The Case for Reading: Your Baby Can Read DVDs

I think that one of the best things that a new parant can do for their baby is to teach them to read. My mother taught me to read and it gave me such an advantage back when I started school, in turn I taught our daughter to read early and it has made a big difference in her life.

As seen on CNN, Good Morning America, The Learning Channel, & hundreds of news programs! An ILC Bestseller! All 5 DVDs in the "Your Baby Can Read!" series: Starter, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, & Review. Long-term research shows that children who are taught to read by age four, read better than same-IQ, same-socioeconomic status children who are taught at ages 5 or 6. • Teaches babies, toddlers, and preschoolers written language during the window of opportunity for learning language. • Promotes the learning of "natural phonics"! • Also includes news stories, testimonials, and remarkable footage of babies reading. Review: Reviews Starter through Volume 3. Specifically designed to be viewed only after children are familiar with the first four videos in the series.



A mother left the following review at Amazon.com;

When I first watched the Starter Video, I was shocked by the low budget nature of the DVD. But the quality of the video and audio isn't what matters. The quality of the content is the important thing. Baby Einstein looks and sounds much better than Your Baby Can Read (YBCR) but it has less educational value.

YBCR shows a word, the word is spoken twice and then an image or action related to that word is shown. Each word is shown between two and four times throughout the approximately 21 mins run time. The DVDs include songs and poems and introduce numbers, colors and shapes.

Babies and toddlers will at first learn word recognition. They will associate the shape of the words with an action or object. According to Dr. Titzer, once a child has seen and learned dozens of words they will start to connect the shape of a letter with it's corresponding sound. For example, a child who has learned a lot of words starting with b will learn that b makes a buh sound. So, the child learns to sound out words and master phonics.

According to the instructions on the DVD, you should play YBCR twice a day. Dr. Titzer suggests watching with your child and helping them do the actions. He also recommends, if possible, making your own video using the same concept, making flashcards and pointing to words when you read to your child. The more words you can expose your child to the better.

I recommend having items, such as books, bibs, rattles and keys, when watching the DVDs. When the word book is shown you can show the book to your child. When the word bib appears show the bib to your child and so on. This creates a real world connection between the words and objects.

I started showing these videos to my daughter at 7 months. She was able to read her first words at 9 months. At 19 months, she has already moved beyond the word recognition stage. She can now sound out words she has never seen before.

Update to my original review: my daughter just turned 2 and can now read simple sentences. I'm still amazed that these DVDs actually worked but they did.