Hi everyone,
My baby is now already 11 months and a half old. I’ve been teaching her to read since she was 8 months, but so far no visible result yet. I tried powerpoints (with both words and images/videos and with words alone) and flashcards. At the moment, the flashcards with word on one side and image on the other seems to interest her, so I am focusing on them. However, baby seems to pay much more attention to the side with images and keeps demanding to see them, instead of the side with the words. I wonder whether there is any chance she will remember the words also. For example, for the word “blouse”, i put the word on one side and the image of a blouse on the other side of the card. When baby sees the image, she touches her shirt. But she has no reaction when she sees the word “blouse” itself, even though I showed it to her a few times.
Many thanks in advance for sharing your experience and advice!
Blouse is a great word, I don’t think any of my kids know what that is…I had better teach them that one!
I have read many comments similar to yours on this forum. The general advise is “just keep going!” many parents have commented that 18 months is a turnaround point where their babies just suddenly started to show them what they knew. Personally I believe in Imput Imput Imput! Just keep up the quality Imput! Don’t have any expectations for any results at all. Your job is to teach, not test. testing is for schools 
teaching is for mums! :yes:
Since she obviously likes the flash cards with pictures, keep using them. Always show the word even if you think she isnt interested. Look at it this way you have a toddler who knows what a blouse is…I have 3 school age kids who DON’T! :laugh: She is learning lots, even if she isn’t showing you she can read yet.
Do you have little reader? ( if not do download the free trial version, it’s great!) It has loads of words with the pictures of all of them. It also has some phonics training. You daughter might be internally figuring out the rules of phonics, teaching her phonics may just speed up her reading.
Have faith, keep going! :yes:
Here is a question for you. Do you get excited when you see words? The visual of the image is so much more exciting. That is why we show the word FIRST and the picture LAST. The image acts as a reward for viewing the word. That is why we never put the words and images side by side. The child will be attracted to the images and not the words. Have no worries. Just keep showing words and images and if she likes the images, spend some time talking to her about them. Flash the word quickly and linger on the images. This worked well for us. Mandab is right. It is all about input. Just fill up her little brain with all kinds of information and as it fills, it will begin to spill out. It is very exciting when that happens.
Thanks so much, Mandabplus3 and Krista G! Your words really boosted my morale. I am keeping at producing more flashcards for my baby. It’s awesome what Brillkids forum members do, I always found caring and knowledgeable parents who are willing to listen and to share.
I agree with pp. don’t test, just provide quality input.
When flashing the words, do it very quickly like this:
http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/2011/05/fast-flashing-method.html
Or even faster than that. Babies learn very quickly so flashing very quickly prevents boredom. Also, try to end the session before your baby loses interest. That way she will always be excited to see more words.