem impressed that he knows his name so well & that he will engage in activity with people & follow commands.

That's all the updates I can think of at the moment.......

Your Baby Can Read update #4

So little J started the final DVD of this program yesterday. This one he is supposed to view for one month. At that time I am supposed to show them all to him randomly to keep reviewing the material.

I don't recall if I've mentioned in prior blogs, but we are also working on learning Spanish & Dr. Titzer (the guy who created this program) does state that both languages will take longer if they are learning more than one language at once.

So he still watches the DVDs & we review the flashcards. He really enjoys doing the flashcards. But the books still don't work for us. I must say I feel they dropped the ball, so to speak, when it comes to these books. Little J wants to grab them & see them & touch them & I can't allow that because he's going to rip the pages accidentally. In my opinion they should have made them board books (ie hard untearable pages). I don't think I am the only parent having this issue, though probably not ALL parents are having this issue. That's one improvement they certainly need to make in my opinion.

Once this month is finished I am supposed to start going over as many books as I can with little J. I will definitely have to stick with board books for now though. It's also hard because he doesn't like to sit still. From day one my little boy has been a MAJOR WIGGLEWORM. When I was reading "bringing up boys" I couldn't stop laughing because Dr. Dobson says that boys cannot sit still & have a hard time focusing & while I know that's not the case with ALL boys it certainly is the case with little J.

One thing I notice with little J that I wonder if other children his age do: when he sees a box or package or something (anything) that has writing on it he will touch the words with his fingers & really take a good look at them. Sometimes he will point to a word & then look up at me, almost as if he wants me to tell him how to say that word. And so I do.

As for language learning in general I do have a few thoughts myself that I think are pertinent. I, personally, am a visual learner & so is hubby, so there's a good chance little J will be also I suppose. I think this form of learning (YBCR) is THE BEST for a visual learner. I have always been really good with language overall. I have learned a lot of Spanish (though I struggle to have a conversation in Spanish I do understand much of the language, grammar, etc), some German, some French, & a little Italian. These are all latin & germanic languages, which English is a combination of both.

One thing that stands out in my memory of language learning that I think shows how beneficial YBCR just might be: in my senior year of high school I took French. For the first few weeks the teacher wouldn't give us our textbooks. We were not allowed to look at any written French. She would stand before the class & say words in French & tell us what they meant. She would tell us to write the words down however we thought they would look, so that we could remember how to pronounce them. After those first couple of weeks she then handed out our textbooks & stopped speaking them to the class as she had been doing & I was so confused. I couldn't connect how the words looked with how to pronounce them at all. I still struggle with French pronunciation because of this. I could read & write more French than I could actually speak. And so I think even for someone just learning language (like a baby) being able to see words & connect them with the pronunciation of them is very beneficial & will prove to be very helpful in my opinion. At least to a visual learner that is.

I also have an ability with language where I can just glance at a word & know if it is correct or not. I am really good at things like hangman, wheel of fortune, etc because of this. I'm not really sure how I developed this ability. Maybe from learning to read at such a young age, maybe just from reading so much (I am SUCH a book worm), not really sure. The really odd thing is that I also have this ability with Spanish words. I can look at a word & am able to tell you if it's Spanglish or Spanish. I can even do this without being able to tell you WHY.

That's all the reading updates I have for now.......I'm sure I'll have more coming.......

"Your Baby Can Read" update #3

Ok, so we're still doing this program--he should be finishing it up around the time he has his first birthday.

Recently he was starting to get really bored with the DVD & not wanting to pay much attention. So even though it's a couple weeks ahead of schedule I moved him to the next DVD in the series & now he's paying attention again. The schedule they give is just an example, they encourage you to follow your child's clues & move on when the child has learned that DVD well. And with THIS DVD in the series it states you can show it once a day (instead of twice a day as with the previous DVDs) but it emphasizes showing all the prior DVDs frequently. So his first viewing now is the current one & then the second viewing is one of the previous ones, I rotate them around.

People keep asking me if I believe this really works. Honestly I don't know yet, we aren't finished yet. But I have to ask "how could it not?" I mean it may not work as fast as they promise, but at some point it has to work, right? And it's not like it's gonna backfire & make him dumber.

