“There is no happiness in parents than when
their children perform exemplary in math related subjects”
Chapter 14 - EARLY LEARNING - READING PROGRAM
14.1 The Importance of Early Learning
As you have learnt from the previous chapters, the baby’s
brain, from the time of birth, is in constant formation and
growth. All babies are born with an innate predisposition to
communicate, socialize, and integrate with the world around
them. Newborns possess a range of nonverbal cues for initial
communication. At first, crying is their most effective way
of communication, their very first exploration of the world
of language. By means of crying, the baby is able to show the
surprise caused by suddenly being beyond the confines of the
womb, in a new and unfamiliar environment.
Since their
first weeks of life, babies show different ways of communication.
From their facial expressions with toothless mouths right through
to their way of stirring and moving nervously. All of this falls
within the communication process. And they need to do this,
precisely because they are innately programmed to learn a language
and respond to human voices since the moment they are born.
They need and want to learn from that first very moment.
Martha Farah, a neuroscientist from the University of Pennsylvania
conducted a study in 2012 exploring the way in which the normal
range of childhood experiences may influence brain development.
Farah took data from surveys of family life and the brain scans
of 64 participants. These participants were studied since they
were four years old. During the 20 years of study, the researchers
visited their homes and recorded details of their lives to establish
the degree of cognitive stimulation that they received including
details, such as the number of children's books they had, if
they had toys that taught them about colors, numbers or letters,
or if they played with real or toy musical instruments. The
researchers also took information from the family environment,
such as the parents’ natures, how they supported their children
and the type of stimulation and attention that the child received
from his parents. The same survey was then conducted when those
children were eight years old, and when they were between 17
and 19 years old, and their brains were also scanned.
Dr. Farah's results showed that the development of the cerebral
cortex in adolescence is closely correlated with cognitive stimulation
of a child at the age of four. The other factors, including
the cognitive stimulation at the age of eight, did not show
any effect. Farah said that those results were the evidence
of the existence of a sensitive period early in a person's life,
which determines the optimum development of the cerebral cortex.
"It is really compatible with the idea that the
first years (0 to five) are especially influential and the most
important ones," concluded Dr. Farah.
14.2 Learning to Speak - Stages
Speaking and listening go hand in hand. You cannot have
one without the other. It is through listening to those around
him that the baby begins to learn how words sound and how sentences
are structured. In fact, many researchers believe that this
process of listening and learning already begins while the baby
is still in the mother's womb. In the same way that the baby
gets familiar with the rhythmic, constant sounds of the mother's
heart, the baby will also became familiar with the sound of
her voice. This is made evident by the fact that the baby is
already able to identify his mother’s voice from a few days
after birth.
By the age of three, most children will
have learnt how to communicate with their needs and have a rapidly
growing vocabulary. This process begins from the very beginning
of life when baby begins to learn how to make sounds using his
tongue, lips, palate and, eventually, his teeth as he begins
to get them.
Language roughly develops as follows:
– 0-3 months. These early stages are
marked by your baby learning that crying is his most effective
way of drawing attention, and he quickly begins to make crying
his best means of communication. Continuous cries of protest
may indicate that you need to change his diaper, while more
intense cries - and likely shouts - may mean that your baby
is hungry or uncomfortable. As the weeks and months pass, he
will begin to develop a creative repertoire of hisses, chirps,
sighs and screams. It is that infantile babble that will teach
your little one to use his voice to communicate with those around
him. He begins to award his parents with toothless smiles and
will respond to his parents’ smiles in kind. In terms of his
ability to understand the language, linguists state that even
four week old babies can distinguish between syllables like
“pa”, "ma" and "na."
– 4 to 6 months.
By the time they are five months old sounds will have become
distinguishable words such as “Mom" and "Dad." These basic words
then become the basis for learning new words, especially meaningful
words that draw attention and praise. By this stage, your baby's
laughter begins to convey his message of joy and satisfaction.
– 7 to 9 months. From the 6th month
and on you will see a real change in your baby's ability for
understanding and he will now be alert to the sounds of speech
that he can hear around him. Your baby will be fascinated by
the conversations of adults and you will notice that he can
already recognize his name and pay attention when you speak
to him directly. From about eight or nine months old, babies
become real imitators: not only do they copy actions, but also
the sounds they hear around them.
