Does the Your Baby Can Read Program Cause Any Harm?

I never used this program. I have 2 kids that spoke very early and very clearly. At 2 my daughter speaks full, complete sentences. My son who is 5 was the same. I don't know if the program is beneficial or not. I don't see the point in pushing it. She will learn to read when she's ready. I would read to her now and speak to her in regular words (no baby talk, use the real words). And she will talk when she's ready.

I am a mom of three kids and I run a home daycare. I do not agree with this program at all. I see no reason why a toddler needs to learn how to read. I think you would be teaching her more by showing her pictures of different animals, everyday items and colors. I think teaching a child to recognize the actual abject and not the word at the toddler stage is the only thing they need.
You also have to look at how your child is going to reeactwhen she goes to school and is taught to read. Some schools use sight reading and others use phonics. It you daughter learns to read my sight and once in school she is taught to use phonics she could have a problem. Or on the other hand she could be bored in school and either not like school because of no challenge or in some cases some children are behavior problems because of bordem in the classroom.
Here are a few suggestions for interactive videos for yong children. The Baby Einstein collection is great. all three of my kids loved the Disney Sing-A-Longs, whith these they learned to have fun and be a toddler. One thing to try is going to your local library and see if they rent andy DVDs. You could take out a few to see what you like, without going through tons of money.
As a mom of three I can say one thing. kids love to have fun with their parents. Get fun videos, ones you can dance and sing along with. That is what the little ones really like to do.

M.-one suggestion that I have is to try sign language with your daughter. We implemented sign language with our son at about 7 months old, and he is now 20 months old and putting together 3-4 word sentences, and singing recognizable songs. He recognized certain signs before he was actually able to sign back to us-but when that started he was signing words like "eat" and "milk" and "more", then his signing vocabulary grew. Eventually he began speaking the words as he said the sign, then he dropped the sign and just spoke. (My grandmother-who has raised 6 children, ran her own daycare, and has 20 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren is AMAZED with how much my son is speaking.)The more you interact and talk to your daughter the higher probability that she will have positive outcomes. And signing helped decrease the frustration of not being able to express what he wanted.

It is up to you if you want to buy YBCR-just remember that your daughter learns through play-and it should be fun...there will be PLENTY of time for her to learn to read when she is a bit older. Ultimately the decision is up to you.

I could go on and on, but don't want to write too much-so if you have any questions about how to implement signing, feel free to send me a message. Good luck!

J.

I agree that this isn't needed and not healthy. I'm a teacher, but that really means nothing b/c every teacher's philosophy is different too. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I just played lots of music either by listening with earbuds on my ears, or placing it on my belly. I chose all types of music and books on cd that i happen to have in my classroom. Now with our daughter, we just read to her several times a day, sing to her (made up and classic songs), talk to her in regular dialogue, let her play with books in a basket next to her toy basket, etc. just expose your child to language orally and in print any time in your natural environment and encourage others around her to do the same. It's great that you're asking and thinking about it. My sister is extremely well read and very intelligent, but doesn't really do any of these things, and it's very hard to change that in a person. Good luck and hope this helps.

M.,
Babies don't need to read, look at flashcards or watch television. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no t.v. before age 2 and they do believe that television is harmful to babies. A baby does not need to know how to read. This program may not mirror the program that your school district uses, so when your child goes to school, she may have to unlearn and relearn. I work in an elementary school, and the kindy and 1st grade curriculums are strongly based on teaching to read - children who come in already reading are not at an advantage, they are bored and act out. At this age, your baby should be exploring her environment, moving around, playing with toys and interacting with people. The best thing to do is to read to her, daily, even at this young age. There is no evidence that babies using these programs or even being able to watch what parents are convinced is "educational programming" for babies such as Baby Einstein, gives them any advantage.
Here's a clip from a news story about the AAP's position:

What Does The American Association of Pediatrics Say About Babies and TV?
The AAP has the following very clear position on kids/babies and television:

“Children of all ages are constantly learning new things. The first 2 years of life are especially important in the growth and development of your child's brain. During this time, children need good, positive interaction with other children and adults. Too much television can negatively affect early brain development. This is especially true at younger ages, when learning to talk and play with others is so important.

Until more research is done about the effects of TV on very young children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not recommend television for children age 2 or younger. For older children, the Academy recommends no more than 1 to 2 hours per day of educational, nonviolent programs. “

How can TV negatively affect early brain development? First, TV takes away from the precious time babies have to interact with people and explore their environment. Second, possible links have been found between early television exposure and subsequent attentional problems in children. (See the AAP Study) Could TV cause ADD? The subject needs further research, but the current information is enough to elicit the strong response from the AAP.