I think the main thing that kinda bugs me is that people are often only interested because they think it's an easy way to teach their kids to read. As if they are looking for a hands-off approach where they don't have to do anything. They can plug a DVD in & sit back & do nothing. Of course people are so stinking lazy that they are always looking for the easy way out & yeah, that kinda irritates me. Especially when it comes to your child. Is your child's intelligence & future worth so little that you can't stop being lazy & just get involved? But I digress. My opinion is this: in the grand scheme of things this program is really like just the first few steps on a staircase. AFTER they finish with the 7 month program (which is not the easy way out, it takes a lot of parent involvement with the DVDs, flashcards, as well as books) it REALLY is then up to the parent as to whether or not their child is going to be an early reader. (If you just do this 7 month program & stop there I doubt they will be as successful as if you follow through) The parenting guide that comes with this recommends exposing your child to HUNDREDS of books at this point--he strongly recommends checking books out at a library to be able to do this. So yeah, this program can give them a head start & the basics, but to take that further is still up to the parent.

Alright, that's my latest update, will post another later on.......

"Your Baby Can Read" update #2

This Friday we move to the next DVD--this one will be viewed twice daily for 2 months . So I figured it was time for another update--as a lot of people asked me to keep them posted on this & I don't want them to think I've forgotten.

There's just not much to report I am sorry to say. Like I said before, it normally takes 6 months before you see any signs of learning. And we are now only 3 months into the program.

Things pretty much remain the same as the last time I posted an update. He clearly recognizes certain specific people in the DVDs. So I know he is remembering what he is viewing. He still responds to "arms up". He still enjoys the DVDs & flashcards, but is less interested in the books. I am hoping that in time that will change & he will enjoy the books as well.

That's really all there is to report at this time.

Update: ok last night it occurred to me that I've never shown him flashcards or books until AFTER he has viewed the video. So I pulled out the flashcards & book that go with the next DVD last night & showed them to lil J. He had the most confused look on his face & he kept looking at me, as if he wanted an explanation. Then I went on with his other two sets of flash cards & books & he was totally cool with it. It would appear to me that he clearly is remembering & recognizing words, since he reacted that way to words he has never seen before.......

"Your Baby Can Read" update

A lot of people asked me to keep them posted on this program. First let me explain how it works.

It's a set of 5 DVDs & each DVD has a book & set of flashcards that go with it. You are supposed to show the DVD twice daily for the time specified in the schedule (some are for one month & some are for two months) & review the book & flashcards daily. Each time you move to the next DVD you are still supposed to show the previous ones at least once or twice each week. The current one is always shown twice daily.

The program is designed to be started at 3 months of age (or when they start tracking objects with their eyes). I started it 2 days prior to turning 5 months. Dr. Titzer (the guy who created this) states that with young infants usually 5-6 months will go by with NO indication of learning at all. And then you will suddenly start to see signs that the baby is actually learning. He also says that the first 50 words learned take the longest. Once they learn 50 words or so things really start speeding up in the learning.

Before I actually bought the program I went online looking for negative stuff about it. Mostly I found people arguing about "whole word" learning vs. "phonics" learning. People who favor phonics language learning didn't like this program. (Although Dr. Titzer states it does incorporate some phonics in the program) BUT I must add that "I" personally learned via the whole world method & I always excelled in reading & writing. So I made the choice to disregard those folks' opinions & go with this program.

I usually show him the DVD while he's drinking a bottle. It's a good time for him to sit & be calm & actually watch it. And he does enjoy watching it. This weekend will be one month since we started & we will be able to move to the next DVD.

Having said all that I can say that in the beginning Joseph wasn't very interested & his interest in it (both DVD & book/flashcard) has grown tremendously over the past few weeks.

I can also say that when I tell him "arms up" (one of the things on the DVD) he does put his arms up. (I tell him this when I'm going to pick him up). And when I go through the book with him the last word is "wave" & every time I say it he puts his right hand up as if he was going to wave good bye, but he doesn't actually wave it yet.

I know that's not much of a report, but considering I was expecting to not see ANY signs of learning for 6 months I am really encouraged by this.

I will definitely be posting more updates later on. Stay tuned.