Fast Flash - How many times do you repeat a card?

Early Learning Teaching Your Child Encyclopedic Knowledge
1

How many times is a good number to repeat one “card” (or multiple photos representing the same concept as in LR) when fast flashing?

I see lots of results with my child when I go slow. For example, I do lots of EK facts, where I’ll show him a set of 45 cards, first reading the fact, then looking and discussing a picture related to the fact. We’ll view a new card 6 times, then abandon it for a week, review for 2 days, then abandon for 2 weeks, review once, abandon for 4 weeks, review once, abandon for 2 months etc. This system works fantastically, I’ve been following it for 3 months and my son have learnt loads in the last 3 months and is enjoying it very much.

Fast flashing (for example LR’s picture flash), I’ve tried the same formula as I do when teaching EK facts, but I never really see the same kind of results. My son knows all the LR course pictures (refuses to read any of the words but that’s a different story) but off course we did them fast and slow (multimedia section of the LR courses.)

In other words, if I were to flash pictures FAST for many many days (and he watches in a very focused way,) I don’t see any results; but if we take our time on the same set (once a day), he’ll know them in less than a week’s time.

I’ve done lots of fast flashing from when he was 8 months old, (LR, LM, slideshows etc) so what’s up? Sometimes it feels to me his right brain knows a lot of stuff (and can read very well) but he cannot access those abilities or information at will. I’ve got a feeling that fast flash is working, just nothing that I can say I’m sure it works. And that leaves me wondering, if he is learning without me seeing it, how long (how many repeats) does it take.

Anyhow, enough about me and my son.

What would you say is a good number of repeats on a card when fast flashing?

2

I could be completely off base, but in your situation I would do both ways. Do your more multisensory version of EK with him. Then add in fast flashing. In my option fast flashing is more about activating certain parts in the brain. Whether or not your son can provide output from the flash flashing is irrelevant, his brain is still making connections. TmT and I were talking a few nights ago, I’m probably going to butcher this, but at each child has their own threshold on how many cards they need to see before they start to learn using a certain method. Thats why some of us have their little learning to read at 12 months, and some don’t read till 3 or 4. Each child needs to be expose to something a certain amount of times, problem is there is no clear guideline, some kids need 100 words and they are reading, some need 1000 and some need 10,000.

LOL anyhow I believe Schichda says no more the 3 times per flashcard.

3

Thank you waterdreamer, I will be following your advice.

If only 3 times per flashcard is best, I’ve been over doing it by kilometers! For instance, W only started liking LM around his 2nd birthday, but now will watch about 3 or 4 lessons a day (at different times of the day.) I just repeat repeat repeat, as long as he’s happy, because I’m so hoping to start seeing results and I know he didn’t learn by watching once or twice a day for about 6 months when we started back when he was 12 months old.

Maybe some kids just can’t learn with fast flash???

I have my doubts, but we will still be continuing with fast flashing.

4

There are so many success stories with different products or method I figure they can’t all be right and they all can’t be wrong either. So my little man get who is 10 months gets a mixture:
LR
LM
LMs
Tweedlewinks
Right brain education shop(speed 4 super fast)
Leap Frog letter factory
Leap Frog Fridge Phonics
Wink To Learn English
Random flashcards a diaper changes
Montessori activites.
We did YBCR, and are casually doing YCCR
Sparkabilities

In the end will I know what was the magic bullet? No. Does it matter? No. I’m sure each thing will help him, even if its only a little. For us fast flashing is only a piece of our program.

Good Luck!

5

Indeed! Personally my early teachings have been a big mess of many random things, who knows what he’s been taking in. He gets limited time with his dad (who knows little about EL) but he learns so much from his father, I think it boils down to quality time spent.