I am so excited tonight. I have been doing flashcards and Little Reader with my daughter since she turned one, but have been unable to find out if she knew anything for two months. Today for the first time I decided to find out. I took the three words that were in the bathroom down (bath, plug and book) and showed them to her two at a time asking her to give me one of them. She got it right each time.
Then tonight when I did little reader with her I paused halfway through some phrases I knew she could say (eg red ball and yellow ball) and she said the next word (“ba”) which is ball - she cannot be guessing as there is red car and red block in the same playlist. I also had her going “moo” when she saw the word cow multiple times even in a playlist I have never shown her before.
I will not test her again now, but feel happy that it is going in and I will probably speed up teaching her as she is learning faster than I had guessed.
That’s awesome! My daughter is 16 months old and while I played around with the Little Reader software a bit during the beta testing stage, we didn’t stick with it because of various work and family issues. I’m motivated to get started again and can’t wait to use the program regularly. May I ask how often and for how long you work with your daughter daily? What techniques do you use, or what is the routine you go through, if any, when you’re teaching/playing with her?
I am showing her Little Reader at least once a day, but try to get two sessions in if possible - her best times when she seems most receptive are just after lunch or late afternoon just before the bed time routine.
As far as the playlists go, I have been a bit irregular with that. I show her the ones she seems to like and ask for (wild animals, animals and an arbitrary list she just seems to like with random words on it) and then I show her a category that I pick and stick to for a few days. It is rather random - I have thought about going to a more structured approach, but I am also showing her flashcards which I show in a more structured way, so I thought I’d rather go with what she likes on Little Reader.
Sessions take only a few minutes - I show her up to 5 playlists in a session though as she likes them so much. Good luck with your daughter. It really is fun for them but you have to take it as it goes - today Laurana was teething badly so we didn’t do much at all besides lots of cuddling, other days she’s really keen and asks to do words lots.
Thanks for the quick response! When I did use Little Reader previously, I did the same as you… kind of let my daughter lead the way on which playlists and how long we worked on it. I think it’s important to pay attention to your child when it comes to their level of interest and such, particularly at this age.
The flashcards that you use- are they printed off, ones you made yourself, or did you buy them somewhere? If you bought them, may I ask where from?
Congratulations Tanikit! Isn’t it such a great feeling?! What a milestone. I felt the same way when my baby started to sight read and say words though not the whole word at 13 months and he continues to amaze me What a great achievement for both the parent and the child
The flashcards I am using are home made and slightly smaller than what is recommended by Doman - they are 10cm x 14cm in size. (I think that is 4 inches x just less than 5 inches) I needed to laminate them as my daughter is still putting everything in her mouth and I do let her get hold of them.
It is great when they show they can read - I also knew they can be taught and believe she could read some of the words, but its nice to hear it.
Congrats. I’ve struggle to get Izaac to actually want to look at words. LR is the first time that he is interested. He laughs and claps. I do different lists between looking at youtube videos of songs he enjoys - so that we have a break inbetween.
So I look so forward to reaching your point. Can’t wait. Little hard too, as Izaac doesn’t really respond to asking about things, like showing me things etc, tho he is slowly getting there.
What I’m interested in, is I’d like to start teaching him colors. So I’ve been doing green sheep, blue sheep, etc.
But I see that you have a playlist from your post of different color objects. Is there any chance that you would mind uploading them.
How wonderful! Thank you for sharing your experience. It is a great encouragement. My boy just started when he was 13 months. I’m looking forward to a day when I can say that he is reading.