– 10 to 12
months. By 12 months, your little one will begin repeating
sounds and gestures that attract attention and pleasurable consequences.
The more you praise him and encourage him, the more likely he
is to try and engage with you. You might find that he is starting
to wave goodbye, enjoys imitating actions such as clapping and
begins to pay far more attention when spoken to. You may even
find that he begins to perform simple tasks when asked, or shakes
his head to indicate “no.” He will babble with a certain intonation
that, if you listen carefully, will probably closely resemble
yours or your partner’s tone when speaking. He will also be
using words appropriately, such as ‘mom’ or ‘papa.’
– 13 to 17 months. Around 13 months or later,
you will notice another change as your little one begins to
combine sounds in such a way that they seem like real words:
«mama baby.» This stage is a springboard that leads them to
start speaking the same language as you do.
– 18 to 24 months. At 18 months, the oral vocabulary
of a baby may include between 40 and 50 words and even more.
But you should know that your baby can understand far more than
he can say. He can already understand around 200 words. By the
age of two, your baby can probably use between 200 and 300 words
and will be able to understand around 1000. When your baby actually
reaches this stage, the process will be too fast for you to
follow, and it is time to help him to attend kindergarten.
– 25 to 36 months. By this age, your
child can follow instructions in two stages: "(1) Take your
toy, and (2) Put it in the box." The baby is also beginning
to learn how to use pronouns such as "I" and "you." Between
the ages of two and three years old, his vocabulary will increase
to up to 300 words and he will be able to join names and verbs
to form full simple phrases, such as "I want to play ball".
Babies will also be able to point to between 5 to 6 parts of
their body.
– When a child turns three:
Your baby will speaking in a more sophisticated way and can
carry out a conversation, adjusting the tone of his voice, inflection
and vocabulary to the person that he is speaking to. For example,
your toddler will use simpler words with a friend of his own
age, but he will try to be more verbal with you. He can already
understand words indicating spatial location (behind, under,
over, in, etc.), as well as being able to tell his name and
age, and reply when he is asked about something.
– When children begin to speak: In the early
days of speech, parents and close family tend to be the only
people who can actually decipher what your little one is saying.
Being able to make sounds that resembles what he hears takes
practice, so it is a good idea to help him communicate by acting
as an interpreter for people who are not used to listening to
and understanding him. By doing so, you will strengthen his
confidence as well as lessen the frustration that he may feel
when his attempts at communication fail to make him understood.
–
Praise and encouragement are great
motivators for children and it is easy to motivate your child
to do something he enjoys. In this sense, if you help your child
to enjoy the process of learning to speak, he will want to learn
more words and to learn to express himself better.
14.3 - When to Start to Teach a Child to Read?
As an average, children around the world learn to talk around
the age of 2 to 3 years of age. Obviously the learning process
begins from birth, but actual construction of understandable
sentences and meaningful communication only really develops
between the ages of 2 and 3. Careful review of the language
learning process indicates that language simulation starts in
the womb and many researchers believe that the process of learning
to understand language begins this early. It is safe to say
that children are innately programmed to learn language and
they can respond to human voices from the moment that they are
born making it possible for them to start learning from the
very first moment.
Today, the practice of talking to
your baby while still in the womb is pretty common as a way
of communicating your love and fondness for him. Talking to
your unborn baby is also an effective way to stimulate his brain
formation. So it is from the early days in the womb that your
little one starts to become familiar with the sound of your
voice, enabling him to distinguish your voice from all others
once he is born.
As we have mentioned, talking is directly
linked to listening. So, when your baby listens to others' speeches,
his brain learns how words sound and how sentences are formed.
Indeed, not only are his ears stimulated, but his brain itself
is stimulated, which is in continuous, exponential growth since
the very moment of conception is until the age of 5.
We know that it is not your eyes that make sense of what
they see, nor your ears that interpret what they hear – but
it is your brain that takes the information from the eyes and
ears and interprets it in logical and understandable ways. The
brain of your baby, through constant stimulation, grows and
develops in order to be able to perform this important task
of making sense of the world through the 5 senses. It is in
your baby’s brain where electro-chemical impulses are conducted
and neural connections that allow for the development of intelligence
are multiplied every day.
