I have been working with my son on the YBCR series, and he is finally getting around the reading his first words! I believe he has been able to read words for a while, but I have not come up with any word games that he is really willing to participate in, he’s one of “those” kids. I think he is slightly insulted by the “questioning” aspect of learning to read, either that or he is annoyed. Also, he is not all that orally verbal, he doesn’t say many words that I can understand, although he babbles jargon constantly.
His first reading word is “ball” and if I show him this word on a flashcard, he will shout it out and go get one of his balls. I try to give him lots of praise and feedback, so that he will attempt other words in the coming weeks. This is so exciting, I know many of your babies read well by 18 months, but I am just as excited that my baby can read 1 word because I know this is just the beginning.
He is 18 months. He once touched his head when I showed him the word “hand” so I know that he knows much more than he is revealing at the moment, I just don’t set him up with the right games for him to show me, or I don’t give him the right motivation and feedback. But ball is is favorite toy and favorite word right now, so he is more naturally inclined to read it. He always goes to the back door, lifts the blinds up, points outside and says “ball” because he wants to go out to the backyard to play with the ball.
Keep an eye for another favorite toy/activity and make a flashcard for it. Be it “Elmo” or “Pooh”, just as long as he’s interested with it.
If he likes jumping, make the word “jumping” on the flashcard and show it to him AFTER he does it (jumping). This way, is interest is already in the action, he will be more receptive to the flashcard you’ll shown him since it is about what he is already doing.
That’s what I did for my DD. She likes to act first then I just followed-up her actions with flashcards. She liked to “spin” so I made a flashcard right away and she learned it in just 1 or 2 showings, no need for many repetition.
Well, as it turns out, my son knows many more than just 1 word. I would say that he probably knows around 40 words, it seemed that after he began reading the word “ball” aloud successfully, he was confident to show off all that he knows. He will do 5-6 words in a row perfectly! I am actually pretty sure in my mother-gut that he knows the bulk of the words from YBCR, but cannot pronounce them. I can now tell what that spark of recognition looks like in comparison to how he behaves when he doesn’t know the word, whether he reads the word or not. He just blossomed overnight with reading, he just amazes and impresses me every day. We already moved on to the review dvd from the YBCR videos, so now we are spending time on Starfall and his level of interest is pretty much through the roof, we laugh dance and clap after every segment.
That’s great! 18 months is a great age as their speech begins to pick up and they start being able to show you what they know. Sounds like he is having a lot of fun.
I have teached my 5 month baby reading for 10 days. I wonder wether should i give the cards for the baby in the same order every time or should i change the order. Please share your opinion with me.
Kappasweet - that is fantastic! Hearing your baby read his first word is a great moment. Now it will just get better. You mentioned that you were now doing Starfall - what is that? I have not heard of that program.
Fanh - change the order of the cards everytime you show them. You want to do everything you can to keep your baby from getting bored of them. Also, after a few days start adding one of two new cards and retire one of two from the stack. I have found that showing word cards and picture cards of the same item has been interesting to my daughter.
Thanks a lot, from today i will change the order of card sets time by time. I do this way, show a sets of the picture card with the letter right below the picture first. Then the set of only words. Is it the right way?
