Hi! Special needs mama in New Zealand

Hi Everyone! SO delighted to have found this! I was looking for something like this when I was pregnant with my first and unfortunately all I found were books telling me that you can’t do anything to increase your child’s intelligence except just love them. Ok, I am good with the love part, but what nonsense! My first child was born with a partial chromosomal duplication related to mental retardation so I REALLY wish I had found Brillkids then! He is 2.5 now and doing really well considering his label, and we are revving up to ace this duplication!

We started the free trial for Reader today and he was so interested, and immediately started waving and responding to the pictures and saying words! (He can say a few words, but finds it hard to respond in action or word at all). All afternoon he was much more animated and saying more words than usual. I can’t wait to do more with him tomorrow!

Qs - Can I do the activities more than twice a day if he is interested?

  • Can I do the activities for both my children at the same time (DS2 is 10 months old)
  • How far away should I sit the computer? I have an 11"MacAir and no TV. I might be able to get an old TV to connect with if that is better.
  • Is 2.5 years too old?!?!?!

Thank you!!!

Yay someone from New Zealand!! Welcome to this forum, its fantastic and full of supportive information. Use the search option and look up subjects you might be interested in and you will be amazed where it will take you.

I also live in NZ with my 2yr girl. I’ve been exposing her to words since she was 3 months old and she is already reading small books. Its never too late to start and of course you can do two or more sessions a day if the child is interested. The trick is to stop before they want to stop and to keep it fun so they want to do more next time. The other trick is to do it everyday (well most days) make it a habit. We always do “our words” over breakfast and then sometime in the afternoon if she wants, I follow her lead and sometimes she is really into it and sometimes she is not and that’s fine.

If you are just starting off I would do it together with both children, why not. Just see how it goes, I don’t really have any advice in this area as I’ve only got the one child but you might as well.

Have the computer at a comfortable distance so you can access the buttons to move onto the next word but far enough away from little hands that might make you skip faster than you actually want to. There are no rules with this, we are all just making it up as we go.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Mahiisland, come on over to the facebook groups too.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/354875557944414/?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/groups/386335411472271/?fref=ts

Where in NZ are you? I’m in Greymouth, kiwimum (my sister) is in Tauranga.