First question, why does your baby need to read? At 8 months old she doesn't have the ability to comprehend literature of any complexity beyond a picture book. There are many ways of teaching communication in a natural way that don't involve flashcards and interactive DVD's. Read to her, narrate your day, label things in your environment, take her to a children's museum.

This is craziness. Really- there is a great article in Parents Magazine this month on this very topic. If you don't subscribe, please pick it up somewhere. The research suggests that these videos do not improve long-term learning ability, but are designed to target parents' anxiety surrounding early learning.

Your child will not learn to read from a video. Bottom line- they may learn to recognize words, but that is not reading.

I do feel strongly about this one. I'm a school psychologist and here's the deal- why do we have such a need to stress our kids out so young? Let your child learn natrually without intensive tutorial instruction. Take a baby sign language course. They are wonderful and highly impacting. My son was signing to us at 8 months old. It was wonderful. He's now replaced most of his signs with words, but it was a low-stress way to learn how to communicate with one another.

Interesting question. I read the school psychologist's response and I agree. I am pediatrician and I see children being made to do more and more at younger ages. A two year old on the soccer team, seven year olds in tackle football. I, too, agree that we have all going insane with all this. What are we trying to achieve, anyway? I believe in the old-fashioned, naturalistic approach. I agree with you, that it is important to introduce your infant to the joys of reading and learning. Of course, you are doing the best for your child. But, how about a different approach? Here's my suggestion -- and you can do it yourself for free and with very little effort. I took my little one to the local library. The children's section had a little bench by a bay window, and I take some board books off the shelf and I read them to him. If his eyes seemed to light up with one book in particular, I went to the bookstore and I bought that book. Today, he is two and had four shelves of books, believe it or not (I may have overdone it a little!) -- but really truly loves almost all of them. Today, he will take a book from the shelf, literally tell me "TV off," and bring it do me to read to him. It is one of our favorite things to do, and we are making great and funny memories at the same time. And you know, oddly, my mother never read to me. Never! Still, I grew up to enjoy and love reading, learning, and writing, and as a doc, I would like to think I am moderately successful, and I am definitely happy with where I am today. Isn't that what you really want for your kid -- happiness and success (whatever that means to you, does not have to be a doctor, can be anything)? Motherhood is too stressful to add yet another project onto our list. I say don't do Your Baby Can Read and stick to simpler stuff. Good luck.

PS, can you tell me more about how you found your amazing daytime nanny?

its wonderful that you are so involved and concerned with doing whats best for your child. in this case, the "idea" of the program may be wonderful, but i do agree with others that memorization of CAT spelling "cat" is not the same as reading. at her age, she is learning each and every day. she is absorbing all her surroundings, sounds, tastes, textures, smells. there is so much her little brain is trying to learn and make sense of. focus on the basics we do know like reading at least 20 mins a day. lots of eye contact and full attention. there is NOTHING that can replace human interaction. focus on showing her things in her home and outside. pick up a ball and say what it is. let her hold it and see it. teach her songs. sing.

dont forget, she will be crawling, walking, talking, running, and climbing in the next few months. there is just so much that will happen naturally, you might not realize each thing is actually something she learned, and her brain is taking it all in.

as far as harm, always remember television is not recommended for children under 2. this goes for elmo, baby einstein, ect. babies have no comprehension of what they see on the screen. it doesnt matter what it is, its just a bunch of objects flashing from one scene to another. one minute the word is there, then next its not. they just dont process things on the screen like adults do. television is television at this age, no matter what you watch. another aspect to realize is the importance of television that is being taught. it teaches a baby to look at the tv, that television watching is good(again, they doesnt understand the difference between MTV, commercials, and learning to read DVDs). babies see that mommy and daddy like the television. you need to decide if that is the overall message you want to send regarding television watching.

and remember, with a program to follow or without, she would love to read any book with her parents and would love any silly song. anything you do will help her learn, without the tv aspect, so that laughing you see, it will be there no matter what you are reading.

and i do agree with the others about children being pushed to do things younger and younger. i never listened to country music in my life until after i had my children. there are many references to how quickly time goes by with children "it wont be like this long" by darius rucker or "your gonna miss this" by trace atkins. some parents(im not saying you) are always wanting their child to complete the next challenge, to finish the next developmental milestone, they miss right now and make their child miss it as well. good luck.

