Bob Jogging Strollers

Parents often say ‘my baby can read’ but is this true? We can see videos of babies reading flash cards from a very young age. How is this possible? And is every baby capable of this?

As a teacher and parent, I would say that any baby given the right level of stimulation right from birth and even before birth is capable of reading flash cards at an early age. So what does reading involve?

If we break down the different aspects of what it takes to read we can see that reading requires the following: – the ability to see letters and to discriminate between the letter shapes, the ability to hear the sounds and the difference between the sounds, the ability to remember the sounds the letters make, the ability to say the sounds of the words.

They are quite complex skills. If a baby is given a variety of stimulating experiences and exposed to language both spoken and written from birth then any baby can learn to read early.

I did this with my own three children. Right from birth I surrounded them with language and music. I played story tapes to them, read to them and talked to them from day one. I gave them toys to reach for and hold as soon as they were able. I encouraged them to crawl and explore as soon as they were able.

I did all I could to stimulate the brain development and built connections and pathways in their brains. It paid off in a huge way. My children could read easily with hardly any teaching from me past the in initial alphabet and three word blending stage.

As teacher I am all for reading programs which teach baby reading activities. There is so much evidence now to prove that learning reading skills and stimulating baby’s brain right from birth is the way to make sure that reading and learning comes easily and early.

It is now though that some forms of dyslexia could be caused by learning important pre-reading skills too late of not at all if the baby has hearing or other difficulties which are not spotted early enough. The first five years of life are the critical time for brain growth and development. Language is best learned in the early years when baby’s brain is primed for language learning.

The basic fundamental skills of learning to read involve listening, seeing and speaking skills, together with written skills later, which are essential to the language learning process.

With young babies the arms of a parent are the best place to learn reading by hearing stories, poems, rhymes, songs and being shown the environment in which they live, posters and pictures of stimulating things. These can be taught easily right from birth by a loving involved parent who knows the techniques to use to teach the skills needed for reading and indeed learning. There is no need for expensive computer based learning program which remove the close parent and child bonding which can take place while reading and sharing a book. These are only useful for older children who can sit up and respond to a computer screen.

The methods really do work! If you use these with your own children, they will be able to read easily and well before school age.

Looking to find the best information on teaching Reading From Birth, then visit www.reading frombirth.com to find the best advice on Reading From Birth for you and your child.

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