Just as the ability to speak,
it is related to the ability to listen, so too is the ability
to read related to the ability to see. So the question is:
When can I start teaching my child to read?
The answer is simple: seeing as your baby begins to learn about
the world through his eyes from the moment he is born, you can
start reading books from as early as a few weeks after birth.
This seems an exaggeration, but it is not. Remember
that parents begin talking to their little one from before he
is born, and this is not an exaggeration at all. In fact, this
is one of the most natural ways of communicating with your little
one that has been around since the stone-age. So reading from
such an early stage is not a silly idea. The first stages in
reading are about stimulating your baby’s vision and when he
is still a new born, and this vision is limited. During the
early days, books with bright and contrasting colors or patterns
are really the best to use.
There are two sayings with
wide general acceptance: "A picture is worth a thousand words"
and "Everything comes by eyes." We do not doubt the validity
of these popular assertions that are known in all languages.
In fact, if you have ever tried to learn a second language,
you will have noticed that it is easier to read it than to speak
it. When we read, words remain static. They do not pass by quickly
nor do they have an accent, as often happens with spoken words.
It is much more reliable to understand what we read than what
we hear.
The question now is: if it is easier to learn
to read than speak, why does a baby first learn to speak than
to read? The answer is also simple: the child does not learn
to read before he speaks simply because his parents do not teach
him to read at such an early age.
There are three main
reasons for this. The first is that the spoken word is as old
as the history of mankind (some 700 000 years), while written
language is actually a relatively recent invention. In this
sense, man has been speaking for hundreds of thousands of years,
but only been reading for a few centuries. Moreover, reading
books has only become popular about 6 centuries ago with the
invention of the printing press (Gutenberg, 1444).
The
second reason is that reading is always associated with writing.
As a result, reading is taught at the same time as writing,
and in order for a child to learn how to write, he must have
developed enough fine motor control to hold and maneuver a pencil.
This fine motor control only really develops around the age
of 5 and 6. The logistics of this association may not be entirely
correct, however, since the child’s physical and motor development
is slow and continues throughout childhood into adolescence,
while the capacity of the brain is accelerated exponentially
from pregnancy and up to the age of 5. Remember, from birth
the baby’s brain is absorbing large amounts of information and
begins to learn to distinguish colors, faces, shapes, and sounds
etc. By the age of 3, the child has already learned a language
and has a vocabulary of more than 300 words! Many children who
are raised in appropriately stimulating environments will be
able to speak up to 3 foreign languages without a foreign accent
in any of them. If this is possible then why not teach them
to understand those simple 26 signs of the alphabet that we
call “letters?” (Arabic= 28, Spanish=29, German=30, Russian/Cyrillic=33
letters)
The third (and the most common) reason
why parents do not teach them to read at an early age is because
they don't know how to do it! It has been documented
in many scientific studies that the smaller the child is, the
easier and more efficient it is to help his brain absorb information
and, thereby, develop his intelligence. When you teach skills
before the age of 3, it is even faster and more efficient than
teaching those skills between the ages of 3 and 6. This is because
the child is far more eager to learn and can do it so easily
in a concrete and lively way before the age of 6. Scientists
have found that children who received greater mental stimulation,
at the age of three or four, feature a bigger development in
the areas of the brain involved in language and cognition in
the following decades of life. In other words: they are smarter.
However, in most Western countries, including the USA,
UK and Canada, reading is usually only taught to children at
the age of 6 or 7. In other words, they are taught to read when
it starts becoming more difficult for them to learn, and when
the natural enthusiasm, for knowledge that a child has at an
early age, has already begun to diminish. As a result, many
children do not acquire a real love for reading, and do not
achieve an adequate level of reading, so that by the age of
11 years old, they may face comprehension problems and apathy
towards learning. Learning is a fantastic adventure that starts
from childhood. All children are eager to learn, but, unfortunately,
the educational system and the negative experiences in terms
of learning suffered by parents and teachers end up drowning
children's willingness to learn.
For a child to love
reading, the act of reading should flow naturally and easily.
In this way, your child will be able to read faster and with
a 100% of reading comprehension. Probably no investment is more
important and more profitable than the investment in teaching
a child how to read correctly from an early age.
