Dear All,
Many of you may have already read some of our other BrillKids forum thread on our small EL pilot project in Rwanda.
We need help from experienced EL parents, to edit this “Guide Document” for our EL pilot project!
The “Guide Document” is a very-concise manual for doing EL in very low-income countries… all in a short ~8 pages! (It’s 11 pages but some of them are only half-pages, or the table of contents, etc.)
Please find the downloadable document attached to the forum. Or, follow this link to the document on “google docs”:
Thanks again for your encouragement and interest! The coordinator Angelique, the youth group director Elisee, and his wife Claudine, plus the rest of the crew will appreciate your comments a great deal!
Sincerely,
-Steven Bhardwaj
First, it is wonderful that you are doing this. So, thank you.
I have a few comments.
60cm for the flash cards is in my experience/opinion way to big. That is probably the size Doman recommends, right? I followed his instructions and the cards were very cumbersome to deal with. I think YBCR flash cards are at least half that size and seem to be effective. My 2 year old reads cards that are about 8 centimeters long and does fine. I realize he is not a baby anymore, but I still think 60 cm is just too big.
LEARNING PROCESS OF INFANTS
- After preparing the child, the mother presents a flash card to the child for 2 seconds and then hides it. After a few minutes she presents the same card again and so on. In presenting this card she should pronounce what is written, and also show the drawing that represents the word.
Here you might consider adding “…for no longer than 2 seconds…” as it really should be brief to not bore the child and this is a hard thing to understand when first starting out.
Also in my experience, my son was totally uninterested in the cards until I started showing the picture first, talking to him about the picture and then showing him the word briefly. I am not saying this should be a standard procedure but maybe a suggestion for something to try if the child seems uninterested.
Those are all the comments I have. 
Good luck!
Dear mybabyian,
Thanks much for the great comments! I forwarded these on, Elisee asked I convey their thanks.
Great point about how the cards don’t have to start out so big - judicious sizing of cards according to some measures of eyesight will probably be key.
I wonder how hard it is to learn how to test baby eyesight. Anyone have experience figuring this out?
http://www.ortopadusa.com/Ortopad-FAQs/Early-Detection
Ask the mothers. I always knew what my baby could see. To me it was obvious. If you include some follow the finger excersizes, or follow the fruit/duck/chicken/ball in your visits you might be able to figure it out. As well as help strengthen the eye muscles to be able to read smaller print.
I used the 60 cm, yep it was too bit for my kids so I quickly went to a longwise half piece of A4 with a thick texta, red or black ( it came in a two pack! Lol)
I haven’t had a chance to read your guide document. Later today hopefully
Ok I got through it
So I only have one problem with it. It just isn’t very clear about how many cards to start off with or even how many to show in each session.
Basically your guide says show one card for 2 seconds. Then wait a few minutes and show the same card again for 2 seconds.
I doubt you really only want to show one card, one word at a time for the life of the program! Maybe try…
Show each of the 5 cards for 2 seconds each ( no longer). Then continue with you day. Come back and show the same 5 cards again for 2 seconds each in a different order. Repeat a few times throughout the day.
After showing each card x amount of times remove that card and add in a new card. Baby should see a new word each day.
Baby should see every word repeatedly for x number of days before it is retired.
Just my thoughts
Great points Mandabplus!
We received comments on the draft from Mandabplus, Mela Bala, and mybabyian. They were sent on, and well-received, and we’re waiting for the revised copy.
If you have additional comments or questions, please send them on! This will continue to be a living document.
Thanks everyone!!
Sincerely,
-Steven
Did you want the English translation to be correct? Or are you planning to use the document in French? If you want to be able to use it in English it needs some work. :biggrin:
Is there an update on this???