How Early Can I Start Teaching My Baby To Read?
I recently had this question from one of our customers.
Question:
I just purchased the Monki See Baby Reading Kit for my 8 week old son. Do you know an ideal age to start an infant on a baby reading program? I've heard of people beginning as young as 3 months. Should we wait until he is 3 months?
Answer:
I began my baby reading program with my son when he was 2 1/2 months old. I was so excited to get started that I didn't wait. Three months is the age that we generally recommend, but as long as your son's visual tracking has developed you can begin. That means that he can track an object, or your finger when you move it about 10 inches from his face to the right and the left. As soon as he has that ability, you can begin a baby reading program. Since he is small, I would make sure the materials are fairly close to him. For example, to view the flash cards you can put him in a bouncer seat and hold the flash cards about 2 feet from his face so he can see them. It is best to face him so you can see where he is looking. You can also lay him down on the bed and show him flash cards, anywhere that is comfortable for you. To view the MonkiSee DVDs, again I would either hold him on your lap, fairly close to the television so he can focus on the screen, or in a baby seat of some sort so he is facing the television sitting up. You don't want him lying down and learning to read sideways. It is also important to interact with the videos. If they are teaching him his body parts, touch those parts for him as he is learning the. This will help him make connections between the words and the objects he is learning.
I started with my boy watching the videos once or twice a day. After a month I changed to a new video but still had him view the first video once or twice a week. I began using flash cards at about 3 1/2 or 4 months old. I would show him flash cards after his diaper changes, two to three times a day. Since your boy is young, you have a great advantage. At that age they are so excited to be stimulated and learn to read that you can show them lots of materials and they just love it! I would show my little guy between 15 and 40 words at each viewing. He loved it. At 12 months he began reading words out loud, at 18 months he was reading sentences and at 2 he was reading books. It is so amazing and wonderful to see these little creatures thriving with some stimulation. You can see Joshua reading here.
He would probably enjoy the Memoflix DVD as well. You could show him a few categories at a time and see how he likes those. Since it contains 80 categories of words you have a lot of selections to choose from.
For more information on how you can teach your baby to read check out our
Guide to Teaching Babies to Read.
Posted by Krista G. at 3/12/2010 7:37 AM 
Categories: How babies learn to read
Tags: baby flash cards MonkiSee DVDs baby reading program Memoflix DVD How early can I teach my baby to read guide to teaching babies to read
Categories: How babies learn to read
Tags: baby flash cards MonkiSee DVDs baby reading program Memoflix DVD How early can I teach my baby to read guide to teaching babies to read
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