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Without any doubt, reading correctly from an early
age is the most important skill you can teach your child.
Moreover, it is the one that will increase their intellectual
and emotional intelligence. Reading correctly, fluently
and understandingly what is being read is a hallmark
of good students and successful people. This is the
ability that will practically mark their success at
school, at university..., and in life
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14.4 Previous Early Reading Studies
In 1900, an Italian,
Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952),
as an outstanding educator, scientist, medical doctor, psychiatrist
and psychologist, realized that ‘mentally disturbed’ children
also had some potential skills that, although diminished, could
be developed to a greater extent if they were properly stimulated
in a favorable environment. She devoted her life to children
and watched them at an institution for “non-educable” children
while they played with scraps of food because there was no other
object in the place. She observed that they wouldn't eat these
scraps but would rather manipulate them, and she realized that
what they really needed were objects to touch and handle. Man
has a need for activity. In fact, all people have an innate
need to cultivate intelligence and grow personality.
Maria then went on to apply her own teaching methods with
this group of ‘special’ children and achieved excellent results.
She had these children taken the state tests to evaluate their
academic performance, and the results obtained were actually
quite similar to those obtained by ‘normal’ children. This led
to the conclusion that the mind of a child with special needs
can achieve similar results to those of a ‘normal’ child when
the ‘normal’ child is not stimulated. Consequently, if the ‘normal’
mind is stimulated appropriately under favorable conditions
then it can yield extraordinary results!
Maria also
worked with a special group of 60 children considered as “rebels.”
Using her own methods, she was able to motivate these children
and have them work on their own, as well as gaining a sense
of satisfaction from what they were doing. Gradually, those
“rebellious” children became friendly, respectful, and they
would learn with interest and enthusiasm. Maria allowed them
to develop a ‘free spirit’ as opposed to imposing rules and
teaching straight forward information. When these children began
learning to read and write at the age of 4 and 5 years old,
the scientific community were amazed. It might seem difficult
to understand the impact that her teaching methods had in the
twentieth century. They were radical innovations that raised
controversy among the most conservative at that era, whereas
now these ideas seem obvious and successful.
Maria concluded
that the child’s mind has a wonderful and unique ability to
acquire knowledge, and absorb information that he is exposed
to or receives from the environment through his senses. Children
earn everything unconsciously, gradually, passing from the unconsciousness
to consciousness. This mental capacity has been compared to
a sponge with the only difference being that the sponge has
limited absorption capacity while the child’s capacity is infinite.
Maria Montessori spread her belief that the child requires
assistance to develop his full capacity and she worked on the
development and publication of this theory for her entire life.
The Montessori Method of education was, in fact, built from
her own experience and beliefs and it has been successfully
applied worldwide.
In 1961
Dr. O. K. Moore
from Yale University began an extensive research study on how
to teach reading to preschoolers. Dr. Moore found that it was
easier to teach three year old to read than it was to teach
ad four year old. He also found that it was easier to teach
a four year old to read than it was to teach a five year old
and so on. Consequently, it is far easier to teach a three year
old to read than it is to teach a six year old.
The
American therapist
Glen Doman (1919-2013) was
a pioneer in the field of child brain development and is the
creator of the most popular methods of teaching babies how to
read across the globe. In 1955, Doman founded T
he
Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential
in Philadelphia to work on the improvement and recovery of children
with brain injury. His research and dedicated work on children
with brain injury led him to discover key evidence about the
growth and development of healthy children. Doman showed that
children under 6 years old have a remarkable ability to learn,
if encouraged and taught in an appropriate manner. Glen Doman
lived, studied, and worked with children in more than a hundred
different countries and in different cultural / economic environments,
including countries in Africa, Central America and Asia. He
is also the author of six books, and all part of the
Gentle Revolution Series, including
How to Teach Your Baby to Read
and How to Teach Your Baby Math (SquareOne
Publishers).
Doman showed that the brains of children
between 0 and 6 years old are able to learn better and faster
than those of older children. He also showed that this great
ability to learn could be exploited in practical activities
such as teaching them mathematics, languages, and other general
knowledge at a younger age. Furthermore, teaching them these
skills at a younger age promotes future learning and intellectual
development of children.
