Quite contrary to popular beliefs, all babies are Einstein’s when it comes to learning to read. Your baby can actually learn to read beginning at 3 months of age. Research shows that from this early age, babies have the ability to learn languages, whether, written, foreign or sign language with ease. It requires no effort for the developing baby to learn languages. They actually just absorb the language that surrounds them.
There is a window of opportunity. Babies have an advantage over the rest of us. They have a rapidly developing brain. This allows them to effortlessly learn and absorb mass amounts of information, all before their 5th birthday. The brain grows through use. By stimulating your baby you are growing and strengthening the brain and its connections, called synapses. These are all very important in the development of your child’s intellect.
Teaching your baby to read may be the easiest of the above choices. You may not know any other languages. You may not know how to sign and you may not have the time or resources to learn. That is why teaching babies to read is so easy and so rewarding. Since you already know how to read, it is a natural step to teach your baby to read as well.
Babies learn to read using the whole-word method, also called sight reading. Thousands upon thousands of babies have learned to read using this simple and amazing system. Babies that learn to read using the whole-word method, naturally learn the rules of phonics on their own or with very little exposure to phonics lessons. However, we recommend that parents of children ages 4 years and up use a phonetic system to teach reading.
Teaching your baby to read must be fun for your baby. The idea is to keep their interest in what you are presenting.
-The first rule in teaching babies to read is to make the words big. Their developing visual pathway does not allow them to read words at the font size we are accustomed to reading.
-Secondly, you have to show them the words very quickly. They are learning at incredible rates. When we teach babies to read, we must keep in mind that they can be learning to speak Chinese, French, Spanish and English with no effort, all in the same day. You must also show the baby the words very quickly. If we try to teach a baby to read by having them stare at words they will lose interest. It takes a split second for your child to process the word you are presenting to them.
-Thirdly, you must speak the word in a clear voice. It is best to use a slightly higher-pitched tone, which comes naturally to most people when they speak to babies anyway.
-The last step for success in teaching your baby to read is frequency. You must present the words often in order for your child to master them. As your child progresses in their program, they will master new words at an incredible rate. In the beginning of your baby’s program, you will need to present a word between 15 and 20 times in order to assure mastery. As your program progresses, your child will master new words after viewing them only 2 or 3 times.