How to Teach Your Baby to Read

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

persistance
patience
enthusiasm
posterboard
thick, red marker
pen or pencil

Step 1

Understand When to Teach a Baby to Read

The best time to start is when a child is 3-24 months. The younger the child the more quickly he or she will learn. Children 2-3 years old can also learn to read. Children who are 4 years old can be taught to read with this method but not as quickly as when they are younger. If a child is 5 or older, a phonetic approach is more appropriate.
Step 2

Understand the Benefits of Reading in Infancy

* Teaching your baby to read will cause your baby’s brain to grow. Connections with the brain multiply with use just as muscles do. Babies’ brains are developing faster in infancy than they will in later childhood. Since they have a greater ability to adapt based on environment than older children, babies’ brains can possibly learn to read in a more efficient manner if a baby learns early. Children learn language skills (whether spoken or written) faster and easier in infancy so it is easiest for them to learn to read as babies than at any other time.
* Reading is one of the most important skills a parent can teach a child.
* Reading is play for babies and toddlers. Do babies want to learn to read? Yes, because they want to learn everything! They are voracious knowledge hounds particularly for language, whether spoken and heard or printed and read.
* Learning to read puts them permanently ahead as proven in controlled studies.
* The window of opportunity for learning reading begins to close by age four which is why many children struggle to learn in school.
* Learning to read influences many other aspects of a child’s life in a positive way.
Step 3

Your Approach to the Reading Program is Vital.

Your attitude toward your reading program must be happy and enthusiastic without any pressure on your child WHATSOEVER. It must be approached as a superb GAME. To maintain this attitude you should teach at a time of day when both you and your baby are happy. Each reading session should be 30 seconds or less. SECONDS not minutes. You must be consistent with doing the reading program. It must be done every day three times a day at least. But since we’re only talking about seconds a day, it is easy to accomplish.
Step 4

Prepare Your Word Cards.

Use poster board or other rigid paper to make large, 6”x 22” cards. Using a ½” thick, red marker, write one word per card. On the back write the same word in a size that you can read on the top in the center.

Be aware that the size of the print is CRUCIAL to your success. Very young children have immature visual pathways. If the print is too small they get frustrated because they have to work so hard to see the words. If you and I had to read words that were too small we might not want to read either. Imagine having to read everything in a 6 point font!

For detailed instructions, please read my article on preparing word cards listed in the Resource section below.
Step 5

Determine the words to show your child. If you are just starting out and your child is quite active, try starting out with just two words. Consult my article on preparing word cards for suggestions.
Step 6

Take your child to a place in your house with as few distractions as possible – no TV, no music, no toys. Sit down facing him if at all possible. Show him the word cards as quickly as you possibly can saying each word in a joyful, enthusiastic way. Aim for one second or less per word. He or she will follow your lead on whether it is a game or not. Look at your child while you are saying the words. Do NOT ask him or her to repeat the words. Stay just enough out of reach that your baby cannot touch the cards. Celebrate the fun of a reading session by hugging, kissing, dancing - whatever is fun - when you’re done! Before putting the words away shuffle them so they are in a different order next time.
Step 7

Adjust the Program to Your Child’s Interest Level. Always, always, always stop BEFORE your baby wants to stop. This will ensure that he or she is never bored or pressured and continues to be interested.
Step 8

Here’s the schedule of how to show the words (assuming your child continues to be interested and the set contains 5 words per set)
a. Day 1 Set 1, Show Word A 3X/day
b. Day 2 Set 1, Show Word A+B 3X/day
c. Day 3 Set 1, Show Word A, B, C 3X/day
d. Day 4 Set 1, Show Word A, B, C, D 3X/day
e. Day 5 Set 1, Show Word A, B, C, D, E 3X/day
f. Day 6 Set 1, Retire Word A, Show Word B, C, D, E, F 3X/day

Continue with this pattern adding a new word and retiring an old one each day. Do not test him or her.

Take your cue from your child. If, during your reading session, he or she starts looking away or indicates any kind unhappiness stop your session immediately and decrease the number of words next time.

Wait at least 15 minutes between reading sessions.

Start out slow, get your program well-established before starting to add more. When you feel ready add a second set of words that you also show three times a day at different times than the first set.
Step 9

Once your child has seen at least 200 words you may begin showing the retired words in couplets such as “brown bear” or “happy baby.” These may be shown as flashcards or in homemade books. When your child has seeing couplets for a while, create three word combinations. Slowly add more and more words as your child tolerates it.
Step 10

Now you’ve read a summary of the method outlined in the book, How to Teach Your Baby to Read, by Glenn Doman. I urge you to read a recent edition of this book. It explains things in so much more detail and will give you a good grasp on why this program works. Once you know the why’s it will help you to hang in there if things get tough.