Many of you may have seen the television news segment this week which featured the families of three children under the age of two who learned to read as babies as well as an interview with me. They achieved this by using my multi-sensory learning approach, which is to employ as many sensory systems as possible while babies are experiencing the world around them. Today I will share how parents can apply these methods.
We will begin with the action word ‘clap.’ First, print ‘clap’ in lower case letters on a white board or piece of paper. Point to the word and move your hand from left to right as you say clap, then clap your hands. Now, encourage your baby to clap. If she is unable to clap, gently assist her, but only if she is in the mood. Because she sees the word, hears the word, does a physical action related to the word and learns the meaning of the word, there are more elaborate connections in the brain, giving her a deeper understanding of the word.
I strongly support reading to your children; it is one of the most important activities you can do. However, it is a common misconception that reading to your children teaches reading. Studies show that when a parent is reading to a four- or five-year-old, the child focuses on the text of the entire book for only approximately five seconds. Why? Because his attention is on the pictures, not the words.
In the books I have designed for my early learning system called Your Baby Can Read!, only the word appears on the page, and then a flap is lifted to see a picture depicting the meaning of the word. The two are connected, but do not compete for attention. They are ideal for teaching reading because the child can focus on the words.
Here are easy steps to teach your baby to read using one of my Your Baby Can Read! books, or others that have only a few words per page.
- Point to the words in the book and say them. This draws attention to the word. Next, let the baby look at the pictures and talk about them.
- Teach your baby to point to each word as you say it. Discuss the pictures afterward.
- Over time, some of the words will become familiar to the baby. While reading, pause to allow your baby to point to familiar words and read them.
- Point to the words while your baby reads them.
- Eventually your baby will be able to read most of the words in the book while you help with unfamiliar words.
- In time, your baby will be able to read phonetically.
–Dr. Robert C. Titzer
I saw the television segment today and I was very impressed. I am reading all of these postings and can’t wait to use the program with my son.
I do not know if this is a good place for this posting but here goes.
I have started you program on Saturday, my baby is 13 months old and by Sunday she was doing “Hands Up” so I am very impressed. My concern is that we are a multilanguage family, and we speak Hebrew to her at home and the caregiver who is going to show her the DVDs talks to her in English.
I would like to try and teach her to read in Hebrew using the flash cards and modifying them to Hebrew writing. Will that confuse her? Should I do one language at a time? How would that work? DO you have any recommendations?
Dear Dikla,
Thank you for your comment. I apologize for my delay in responding.
We have many babies and toddlers who learn to read in multiple languages at the same time. The main recommendation that I have is to talk to the baby more when you are teaching more than one language. Describe all of her senses as much as you can throughout the day. In other words, talk about what she is looking at, listening to, tasting, smelling, and touching. Think of movement as a sense and describe how she is moving. Talk specifically about what she is interested in.
Do not mix the two languages within a sentence when you are talking to her. For example, don’t use one or two words in English within a Hebrew sentence.
Throughout the day, add the written language when you can so that she can learn to read in both languages.
Please let us know how it goes. Good luck and I promise to respond faster in the future.
Dr. Bob Titzer
Hi Dr. Titzer,
I have read several books by Diane McGuinness who writes that learning to read is not a natural process like learning to speak. I’ve also read that children aren’t really developmentall ready to read until 6-7 years of age. Second, to learn an alphabet language such as English, it’s important to develop phonemic awareness and to focus on the sounds within our language and the letters and letter combinations that represent those sounds. She states that many children who learn to recognize words by sight often appear to be reading but will eventually hit a wall if they never learn to decode words.
I am wondering what your thoughts are about this and if you are familiar with her research (Why Our Children Can’t Read and What We Can Do About It).
Thanks!
Hi Dr Titzer
Just a few questions about how to use the program better.
I usually sit my 10 month old son on my lap and say the words (after the voice on the dvd) when i show him the dvds. Is it best if i have him on my lap or should i sit next to him so that he can see my face and mouth when i speak.
What is the best way to show the flashcards? for example, if i have the flashcard “gorilla” but i do not have a picture or gorilla toy then should i still show him the flashcard or will it confuse him? at present i only show him the flashcards that i can easily demonstrate. Also how long do i spend on each flashcard?
I live in the UK so it would be fantastic if you could make your workshop and parents dvd available for purchase from your international website, are there plans of this happening?