Doman created several programs
that allow parents to teach their children from 0-6 how to read
in an easy, natural, fun and very effective way. Over the past
40 years, these programs have been successfully employed by
millions of parents worldwide.
14.5 How to Teach Your Baby to Read - Glenn Doman Method
Note: The purpose of this
Section is to make an overview of the aspects, features, and
parts that make up the Glenn Doman method to teach reading at
an early age. For a complete overview of the program, we recommend
reading the book "How to Teach Your Baby to Read" by Glenn Doman.
The Doman method for teaching babies
how to read is based on the stimulation of the brain through
the visual information received by the baby (written words).
The program consists of learning to read as naturally as learning
to "listen to the language." For the brain, it is the same type
of information: a symbol - either written or spoken – interpreted
as a concept. The only difference between listening and reading
is the sense used to acquire the information, either visual
or auditory.
The method created for Doman is based on
the use of flash cards with words and images. Traditionally,
the flash method involves physical flash paper cards, which
you either make them yourself or buy them. During the process,
you will show rapidly the content of the cards to your child.
Flashing cards, at a speed of one second per card, is an effective
method of teaching babies for two reasons: br>
1. Information
presented at speed is more easily apprehended by the right hemisphere
of the brain. Unlike left-brain memorization which requires
conscious, directed effort and right-brain learning is unconscious
and effortless.
2. Children, and especially babies,
learn at an extremely rapid pace - much faster than adults;
much faster even than adults can imagine. The way to keep a
child's attention is to move quickly.
The process initially
uses cards with a single word, written in a large font. On a
more advanced level every card may feature two words and a regular
font size. Later, when the child is more advanced and can easily
recognize the words, every card features a group of words (phrases
and sentences) in a smaller font size. Finally, when the child
is more advanced and is ready to use books created by parents,
cards can feature a smaller font.
The programs, used
to teach reading to children from the ages of 0 – 6 years old,
are easy to carry out by any mom or dad and include simple games
and activities that are fun and stimulating. Aside from being
easy, they also allow for the effective reinforcement of the
parent-child relationship, having a positive influence on selfesteem,
assurance and the general emotional intelligence of the child.
14.5.1 Principles of Doman Method
The Doman reading method is based on the acceptance of the
following assumptions:
1. Children under the age of
6 can easily absorb vast amounts of information. The younger
the child is, the easier and more effective the learning becomes.
2. Children under 5 years can gain and retain information
at high speed.
3. The more information the child gains
under the age of 5, the more information he will retain.
4. A child under 5 years usually has lots of energy.
5. A child under 5 years usually shows a great desire to
learn.
6. A child under 5 years can learn to read and
wants to learn to read.
7. A child under 5 years old
can learn a whole language, as well as other languages that
the child is exposed to.
14.5.2 Basic Rules
Needed to Apply the Doman Method Effectively
• Teach the child while he is young.
• Always be
cheerful.
• Have confidence in the child.
•
Only teach in a good atmosphere.
• Have a good learning
environment.
• If good is brief, twice good.
• Present new material frequently.
• Organization
and perseverance are keys.
• Do not examine the child.
• Prepare the material carefully and in advance.
• Infallible law: if you're having fun then the child will
have fun too.
14.5.3 Materials - Doman Method
The Doman method for teaching babies how to
read is based on stimulation of the baby’s brain through the
visual information that is introduced to the baby. Page 226
– Cards: The process initially uses cards with a single word,
written in a large font. On a more advanced level every card
may feature two words and a regular font size. Later, when the
child is more advanced and can easily recognize the words, every
card features a group of words (phrases and sentences) in a
smaller font size. Finally, when the child is more advanced
and is ready to use books created by parents, cards can feature
a smaller font.
– Images, Pictures and Photos are used
during the process to stimulate the baby’s brain. These visual
materials should be related with the words on the cards to get
better results.
– Block Letters. It is best to use lower
case block fonts, also known as print-script, manuscript, print
writing or ball and stick in academics. In most English-speaking
countries (the USA, the UK, Canada, etc.), children are taught
to read and write in block letters.
The size of the
cards, the color and size of the lower case block letters must
be according with the age of the baby or toddler. This information
is detailed in each step.