My personal belief is that it doesn't actually teach your child to read, rather your child is learning to recognize an order of shapes as being a particular word. Reading entails learning individual letters and sounds and the child applying that information to read a word the child has never seen before, rather than memorizing the appearance of certain words. I don't know if it's harmful, but I wouldn't do it with my child, because I am concerned that skipping those crucial steps would slow real reading learning later on.

I'm not a fan of things like this...I think that good ol' fashioned looking at books with your child will teach them plenty at that age. I think that programs like this are a waste of money and take away from one-on-one time with your child, even though you mentioned you are right here, doing everything with her. You're still staring at a TV instead of books, no matter how you look at it.

That being said, I'm no doctor but I'm sure it's not "harmful" to her. If you really enjoy doing this with her and if she's enjoying it also, then keep up with it. As long as you're all happy, nobody is losing out.

Lynsey

I haven't read anything about this product, so this is just my personal opinion. What ever happened to allowing toddlers/babies to just be todders/babies? I don't know why there is so much pressure to make our kids do things that they're just not ready for. I worry that sets up a relationship of a parent pushing their child too hard as the school years progress if you can't just let them be and learn at their own pace. I'm not saying that we shouldn't push our kids to do their best..just that we shouldn't push too hard. No offense to anyone, but at 8 months, 10 months or 18 months I just don't think babies should be doing anything but just exploring and learning on their own through books, play and listening to the people around them. Don't put that kind pressure on yourself or you child..just enjoy them. Believe me, it goes by so quickly. Not only that, there will come a time when you'll wish she DIDN'T speak! I have a 3 year old and 10 month old twin boys and I am in NO HURRY for them to speak!!!!!! lol But, seriously, don't push her to be anything that what she is, a gurgling, crawling exploring baby.

I have this program and I think that it is great. So big deal they don't need to learn to read right now but it does help them in learning to talk. My daughter was not talking much. A few words here and there and now that she is watching the video she is talking more and more. She has also learned with me singing with her most of the words to the songs and how to do the hand movements. I love it. She doesn't get to spend much time with other kids and watching this video she can see and hear other children talking and their actions. Here is my belief. Most teachers are only there cause they can get summers and holidays off. That is it. They are not there cause they like to teach. Some teachers in my school district are NOT doing their job so the parent has to step in and "take over" One teacher in the dsitrict has her kids do their homework on the computer cause she can't read their handwriting. Now what is wrong with this picture??? How are they learning to spell when they have spellcheck to do it for them??? How are they learning to write the correct way when they have to type out their work???? A few people that I know said the only reason they became teachers is for the days off. Now does that sound right to you? So if I can give my daughter any head start that I can I am going to do it. I am sorry if I sound angry but it does aggrevate me when teachers don't want to do their jobs. I had a hard time reading and was in a group by myself until I caught up with the others. I don't want that for my child. I want her to be with her age group and I want her to love to read. Not feel that she is only doing it because she has too. I still sit down with her and read other books and she points out the things that she knows, like gorilla etc. She knows them when she sees them in other books. So in closing I like this program and I don't feel that it is harming her. So I feel that you should do what is right for you and not listen to what others believe. Everyone has a right to their opinions and you should do what you want. It's clear that you purchased this product and so therefore you thought that it was a good product. I have other moms that are doing it and they love it too. So good luck in your decision as to wether to keep it or not.

I think you would enjoy reading the book by Sidney Ledson called Raising More Intelligent Children. It explains a lot about learning and the brain. Some of the answers here seem to imply that early learning is somehow stressful for a child. This is not so. The earlier they learn, the less stressed they are and it makes school a lot easier. The only drawback is that they may experience a bit of boredom in school. Children absorb everything before age four. Learning is not difficult for them. Hope that book is still around. He also has one about learning to read in 60 days. The basics are covered in the first book though. I would suggest you get the nanny to read it too so that you're on the same page.

I bought this program myself, but my child is just turned 2. With older child in the house, the baby wants to watch TV and he loves the DVD. It is his DVD and asks to watch it. I was getting sick of watching other boring videos. Now I have a chance to make supper.

I have found that my kids get frustrated by NOT knowing.

I recently finished reading a book called "Einstein never used flashcards". It speaks to the pressures that today's parents feel about pushing their child ahead quickly. This book (or the authors) are referenced in the Parents magazine article that someone else mentioned. I found the article a little wishy-washy, but the book cites research emphasizing the importance of play, and de-emphasizing structured teaching to very young children. I highly recommend it.