How to Teach Your Baby to Read
Glenn Doman is a Physical therapist and a pioneer in child brain development. In his efforts to help children recover from brain injuries - he researched the different developmental stages and tried to provide the hurt children with a lot of stimuli to help their brain recover and create new connections. One of those efforts included teaching 3-4-year-old children with brain injuries to read - not only that this worked for those children and they learned to read in a third or fourth grade level - it also helped their *younger* siblings that were able to start reading even earlier and seemed to be smarter and more articulated than other children their age.
Children are curious and want to learn, they can learn to read, and we can teach them to read very early. Doman recommends starting at 10 *weeks*. Start off with very big text - red over white - so it will be visible even for infants. Red will make it more appealing and interesting, but gradually you can move to black. The approach is not phonetic - and lets the child learn the words as images, and find patterns on his own (something that is much harder at an older age).
How to teach your child to read: When your child is happy and content, in a quiet room with no distractions - show him the word flash cards - just out of his reach. When you show the card - say “This word is ___”. Don’t present each card over 1 second and don’t say anything more than just the word. Make sure to properly pronounce the words - and sound excited - so your child will enjoy it. On the first day - start with 5 words. Show them 3 times during the day (when changing a diaper can be a good opportunity for that) - at least 15 minutes apart, and in a different order each time. Make sure that you hug and cradle your baby after each session - so he will enjoy it. In the next day, show him 5 more words - 3 times each - 6 times in total. In the third day - there is no need to say “This word is”, and you can just read the word. Add 3 more words today, each word 3 times - so you will get 9 months in total. In the fourth day - add 10 words (2 groups of 5 each). In the fifth day - start changing a word in each set - after it was displayed 15 times. You can write the date behind the card to avoid confusion.
In the first days - try to use names of siblings, pets, and nicknames of objects he knows - like “mama”, “lovey”, etc.
There is no need to reintroduce words - babies learn in an amazing way, and you should not test your baby. Keep it fun and enjoyable for both of you. You might want to prepare yourself with many words in advance so you will not have to repeat yourself or skip days.
A few points to keep in mind:
Make sure that your child is in a good mood - not hungry, not tired and that you are also in a good mood.
Enjoy the process. You baby will see that you enjoy it, and will like those sessions with you.
Always stop before your baby wants to stop
Change the words fast - not longer than a second at a time.
Don’t bore your baby - keep adding words frequently.
Be persistent with the program.
Notice your child reactions - if he is bored - move the cards faster, if he is uninterested - stop right away.
If you also want to teach your baby encyclopedic knowledge, walker sooner, and so on - check out another book by the same author How Smart Is Your Baby? (or the entire gentle revolution series) For free English flashcards and materials check out https://domanmom.com/ For Hebrew flashcards checkout this website. For more information about Doman’s research institute check out it’s website.