IMPORTANT:
You do not need always to make the cards with words and images
on paper or cardboard. The presentations can also be done on
a laptop, PC or digital tablet. Use presentation software such
as PowerPoint or similar and make sure that you words and pictures,
one per slide, are just as you did on paper. You also can buy
these Power Point presentations on the internet (www.abcbabiesandkids.com).
14.5.4 Vocabulary The
words written on the cards, especially the ones to be used at
the first steps of the process, must feature words that are
nice and familiar to the baby, such as:
Names
of your child, family and friends: mom, dad, grandmother,
grandfather, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin, child, baby,
Robert, Rose, Mary, Joseph, etc..
Fruits and
other foods: milk, bread, juice, cookie, water, egg,
orange, banana, pear, apple, carrot, potato, tomato, avocado,
melon, papaya, squash, peach, blackberry, cherry, etc. .
Colors: red, yellow, white, yellow, blue,
green, brown, gray, orange, pink black, gold, silver, violet,
turquoise, blue, etc..
Animals: lion, tiger, elephant, giraffe,
gorilla, dog, cat, bear, dolphin, shark, fish, bird, snake,
frog, kangaroo, ostrich, horse, camel, camel, hippopotamus,
rhinoceros , deer, reindeer, seals, penguin, etc..
Actions: jumping, eating, drinking, smiling,
sleeping, singing, running, walking, dancing, drawing, painting,
clapping, talking, shouting, caress, touch, mourn, whistle,
watch, read, write, cook, etc..
Body parts: head, face, eyes, nose, mouth,
ears, hair, tongue, teeth, forehead, cheek, neck, shoulder,
arm, elbow, hands, fingers, toes, belly, belly, legs, thigh,
knee, foot, ankle, etc..
Familiar objects from
home: chair, table, bed, door, window, curtain, sofa,
chair, armchair, carpet, TV, bed, wardrobe, table, bathtub,
sink, shower, kitchen, fridge, washing machine.
Belongings and objects surrounding the child:
doll, ball, rattle, pajamas, pants, dress, shoes, socks,
jersey, shirt, diaper, crib, changing table, high chair, pillow,
blanket, toothbrush, comb, soap, towel, shampoo, cream, cologne,
bottle, cup, plate, spoon, fork, cup, bib, etc..
14.5.5 Basic Conditions for Sessions
• It is really important that your little one is in a good
mood and receptive to learning. Trying to teach a grumpy child
will have little success. Make sure that you are sitting near
him, but not close enough for him to grab the cards.
• Make sure that you are in tune to your baby’s cues. If
he is feeling hungry or sleepy then his visual ability, as well
as his ability to learn, will be diminished. The best conditions
are when baby is fed, rested and in a good mood.
• Show
the card with each word by
just 1 second. This rule is key and
very important. You don’t want your little
one to get bored and showing a card for more than a second will
lead to boredom and the loss of attention. You will be surprised
at how much your little one can learn, so show the card for
less than one second. If he starts to look away, or is interested
in something else then this is a sign that he is bored. He will
be interested again when you show him a new visual stimulus.
• Make sure that you are in front of your baby when
you show him the cards.
• Do not use the cards that
have been already presented in another session.
• Do
not ask to repeat the word. • Every five days, remove a group
of five cards and introduce a new group.
• The full
session should last for 12-18 seconds.
• The worst thing
that can happen in this process of learning to read is boredom.
While repetition and the temptation to show cards for longer
is strong, make sure that you move to the next card quickly
and that you are showing new cards to maintain attention and
interest.
• Make sure that you finish the session positively,
with a big hug and a kiss, showing your affection and love.
You can tell your baby how wonderful and smart he is and how
proud of him you are. With positive reinforcement you increase
the chances that your baby will be interested next time and
increases his self-esteem.
• Never bribe or reward with
candy, cookies and the like.
