Thanks for the report–sounds good. It’s a good idea to occasionally review old cards.
Yes, H. started those Leapfrog videos at about that stage, too–they’re great.
Are there any other phonics videos you would recommend?
Since there was some interest in how I’m helping my twins interest in the Fleschcards along ( I’ve gotten some PM’s) I wanted to share some other tricks that I’ve come up with. I’ve recruited the help of Mr. Frog, a puppet, who can’t read and needs their help. He gives them lots of enthuiastic encouragement shouting “you did it” then talks about the picture everytime they get one correct. Another thing is that I started emphasizing who’s turn it is then give the card to the child who read it. This could also be done with an older child, perhaps a mama’s helper, who already knows how to read and could model how to play the game to get them started or when they get stuck.
Hello DadDude
Thanks for sharing your essay. You bring up some interesting questions – like why hasn’t baby reading gotten more serious attention by reading experts? Would it be possible to develop a very early reading program that gets 80% children who started a program under 2 reading phonetically by 3? Or, possibly, 80% of babies who started under the age of 1 reading phonetically by age 2? Does such a program or combination or programs already exist? How would phonics be taught in such a program?
We may have to wait for scientific studies to answers some of long-term benefit questions, but I do hope you’re able to find time for the online survey you’ve mentioned. Forum readers may not be representative of all families using very early reading programs, but it would still be interesting. How many parents have had success with their children enjoying and responding to a very early reading program? How many are recognizing words? How many are sounding out new words – and if so approximately how many words could they recognize before they started to sound out new words? What percentage, if any, of the words were presented in phonetic groupings, were individual letters sounded out and blended? In cases where children learned to recognize words but did not readily make the leap to sounding out new words, did the children keep reading and learning new words, or did they lose interest? Is there a specific aspect of a given program that causes a child to lose interest? Short-term or long-term expectations etc? How do parents feel about their culture’s image of very early reading programs? Do they feel defensive or proud when they tell other parents in their communities that they are using a very early reading program?
You raise some interesting issue in your Defense of Teaching the Very Young to Read. I know a lot of parents who have their 2 year olds in dance, gymnastics, swimming, music, soccer, play groups etc, etc, and who are aware of Your Baby Can Read, but chose not to use it. Part of this may have to do with a perceived need to prioritize time based on personal interests so that there is still time for creative play. But for many parents in my community I think their idea of a perfect childhood doesn’t include babies reading. While I chose to use YBCR with my kids, I appreciate that other parents might not want their kids to learn to read as babies.
My experience: Both of my kids picked up word recognition (from YBCR and PowerPoint, with very little phonetic grouping). Personally, having my kids sign words before they could even say them was a huge thrill for me. As far as I was concerned they were reading - and loving it too. I didn’t have any real expectations of them learning to read phonetically, as I assumed Aleka must have learned to recognized lots more words before she naturally figured out phonics. I was happy with YBCR and think it can even be an excellent foundation for eventually learning to read phonetically, as my daughter did.
Why didn’t my son transition to reading phonetically? Would he have benefited from a more phonetic grouping of words? I suppose there is always going to be a difference in general aptitude even among siblings (my fraternal twin picked up reading faster than I did), and also my son started when he was a year older and soon had many more competing interests. And when my daughter was born I had little time and creative energy for continuing a reading program in an engaging way. My daughter soon started watching YBCR, but my son had long outgrown the program. I was not inclined to pressure him if he wasn’t interested and while he still loved to have books read to him, he essentially stopped reading for a couple years. However, recently he decided he was interested again and picked up a Dick and Jane book and surprised both of us by being able to read much of it.
When Amelia was learning to say new words she would often sign “book†or hand me a piece of sidewalk chalk and say the word until I wrote it for her. I would also add her new words to PowerPoint, until one day she just started repeating absolutely everything and I couldn’t keep up anymore. I added pictures of family, favorite toys, whatever she was interested in, often letting her select her own online image of whatever it was (as with YBCR the word showed up before the image). When Amelia was 19 months her brother got model planets, so I added some of the planet names to the PowerPoint and read them to her. Then I change the order and showed her again and was surprised that she remembered and read them. The next day I was even more surprised that she still remembered and read them. I thought she must have some sort of unusual memory, but when I tried our matching picture pairs with her she couldn’t remember more than 2 pairs. So I think at that point she may have been beginning to intuitively understand phonetic rules. She liked to watch phonics alphabet songs and the Silent E song on YouTube, which may have helped. When she was around 2 she would occasionally surprise people by reading words on their T-shirts, even words she hadn’t seen or heard before.
Just catching up with this page!
Phonics videos for sub-fives are pretty rare. There are phonics elements in all sorts of early learning videos, even Your Baby Can Read and Little Reader (if you want to call it a video), but I’m not familiar with any that focus on phonics the way the LeapFrog ones do. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, I simply never looked.
Thanks for your reply. I checked at the library and found Rock N Learn Phonics which has been working very well for us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmvQx5Uvr6c
Re: Phonics Videos for sub-fives
The Preschool Prep Company is debuting their latest video, Meet the Phonics in the next month or so. I can’t wait! My kids love their series and I am looking forward to using it with my 13 month old. They are cartoons so I’m pretty sure they won’t show a mouth like Rock & Learn phonics, but my daughter learned everything else so quickly in their series that it doesn’t concern me a whole lot.