Good Evening Everyone,
Does anyone know the teaching principles/philosophy that Doman is actually based on? I am going to write a research paper comparing Doman to Montessori, that I am currently in training for ages 3 - 6.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Ayesha Nicole
While many of his ideas were new and based on his experience working with brain injured children, my understanding that Stoner’s “Natural Education” and a study of other prodigies, like William Sidis of the 19th century were influential. http://archive.org/details/naturaleducation00stoniala
Good luck with your research paper. We would love to hear updates as applicable. 
Yes sounds fascinating! I don’t have any answers but would love to hear what you discover! Good luck!
Hi Ayesha,
You might find Doman’s book What to do about your brained injured child'' particularly useful for an idea of where his theories came from. He outlines the entire history of the Institutes in the book, the mistakes they made at the start, the discoveries they made, how they came about those insights, and so on. I found it very interesting, and it provided a context for some of the exercises he asks parents to do in his other books. For example, after reading the book, I could understand the reason for most of the physical exercises he espouses in How smart is your baby’’ and ``How to teach your baby to be physically superb’'. He also explained how they came to develop the Institutes’ Developmental Profile, etc. I came to understand the reason for his requirement that a child that is not walking yet should be placed on his tummy all the time, the reason for his requirement that a child that is not running yet should be on his feet all the time and not cooped in a playpen, etc., etc.
On Amazon.com, you can preview the table of contents and the first few pages of the book- http://www.amazon.com/dp/0757001866#reader_0757001866
On Amazon, the book description goes as follow:
``Glenn Doman pioneer in the treatment of the brain-injured children and founder of The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential brings hope to thousands of children who have been sentenced to a life of institutional confinement.
In What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child, Doman recounts the story of The Institutes tireless effort to refine treatment of the brain injured. He shares the staff’s lifesaving techniques and the tools used to measure and ultimately improve visual, auditory, tactile, mobile, and manual development. Doman explains the unique methods of treatment, and then describes the program with which parents can work with their own children at home in a familiar and loving environment. Included throughout are case histories, drawings, and helpful charts and diagrams.’’ QUOTE ENDS
I wanted to add that I believe as Tamsyn said, that he was influenced by:
Work with brain-injured children. (See ``What to do about your brain-injured child’’ book for that)
Books by parents of child prodigies like Winifred Stoner, etc. He cites Mrs Stoner’s work with Winifred on pages 52- 54 and pages 57-58 of ``How to Teach your Baby to Read’'. And if you read Mrs Stoner’s Natural Education, you’ll see that Doman’s ideologies model that of Mrs Stoner, though the nitty-gritty techniques may not have been exactly the same. Both Doman and Mrs Stoner believed the children have potential, and the earlier that potential was nurtured, the better.
He says in How to Teach your baby to Read'': When a person or group is led by research to what appears to be a new and important idea, several things are required before duty compels that group to the publication and dissemination of this idea. First the idea must be tested in real life…Secondly, no matter how new such concepts may appear to be, it is possible that someone somewhere has had such ideas before and has used them. It is possible that they have somewhere reported their findings…In the years between 1959 and 1962 our team was aware that other people were working with young children in the area of reading, both in and outside the United States…When we began to study the literature on the subject intensively, we were impressed by the four facts…The history of teaching little children to read was not new…Other people generations apart do the same things although for different reasons…Most of the cases were carefully observed and recorded in detail. Few were clearer than the aforementioned case of little Winifred [Stoner]. Mrs Stoner had come to almost the same conclusions about early reading as those of us at The Institutes, although she did so without the neurological knowledge available to us.‘’ QUOTE ENDS
Also, on pages 57-58 of ``How to Teach your baby to Read’', Doman also cites other historical work where very young children had been taught to read. E.g., he cites the work by Lewis Terman who reported of a girl who at 26 and a half months, had a reading vocabulary of over 700 words, and as early as 21 months, she could read and comprehend simple sentences as connected thoughts rather than isolated words. She could also distinguish and name all primary colors, etc.
So, I’m pretty sure he was influenced by scientific literature on child prodigies (e.g., the Terman study) plus books written by parents of child prodigies who had taught their very young children to read. And he must have also thought: ``if early learning could create prodigies (as Winifred Stoner), could these techniques not be applied to improve the well-being of brain-injured children and make them normal?