Advice for starting reading program with 14 month old, please?

Early Learning Teaching Your Child to Read
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Hello all.

I just found this community within the past few weeks. I’m very excited to have this resource, although I’m overwhelmed by the amount of information contained here. :slight_smile: I would love some advice, please.

We’ve read books several times a day to our 14.5 month old since he was born. We also sing songs and nursery rhymes. I make a lot of effort to speak about objects and activities as we go about our day. However, I hadn’t begun any structured teaching of the alphabet or written language until I started searching for guidance and found this site. Our native language is English and my main focus will be teaching him English, as well as some spoken French, with the hope of encouraging bilingualism. (French is a very common language in our province as well, is taught as a secondary language in our schools, and bilingualism is often required for any government level jobs.)

To date, he has very good comprehension of verbal English and follows simple 1-step directions very well. He uses objects as props to communicate (ie. brings me his boot to go tell me he wants to go outside), and points with his arm (not his finger) to indicate things that he wants. He speaks about 14 words that are easily understood by other adults, which is average for his age. He also has sounds that he uses that have specific meaning that I understand. I’ve tried teaching him a few signs since he was about 6 months old, but he has yet to sign back to me, although he easily recognizes several.

After reading through most of the BrillBaby website re: “teaching baby to read,” as well as some helpful links that forum members have posted, I plan on doing several things:

  1. Teach the alphabet and associated sounds.

We picked up a magnetic leap frog mini letter factory at a yard sale and are using that on the fridge. I also started using the Starfall website today, which he loved. I’ll introduce a couple new letters a day, and review old ones.

When should I start to try teaching him spelling? After he learns all the letters?

  1. Point to words as we read books.

  2. Use more books with larger fonts.

  3. Start using a multisensory method to introduce whole words.

I tried a couple of the downloadable slideshows from this site for a few days. Then I decided to make it more personal and created a slideshow with photos of things that are very familiar to him (including things that he already uses as spoken words). I am looking for feedback about whether or not I am approaching the process correctly.

I’m using Microsoft Power Point. For the first slideshow, I started with about 10 lowercase words, using 3 different fonts (comic sans, times new roman, arial) in black, sized 170-200, depending on the length of the word. I put the word first, followed by a corresponding image and sound (if applicable). I randomly repeated the 10 words/images 3 times throughout the slideshow. I preset the slide transition time to 1 second intervals (which I find a bit fast to say some of the words). I showed him the slideshow 2-3 times/day for 5 days, reorganizing the order each day so he wouldn’t become used to the sequence. He started to get tired of the first slideshow on the 5th day.

After doing more reading on this site, I realized I had maybe introduced too many words to begin with. For the second slideshow, I used only 5 new words and mixed them up with words from the previous slideshow. I randomly repeated the new words 3 times and the old words 1-2 times. I tried increasing the transition time to 2 seconds, which seemed incredibly long compared to 1 second.

My questions:

-How important is it to put words into categories? I have not categorized things, other than that they are familiar objects to him.
-Is the number of new words I’m introducing acceptable?
-Is the length of slideshow acceptable? (about 40-50 slides)
-What is the longest recommended interval time between slides?
-How do I introduce uppercase letters? Plurals?
-How will I know if he is processing the words? I tried going through the first slideshow slowly after 5 days, asking him what some of the words were (the ones he already uses verbally). He didn’t give me any indication that he recognized them.
-Any other recommendations?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks so much in advance!

Melanie

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Hello Melanie and welcome to this great forum! Thank you for your great post!

It sound like your child is developing fast and he sound like a amiable boy! :smiley: I tried to answer to your questions the best I could. Hopefully you find the answers useful to you. :yes:

-How important is it to put words into categories? I have not categorized things, other than that they are familiar objects to him.
It is easiest for the toddler to start reading from objects he already knows. I wouldn't stress too much in categorizing them if it doesn't come naturally.

Understanding categories are expected from children probably only when they turn three or four years old. I think it is very important to introduce them (birds, actions, plants,…) as soon as possible to help the child to build abstract thinking. This might sound weird but I see this like I am providing my son a library card system to memorize for organizing data in his mind with easier already thought logic lol

-Is the number of new words I'm introducing acceptable?
I haven't read Glenn Doman's "How to teach your baby to read" but in "How smart is your baby" Doman proposes showing 5 flashcard * 5 sets on each session and on fifth day retiring one card from each set. This would result on introducing 5 new cards on each session. You should do what suites your family the best.
-Is the length of slideshow acceptable? (about 40-50 slides)
Yes, this sounds reasonable. We do about 100 slides on best days on 20 on other days. You should always stop before your toddler loosing his focus on it.
-What is the longest recommended interval time between slides?
Use one second at most on one slide. The idea is to use "the right side" of the brain for reading the words which works exactly like photographic memory on adults. The idea is NOT to read the information with consciously thinking ( which would be left side of the brain instead of the right side we are now trying to use). This ability to use mainly the right side is lost when the child turns three or four.
-How do I introduce uppercase letters? Plurals?
In Little Reader Plurals were introduced some where around day 80. Regarding upper case letters, I am not certain what is the best way. We are just showing all words in low case, names in upper case and sentences starting with upper case.
-How will I know if he is processing the words? I tried going through the first slideshow slowly after 5 days, asking him what some of the words were (the ones he already uses verbally). He didn't give me any indication that he recognized them.
You shouldn't test your boy at all. :biggrin: You should just trust that he is getting it. Testing will result you being frustrated and tense and it takes the focus out of you two bonding and having fun. Your boy will show his knowledge in two to six months by showing his expertise by change when he is ready. If your boy is able to sit still when you flash the cards, I would take it as a indication he is getting it. :D
When should I start to try teaching him spelling? After he learns all the letters?
I would start learning spelling immediately. Little Reader is a great product introducing spelling. You can try it for free.
Then I decided to make it more personal and created a slideshow with photos of things that are very familiar to him (including things that he already uses as spoken words).
Sounds like you are a perfect mother! :D
He started to get tired of the first slideshow on the 5th day.
Our baby also got bored with some often shown slides so I started showing them half as many times after that to keep the slides fresh and new to my boy.
-Any other recommendations?
Have fun and enjoy this great time in both of your lives!
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Thanks very much for your feedback! :slight_smile:

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Hi Melanie,

We are raising our boy in a bilingual (English/French) household, and he learned to read as a baby. I would really recommend starting with the whole word method, since you child is still very young. We used both Your Baby Can Read and then LR. Then yes, I would test him (sorry to the previous poster, I respectfully disagree). Your child won’t speak the words yet for another few months, but can point them out from two and or more choices. That’s how you know he progresses. I would also do flashcards (and/or LR) in French. Please do not worry about doing too many… he can absorb many, many words, but you do need the repetition (there is a lot of repetition in YBCR and LR). At this stage, don’t worry about categories or even whether you are using capital letters or lowercase (use both. randomly; use plurals too). Once your child knows maybe 300 hundred words, teach him letters, upper and lower cases. Then you can go into phonics (with Hooked on Phonics for instance), but chances are that he will have already figured them out. This is what happened to us in both English and French.
PS: do the above but of course continue reading at least once a day as you describe, in both English and French.

I hope this is helpful! Rivka at acceleratededucation.blogspot.com or http://tinyurl.com/giftedboy