I have a very active 8 mo boy who has difficulty concentrating on the BrillKids Little Reader program for more than a minute and absolutely loses all interest during the sight words and pattern phonics. His twin sister has no difficulty at all. I sit with him and do lots of physical stimulation throughout the whole program. When he strays, I either gently lead his attention back to the screen or take a break. Even these do not seem to help as he still loses interest quickly or does not seem interested in continuing the session later in the day. Any suggestions how to improve the sessions?
Hi 999!
First of all congratulations of having twins! :biggrin:
Don’t worry! :nowink: This is probably a phase he is going through.
How long have you been using LittleReader? He probably has some more important activities he is engaged at the moment (such as learning more about his motor development, language, social relationships, eating,…).
I think this kind of phases are quite normal at least with my ten month old boy and they pass within a week or two. What we have done, we have skipped the LR for entire day and tried doing it only for a very short period (less than minute on the next day). Then we have added only short times more each days all the time noticing how the child is progressing.
I think it is very important not trying to push it but rather leave it immediately (before he looses focus) if your baby doesn’t seem to be interested. I sometimes give an eatable toy for my baby, he eats while watching if he is having teeth. Also quite many parents have said in this forum that they never thought their baby was learning any of it because the baby was doing something else while watching LR. Then at some point these babies just started showing they had actually been listening and learning all the time!
Good luck! You know your baby the best and you are the best person to know what should be the next step. Hope this gave you any ideas what to do. Please share your progress with us!
Hello 999,
I would have your son watch the program in his high chair. His attention may still wander, but not as much. The program is not very long, so it is reasonable for you to expect him to sit through it, and learning to focus for a little while is an important skill, even at that young age. This being said, it is also possible that your son is a kinetic learner (meaning: he moves around but still pays attention and absorbs the material)… I am sure I don’t need to tell you that boys are just wired for action and girls not so much (I used to refuse to believe it, but then I had a boy ;). I would still do the high chair because he will be expected to sit still at some point no matter what his learning style is…
Hope this helps!
Rivka
acceleratededucation.blogspot.com or http://tinyurl.com/giftedboy
this is great, don’t forget motor development is very important at this stage and if he wants to explore his surroundings that’s a very good thing! My 6 month old is the same and I let her stand while watching, now she is always cruising and trying to stand so I put the ipad / pc on the coffee table and let her stand holding on to the coffee table and the screen is in front of her. I also do less pattern phonics with her but just go straight to the “categories” sections and play multisensory sessions like kids’ things and wild animals and transport which she likes best. Just check what parts he is interested in and play those! Don’t worry if he doesn’t care about pattern phonics or sight words, there’s no rush.
for what it’s worth, I often think my kids aren’t watching half the time but I realise often by chance that they can read a lot of words already. As Glenn Doman says, even if they only watch half the time they still pick up MUCH more than any kid who never does EL, and just think you have 3 or 4 years with your 8 month old, even if he just picks up a word a week, by the time he’s four he would have mastered all the high frequency words considered first or second grade level. Here in the UK, they do 45 high frequency words in the first grade (when they’re 4-5) and another 100 in the second grade (5-6 years), and after about three months of very inconsistent LR sessions and some flash cards that my toddler shows little interest in (only wild animals/transport - she hates pattern phonics), it looks like she recognises about 30-40 words already so I know she is far ahead. Just enjoy and let your little one explore!
I can totally understand you I have the same problem with my 8 month old baby. Maybe its a phase but I have the feeling that this phase is just starting and he dont want to sit in the high chair at all. He prefer to be at my arm or to crowling around. Today I tried some self made flash cards but he was not interested in them. Tomorrow I will try it again. I tryed to show him today some cards having him on the arm and he showed a little bit more interest maybe you try this out 