I have been traveling to Hawaii for more than 20 years. It is one of my favorite places. The people are so welcoming, so friendly and filled with the “Aloha” spirit. I visited as a featured speaker for the second New Baby Expo held in 1998, and now try to travel there about twice a year.
Because of my frequent lectures throughout this wonderful collection of islands, many Hawaiian families are very familiar with the early learning DVD system I designed called “Your Baby Can Read!” In fact, everywhere I go, I get to meet families who have used this program, and who present me with babies and toddlers at various stages of reading ability. It is so gratifying to see how joyful the parents are about how their children are doing.
Like many places throughout the world, parents are starting to realize that if they depend only on the public school systems, they are leaving the education of their children to chance. When parents become their children’s first teacher, as I did with my own daughters, they are providing them with a much better chance at early learning and with more opportunities, both in school and later in life.
At this year’s New Baby Expo, I had the opportunity to meet many families who have successfully used the program. Their children have certain things in common–they love books and they love reading. One sweet four-year-old named Emily happily read a book cover to cover, pausing at just the right moments and changing her inflection for each character in the book. She reads as naturally as she speaks and she reminded me of my own children.
While there, I also gave a talk on the Big Island, and was able to visit with a friend named Melody, who started using the program with her son Elijah four years ago when he was a baby. She was so excited about the results that she opened a store called “Akamai Kids” in the International Marketplace in Kona selling our early learning products. In fact, four-year-old Elijah sometimes communicates with me via email, which he types himself. I always look forward to receiving those emails and staying in touch with the many people I have met there.
Hawaii is a special place for many reasons. When I get some down time in between lectures, I make sure I rent a mountain bike and explore the magnificent trails. I have also saved every lei. As said, I feel very connected to the families here and I’m glad so many Hawaiian babies and toddlers are learning to read. Because of this, many believe entire communities in need can start to change and prosper.
May 31st, 2008 at 6:52 am
Dr. Titzer,
I would love to meet with you about your program - I just ordered it! I live here in San Diego and 3 months ago we brought our baby home with Hospice. They gave Finnley 1-3 days to live and diagonsed her brain dead. Well after 6 weeks I knew something else was going on because she was acting like a newborn, not like she was brain dead.
She has stunned the doctors and they have no explanation(lots of prayers is our explanation) but they upgraded her diagonis to “brain injury” because obviously the CAT scan that showed complete water density may not be accurate right now. We just saw the neurologist who originally gave us the brain dead diagnosis and all he could say was, “this is amazing.” I want to use your system to give Finnie even more of an advantage and continue to develop her brain. Call it intuition or a crazy mother who refuses to give up - but I know it will work.
I know that Finnley will be a case study someday because she is a miracle baby. I have more details but can’t go into them right now. I am excited that you have a blog and have created such a wonderful system. Thank you and if you have time - I would love to speak with you.
Much appreciation - Care Messer
June 5th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Hi, Dr Titzer,
I am a professor in marketing and a strong believer in education. I read extensively on infant education and brain stimulation while I was pregnant. I ordered in your videos among Doman’s books and materials. My son is 11 months old. Unlike what I expected, he cannot read yet or even pronounce any word, or recognize any word. Partly because he has been in daycare since he was 5 months old. I did not give up. We kept showing him the videos, at least once a day outside his daycare time. I did notice that his attention span expanded when he watched the video. He can now watch the whole 30 minute section. His eyes widened and he was mumbling when watching the videos. I think this is a good sign. I will not give up.
I also wonder how you would differentiate your program from others such as Doman’s baby genius programs and montessouri programs.
Lastly, is this the best way to reach you via blog? I am a researcher on e-commerce. Specifically I study how 3D representation/virtual community affect business and consumer purchase. I have wide experience and connection with the industry. I would like to explore a potential collaboration with you in terms of how to use the technology to enhance your current products.
Do please let me know if you are interested. Fang
June 9th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Greetings Dr Titzer,
Great to hear from your videos that your program is well received in Singapore. I am very interested in taking your program to countries in Asia that still does not have a representation and would like to conduct a series of training coupled with sales of your products to these countries. I hope to have the opportunity to discuss this with you via email to explore these possibilities before we perhaps meet-up at some point in time. I do see a huge and growing market for your product here in Asia and would appreciate it if you could contact me. I may be a little delayed in responding as I am also traveling quite a bit. Cheers and all the best.
Constant Chiew
father of Clarabelle
July 7th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
[…] the course of my research and travel, I am often interviewed about teaching babies to read and why I feel it is important. I thought it might be helpful to […]
July 7th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
[…] have the opportunity to travel throughout the world giving talks on the subject of infant learning and have noticed that many parents in Asia appear to be more “hands on” with helping […]