By now, I’m sure you have seen the commercials for the “Your Baby Can Read” Early Reading System. The ads show young toddlers reading off flash cards and babies as young as a few months old reading three word phrases. Is it too good to be true? I think so.
This kind of “reading” system, which uses flash cards, DVDs and books promises that most preschoolers will learn to read before entering kindergarten. However, they premise is built around memorization, rather than reading.
So those babies aren’t actually reading?
“No,” Dr. Nonie Lesaux, a child development expert at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, told MSNBC.com. “They memorize what’s on those cue cards…It’s not reading.”
To me, I’ll stick with a good old fashioned method of teaching letters and sounding out words, rather than memorization.
Have you tried “Your Baby Can Read?” We’d love to hear from some moms with first hand experience with this learning system.
