My dd is going to be 3 in 2 months and we started YBCR when she was 6 mo and then she lost interest for a while and then we started back and we do it occasionally now. We have been doing the Brillkids since last year and try to do it daily. She loves to be read to and likes to make up her own stories to books that she is looking at. She is very imaginative and loves to draw but doesnt seem to be picking up any of the words. I will say this somewhere she picked up the abc song and out of the blue about a month ago started to sing it. She loves to watch shows like Dora and Kilan and she can say words in Spanish and Chinese that she learns off there. She also has a very good vocabulary for a soon to be 3 yr old. I guess my question is when do you start seeing result, I mean when will she recognize words? I just feel like she is not going anywhere and it is a little discouraging. Any advice or encouragement would be greatly appreciated
Hmm, if she is 3 and you’ve been doing it since she was 6 months old you should be seeing some results.
If she is into shows like Dora. How about the Leap Frog videos? Talking Letter Factory. Talking words factory etc?
Maybe start her with phonics, and see if she responds to that. Get some of those magnetic frig magnets and play some word games.
Have you played any games with her using the flashcards from YBCR? Or Little Reader? My daughter loves her Little REader flashcards. I line them up on the floor like a board game. Printed out some number flashcards, pull out the numbers from a bag and she walks on them like a human board game :>) I also line up the cards on the floor and she can read some nonsense sentences( she likes that). Play find the word. I put the words on the floor far enough that she has to walk to them, tell her to walk on her tippy toes, jump like a rabbit, walk backwards , and find the word…
Have you attempted to see if she can read words in a book? Dr. Suess books are great for practicing this. Read her the story and if you come upon a word that she should know from using YBCR , tell her its her turn to tell what the word is. But before you do that tell her she has to help you tell the story too.
Maybe she just may not be interested. Continue to run your finger under the words that you read in the book since she likes to listen to stories. But use books made by YBCR , Monkisee and Brillkids where they have flaps so that they have to focus on the words first before getting to see the picture. mmm I think that’s all I cam think of at the moment. I’m sure others will have some morre great ideas to share.
Great ideas Tracy!
I agree, she should be making some progress by now. Is is possible that she knows, but refuses to show you her knowledge?
We started a little earlier, but didn’t become consistant until around 18 months. We were extremely careful to never cause our dd to feel pressured, & never tested her. She did start showing us that she knew some words before she was 2. We did use very large red letters at first to make sure she was seeing them well. Here is a link to an example on my blog:
http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/2011/02/ks-word-cards.html
The other thought that crossed my mind is, have you had her vision checked? If she has any eye problems, that may prevent her from seeing the words, she may not be learning them. For example, many little kids are far sighted & can’t read things up close or smaller print.
That was another thought of mine too last night but I didn’t type it. If she may know but not want to show you the knowledge. My 4yr old does this ALL of the time at preschool. I will tell her teacher that she knows something and then she refuses to show her teacher. Which makes me look like an idiot. All of my girls actually have done that to me and still do to this day! They just aren’t followers and they don’t perform. LOL.
I had come up with the ideas I shared because of that very reason. I didn’t want to test my daughter but at the same time I needed to know what she knew so we could continue to move on and not become stagnent with her learning to read. If she were younger I most likely wouldn’t worry about it or even have the want to ‘test’. But with her being 4 I have to continually keep things fresh and interesting otherwise she loses all interest very quickly, and I want her to keep that interest.
I almost forgot to suggest getting her vision tested. That would be my next guess. There could be vision issues as well that could be hindering her from learning to read.
Your daughter sounds like mine… imaginative, loves to be read to and make up stories when going through books and had not seem to pick any words despite my various attempts to teach her to read. My daughter is 3 year and 3 month old. I started LR when she was 10 month old. Very soon after that, she would only look at the screen when the pictures came out and her timing was almost perfect! I also showed her YBCR inconsistently about the same time. Although she read “smileâ€, “dog†and a few other words when she was around 1.5 year old, she had forgotten everything after that. I’ve not shown her LR or played intensive learning games with her for more than a year as she lost interest very easily. Basically, I’d shamefully given up on teaching her to read. Any learning games I did with her (using tips from other forum members here) have been very casual and inconsistent… when she was in the mood.
I started using physical flash cards with no pictures a few months ago but I was still not very consistent as she said “No†most of the time. Occasionally, she was able to pick the right cards when playing word games. The turning point for me was 2-3 weeks ago when I showed her cards with “flesch†and dolch words without pictures. Many of the words are 2-4 letter words. Guess what, within a few days she showed me she could read many of those words. She can now probably read about 70 simple words + some Chinese words consistently. It’s nowhere near what other kids can do based on what I read here and I know she was guessing for some of the words that look alike to her (eg “nap†vs “map†and sometimes even “like†vs â€littleâ€). But I’m already jumping with joy as with much less consistency, the result in less than 3 weeks is much better than what I’ve done for more than 1 year when she was younger. BTW, I am sure she did not learn much from my earlier efforts because if she did, she would have shown it … she likes to show what she knows (you can call her a show-off).
The big difference this time is I’m using shorter and simpler words which are easier for her to pick up and which in turn boost her confidence. When she realizes she can read them, she gets more interested. She now competes with me to get to the cards and use them to teach her toys. There is also no picture to distract her (there is no need for pictures as she already knows what those words mean as her vocabulary and verbal communication are quite good for her age). What I like to do sometimes is to make sentences with those words after I flash each card and I use phonics to teach her to read them too at different time. When reading books to her, I’m also trying to get her to read the words that I’ve flashed to her (although she rather has me read the whole books). My only hope is for her to continue to be interested.
I hope what I did with my daughter will work for your daughter. Good luck.
Interesting. Maybe she doesn’t like the curriculum. My daughter didn’t like YBCR or sitting thru the LR daily curriculum. Instead I just selected the categories she liked from LR - all of the food and animals. It was more exciting to her. Then I taught her some dolche words and went quickly to sentences. I like pizza, I see the dog, etc. The food categories were a big hit especially before dinner time. She would click thru them by herself discussing all of the stuff she wished I was making for dinner. We went grocery shopping with a list of her favorite food words and it was her job to read the list to me.
I think as the kids get older they get more particular about the content. Stick with your daughter’s favorite stuff. You could write simple letters addressed to her from Dora or Kailan. Little Reader is great for customizing your own files. You can make Little Reader files with objects and characters from Dora and Kai-lan - map, Boots, backpack, Dora, Tolee, etc. You can also try starfall.com to see if she likes a more interactive way of learning.
As long as she is having fun, don’t give up. Also, as others have stated, she may know more than you think. Some kids are more reserved about demonstrating knowledge.
Good Luck, Lori
Your daughter sounds like mine too. lol He does not like to be tested. When I asked him to read to me, he will either refuse to read or gets all dramatic. When he is in a good mood, and want to read, he will just grap a book and read it out lound.