((Forgive me, I am new to his forum and some of the early learning concepts and have none of the hard facts you asked for in the original post. Also I’m all opinion and no credentials.)
Firstly I am doing EK mainly for the supposed cognitive benefits of stimulation and “brain buildingâ€, which I have just assumed is the real purpose in doing it.
Two main questions in this thread have stood out to me:
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Do they remember what they learn?
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Is it beneficial considering they can’t possible fully grasp what they are “memorizing”?
I have had (and do have) some of the same questions however I have decided to do the EK. Here’s the way I look at it;
As for question 2, When we talk to a newborn, we talk to them about all kinds of things that they can’t understand at all but clearly that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk to them. We are also told to read read read to our babies. Surely most of what we read (at least initially) is way over their heads as well, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t read, even when they are in the womb! I approach EK with similar reasoning and expectations.
I also think it’s similar to learning words. My baby learned to say the word “time” at about 10 months old. It was cute and exiting but I really wondered if she had any understanding of the concept behind that word. However I still repeated the word over and over for her to learn, trusting that at some point she will have a basic understanding of “time” and that later she will gain an even more expanded and abstract understanding of it. First we learn what something is, then we learn about that thing, and only then can we understand it. When broken down like that an image of something and a word to call it seem like the logical place to start. Bits cards and POI (in my view) are stages 1 and 2. Where else would you start?
I do try to make my cards as relevant to my baby’s life as I can. I also try to picture her as a teenager or young adult and think of what kinds of “bits†she would enjoy sharing so I have chosen some topics like “drinks from around the worldâ€- information that might be cool to share someday.
But do they remember the info? I believe Doman says it is not a memorization program. I don’t expect my baby to remember any of it without some reminders, and I thought that was the whole purpose of retiring the cards and then bringing them back with more info each time and then eventually making books out of them so your children could bring them to a doctors’ appointment and sit quietly reading them while the other children are giving their parent’s headaches.
Obviously the human mind is dynamic, that’s what makes it so much more flexible than a computer- and we can’t expect that we just file this info in with no refreshers and it is downloaded forever. My dad was from Austria and spoke German every day of life for twenty some years, but after living in the states for a few decades he started to forget some of the language. If you don’t use it you lose (or at least misplace it) but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has been of no benefit to you.
I’m not doing it expecting literal encyclopedic knowledge but after all the effort I do plan on reviewing the info from time to time as she grows up. Then, once the knowledge becomes a part of a person’s understanding it doesn’t really have to be remembered, it becomes part of a whole picture and a world view.
Perhaps a third question is- is it worth the time effort and expense. Considering the enormous effort it takes to do the cards and the time that might be spent with the child they come at a high price indeed.
