My daughter is a little over four months, and I’d like to get started with a reading program, but I’m pretty sure none of it will hold her attention at this point, since of course she can’t understand what any of the words I’m saying mean. Is it too early to start at this point? Are there any benefits? I’ve shown her several PowerPoint slides, but I know she’s not getting anything from them at this point. (There’s no way for a child this age to conceptualize what a frog is, for example, unless they’ve had repeated personal experience with them!)
Have any of you started this early? If so, what did you do? Were you actually doing the YBCR program at this point, and if so, did your LO get anything out of it?
Welcome! It is definately not too early to start. Just make sure the letters are big enough. We talk to our children all the time, even when we are sure they do not understand the words we use. But, by hearing things over and over, our children learn to understand and to speak. The early learning methods teach that a child can learn to read, the same way they learn to speak. We often have to wait a long time before we hear our child speak, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t understanding words. If we teach them early on using written words, they learn to associate the things with the writtten word. As you said, it is best to start with things they know, like Mommy, milk, and hand. The great thing is that their vocabulary also grows as you teach them. True, they do not know what a frog is, but if you show them a picture of a frog, they will learn what a frog looks like. Then when they see a real frog, they will already know the label for it.
We didn’t start until 11 months. It’s great that you will get an early start! I would try traditional cards with big red letters. That’s what we started with. Math dots ara great when they are young, too.
I had made several flash cards when I was pregnant. I had started flashing these cards to my daughter from day 1. It really didnt matter whether she understood or comprehended these words…repeatedly flashing and saying aloud that word was more important. My cards were BIG BLACK regular everyday words in catogories like Animals, Fruits, BodyParts, In The House, Flowers, Members of the House, etc. Each catogory had 10 words.
I used to flash these cards very quickly.
Music was also an important part in our schedule, especially Indian Classical Vocal and Instrumental. We had this playing in our room almost all the time.
Now my daughter is 14 months and she recognises a lot of words and numbers that were flashed earlier to her.