Lastly I would just like to say that i have used the dvds on my eldest son who is almost 3 with a lot of success. I bought the dvd set just before his first birthday and I have to admit that i did not really follow the proper schedule at all. I only showed him the dvds intermittantly (sometimes only once a week, sometimes 5). I did buy flashcards later but he was way too active to sit and look at them by that stage. Nevertheless he loved the dvds and as he got older he liked to have them on while he was playing (he is not a child who likes to sit still!). He has now started to read really well and we are actually up to stage 4 in oxford readers (oxford reading tree).
I have developed a deep respect for your reading system and am keen to follow the system properly this time round to get the best results possible for my second son – whilst maintaining the fun of course!
Thankyou and best regards,
Rachelle
p.s
I have some clips of my son reading when he was about 30 months. I noticed that you have so many clips on your site at the moment that you may not need any more, however, if you do, then where should i send them?
I have been teaching children and infants to read for the past 14 years. I have a degree in child development and a masters in education. I had never heard of your program until today. I am fasinated by it. I had always used my own methods which are similar to the ones I read about on your web site. I first realized that I could teach my son to read when we were driving down the street one day and he said “Taco Bell”. I looked around and sure enough, there was a Taco Bell restaurant that we had just passed. After that I went home and created very big flash cards and taught him some words then started putting them in different orders to creat different sentences. At that time he was 15 months old. I did the same thing with my duaghter when she was born but I started her even earlier with word that she could point to. My methods have worked for several hundered kids over the years. I love what I do. But I also beleive that there is always room for improvement. So in my quest to improve my methods I came accross this system. I had never thought about using DVD’s in my teaching methods. I want to be able to e-mail Dr. Titzer directly to talk more about using this system in the classes that I teach. Please contact me via e-mail at freedom6112019@yahoo.com. I am truly interested in this system.
Thanks
Hi!
I am a deaf mother of four deaf children. We are from Norway. I am not so good in English. But I can Norwegian. I’m writing a thesis about early stimulation in reading and writing with hearing-impaired young children aged 0-6 years. I just found your information and your PhD. I think it is very interesting. I have a study project with any hearing-impaired children in age from 2 to 5 years. They have just begun to learn to read words and handalphabet. But I need your advice: Children who are deaf, tunghørte and strong tunghørte do not hear so well the speech, and then do sign-language as support in learning.
Related children read the word and the mother or father reading to a higher and clear voice. But, how can I view the hearing-impaired children words and the sign, or should I view the sign first and afterwards view the word? Children should also read off the mouth in addition to sign language. Do you have any experience with hearing-impaired children? What literature would you recommend?
best regards
Britt Jøsang
Hi Britt, for some reason i think that Dr Titzer is not responding to these questions anymore.
I thought i would let you know of a great sign language dvd series which also displays the written word. It is called Signing Time and the web address is http://www.signingtime.com
A lot of children have actually started to read just from watching the signing time dvds. Personally, i dont think it is as good as the yourbabycanread dvds for teaching reading but it is excellent if you need to teach reading and signing at the same time.
The dvds are available for purchase from the website as well as amazon.com and amazon.co.uk (which is closer to norway for cheaper postage).
I hope that this information helps.
Best of luck,
Rachelle
p.s If anyone has any information available on dvds etc or any advice for what steps to take after your baby has completed the your baby can read series, i would be very interested.
My son Graham started your program at 16 month mark, 4 weeks ago. He enjoys the video ( 2-3 times daily as he walks around one of the times) & we do the large flip book at night. We try the flash cards a few times daily, but he really does not focus on these- he is a really active boy. he can recognize the word ‘hi’ , but then calls all the words ‘hi’. Should we move on to the #1 set or stay with the starter for 2 more weeks? How many words should he know by now? thanks. we love the quality of the set & are having fun teaching him!
Dear Dr. Titzer:
I´m sorry for my spelling I dont write very good in english. I have a 4 1/2 year old nephew that has Ring 18. He can´t speak at all. He only screems and makes “howling” noises all day. How ever, he tries to let people know wat he want´s with actions and movements. He point´s at thins, he takes my sisters hand and pulls her to a room and show´s her what he whants or is looking for. He looks of a lot of DVD´s. Mostly Elmo´s world. He goest to special daycare and recives speach therapy but it is not enough. What are the chances of your program helping my nephew to, maby not to speak but, give him more tools to allow him to comunicate with others? Or do you know of a similar or diferent program that can help this children?
Thank you
Blanca Vicencio
Tijuana, BC, México