Hi, I have just started using flashcards with my 7 mths old and am not sure if I should use them like we should and retire them once he has seen them 10-15 times. Is that really enough for him to learn the word and won’t he forget it as it will be months before he starts talking? Obviously he isn’t reading yet. Any tips on what others have done/experienced would be appreciated. Thanks 
I don’t know if I have already posted our method somewhere else in the forum but anyways…my baby is 8 months old now, we started off with flash cards @ abt 4 1/2 months. We really did not follow the doman method…we showed her a lot more cards than doman suggested and we did it only twice a day. I did not ever retire any cards …I just added. I always felt that the old cards when shown is more like a revision. Howvere, if u see that ur baby is getting bored when he/she sees the old cards just retire them. I haven’t had that problem yet so we just keep adding cards and not retiring. The funny this is the other…I just tested her with the seven wonder card set (we haven’t shown her that set in abt 1 month now) and she picked up the right cards everytime :)…So I guess they don’t foget things that easily. However, with the word card …I have seen that if I havent shown something in a while and ask her to pick up from 2 cards…there are times when he would get it wrong…
It is not clear if the flashcards are only figures or words or a combination. In any way, I would follow Domans method and retire a card as i introduce a new one. Maybe after a while i would bring back the one i retired but if i do not do it it will occur one of both situations:
- i will be showing too many cards at the same time and maybe the periods will be too long for a 7 month old or
- i do not have enough flashcards to continue showing.
Anyway, as far as you do it in a cheerfull way and your baby enjoys it, there is really no ‘wrong’ way. we have to pay attention to our babies reaction.
Hope this serves.
Yeah like 2010BEBES said for some babies too many cards can get overwhelming…so instead of retiring everyday (if u think that he /she is not seeing enough of the cards to make the CONNECTIONS in the brain) u could even retire every week. Like I mentioned …since we retire only after a month or so we end up having a lot more cards to go through at each sitting…but my baby loves to see the cards so she ios ready to watch it for how much ever time…she actually cries when I stop showing her the cards…so it works for us. Again I believe that each baby is different …we as mothers should prepare a customized programme that best suits our little one. We just took in the essence of Doman method and created our own method :)…and as rightly quoted by 2010BEBES …AS LONG AS THE CARDS ARE SHOWN IN A CHEERFUL WAY AND THAT YOU AND YOUR BABY ENJOYS IT…its no worries
Thanks for the advice, I think what I’m learning is that everyone does things slightly different and I need ot work out what best suits me and my baby. Thanks again.
I found that after I retired them I had to bring them back or else they would be forgotten. I made my own videos with the words and my kids demonstrating the words as a review video. The baby would watch that once or twice a week. I think that really helped. You should have some fun with the retired cards. Use those for games and other things just so they don’t forget them.