14.5.6 Learning Reading – Steps
Reading is the ability to recognize words and understand
their meaning. To properly develop comprehensive reading and
the ability to read fluently, the following steps should be
followed:
Step 1 : Learning Single words
Step
2 : Learning word duos
Step 3 : Learning Short Phrases
Step 4 : Learning Long Phrases
Step 5 : Reading
"Homemade Books" with phrases learned
Step 6 : Reading
Children Story Books (with parents)
Step 7 : Reading
Children Story Books (Independently)
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Comments: There
is no need to teach “all” the words to a child in order
for him to learn to read. In fact, teaching thousands
of words would be a humongous chore and quite boring
too. Just remember that you are teaching a little person
and his capacity because learning is infinite. In this
sense he will deduce the rules of reading from the words
that you teach him all by himself. |
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Source: The Institutes for the Achievement of Human
Potential
14.5.7 Step 1: Learning Isolated Words
Option A Babies of 1 to 12 Weeks old (Only) – Starting
levelThe program can even be started with newborn
babies. The first step with newborns under the age of 3 months
is actually more of a visual stimulation program than a reading
program whereby the following is applied:
Materials
– Cards: White paper (medium or heavyweight
paper recommended) 6 x 24-inch cards (15 x 60 cm). Letters must
be lowercase, printed in red, 5 inches (12 cm) tall and at least
0.8 inch (2 cm) thick. This thickness is key to facilitate the
baby viewing letters.
– Images: Printed
images, pictures or photos (family photos, from magazines, internet,
etc) glued on sheets of paper. For the images, initially you
can use the paper sizes letter (8.5 × 11 inches), legal (8.5
× 14 inches), tabloid (11 × 17 inches) or equivalent sizes.
All the papers with images should have the same dimensions.
Procedure
During the first week select 7 words, including
the words "mom" and "dad" and display one word each day. Each
day, a different word is displayed.
Your newborn can
only see objects about 8 – 10 inches away (about the distance
from your baby’s face to your face when breastfeeding). As a
result, it is best if the card is placed about 15 inches from
the baby’s face. The procedure is as follows:
1. On
the first day (Monday), show your baby the word "mom" and say
with enthusiasm,
"This one reads mom!" The
word is only shown for 1 second. Be extra sure that your baby
is actually looking at the word and it is important to say the
world loudly and with enthusiasm.
2. The next day (Tuesday),
show your baby a card with the word "dad", and say enthusiastically
-
"This one reads dad!” Again, the word is
only shown for 1 second.
3. It is recommended that you
show the card around 10 times a day, but scattered throughout
the day. And make sure that you wait at least 15 minutes between
each session.
4. Keep going throughout the days of the
week with different words on different cards, always saying
the word with enthusiasm.
5. You will repeat the same
7 cards for 3 weeks and only change after the 3rd week.
6. You will notice that your baby is able to focus on the
words much faster by the third week. You will notice that, not
only does your baby see what you are showing him, but also understands
and shows enjoyment of the experience as you show new cards.
7. Remember that a new set of cards are chosen and started
on the fourth week. You can use cards with words and images.
8. Run the new words for another three weeks and change
the words on the seventh week to repeat the process. This time,
however, you repeat the cards for only one week.
9.
So on the eighth week you will select another 7 cards to repeat
the process and by the end of this week your baby will have
been exposed to 28 new words.
NOTE 1: When the
child has reached 3 months, the process continues with the instructions
in step B with new cards (words and images).
Option B – Babies Above 3 Months Old - Starting level
The following procedure should only be applied if you are
starting the first stimulation session and your baby is above
3 months old.
Materials.
– Cards.
White paper (medium or heavyweight paper recommended) 4 x 24-inch
(10 x 60 cm) written in lowercase fonts, 3 inches high and at
least ½ inch thick. This thickness is key to facilitate the
baby viewing the letters.
– Images:
Printed images, pictures or photos (family photos, from magazines,
internet, etc) glued on sheets of paper. For the images, initially
you can use the paper sizes letter (8.5 × 11 inches), legal
(8.5 × 14 inches), tabloid (11 × 17 inches) or equivalent sizes.
All the papers with images should have the same dimensions.
It is recommended you have a stock of at least 200 cards
with different words to begin the process.
In preparation for the following steps (pairs of words)
it is recommended that you include words such as colors, fruits,
animals and people’s names in the initial vocabulary. You could
also include progressive actions such as playing, walking, singing,
writing etc.
Remember, that the sessions
should only be done when your baby is fed, rested and in a good
mood. Makes sure you that are near to him, but not close enough
for him to reach the cards.
Showing Only Words - Procedure.
Continue
Chapter 14