Raising Readers, Writers, and Spellers

Dr. Gentry,

I really enjoyed this post. It encouraged me to start reading your book, which I bought a few months ago. It is nice to see an expert that recognizes that babies can and do learn to read easily and naturally from birth to 6 years old. I taught my baby to read using flash cards, books and dvds. It has really impacted his life in so many ways. We homeschool, so advancing him to higher grades has not been an issue. He learns so effortlessly. Although we only taught him to read as a baby, he has a great understanding of math. He is 6 years old and just finishing up 3rd Grade math. I often think I will have to explain new concepts several times before he gets it but he continually surprises me by understanding after a quick explanation.

Teaching my baby to read 6 years ago had such a profound impact on our family that we developed the MonkiSee program, www.monkisee.com, to teach other babies to read. As more and more parents become aware that teaching babies is possible, the options that are available will increase. Learning to read is a game for babies! It is a tremendous bonding time for parents and babies and besides that, it is just a whole lot of fun.

I look forward to finishing your book and thank you for the great post.

Dear Dr. Gentry,

Thank you for all the work you have done in early literacy, and especially your support towards early reading. The members of our forum are very delighted to read your article, as you can see here:

http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-to-read/literacy-expert-dr-richard-gentry-supports-early-reading-and-use-of-technology!/

Let's continue to spread the message that not only can babies and toddlers learn to read, but they absolutely love to!

Warmest regards,

KL

Dear Dr. Gentry,

Excellent article and research. I found it interesting and helpful to have a summary of the qualities that make it easier for younger baby to learn reading. I found it so true -- for both of my babies reading times are fun, and my 26 months old girl is able to read new words that she had never seen before and loves her flash cards and Little Reader activity. I myself was an early reader, and my grandmother, who was renowned Russian teacher, used similar approach in teaching me to read at 3.5 years old. As long as I remember myself, reading was my passion. With both of my babies we started early, 3-4 months, and our reading activities is something that they are excited about and want more and more every time we do them.

Dear Dr Gentry,
Thank you for writing this article. Sadly when my son was a baby Brillkids was not around. However we found YBCR, Leap Frog DVDs and Glenn Domans books and started a mini program. My 2.5 year old knew his alphabet and letter sounds and could read a few words. It wasn't until he was 4 when we found Brillkids that he really started to read. Little Reader and the support on their forum helped me being our program to the next level. He is now a happy 5 year old reading at nearly a grade 2 level.
Thank you for writing about this topic in a open and positive way. So many people could benefit for this information.
Monique
PS. Heading over to amazon to buy your book.

I appreciate the information in this article, and the intent to encourage parents to read with their children no matter what their age. Not only are books so vital for our children's emerging language and reading skills as well as their intellectual and social development, but so too is that "cuddle time" we get while reading to or with our children.

However, I am honestly surprised to see a literacy expert advocating ebooks in place of printed books, especially for babies and toddlers. I realize you are not suggesting we use the computer for every reading experience we initiate with our child, but I am skeptical of the effects of even occasional "screen time" on young children.

I am a children's librarian and one of the most important aspects of my job is to assist parents and caregivers in getting their children ready to read and ready for school. We inform parents how to promote and recognize emerging "reading skills" in their babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. As simple as it sounds, one of these skills is manipulating a book: understanding how to hold a book, turn the pages, and a recognition that the book proceeds from front to back.

In addition, many children--and all babies--are tactile learners. They need to touch and feel and explore with their hands (and even their mouths!) to make discoveries and connections in the world around them.

These are important literacy building blocks that computers cannot facilitate.

I am not anti-computer, a techno-phobe, or anything like that. I spend a great deal of time on the computer. I read ebooks and own a Kindle. My 4 year-old watches TV.

But, I don't agree with babies and toddlers being lumped into the "under 5" demographic that gets an hour of screen time or more each day. An hour a day is fine, and probably a bit on the low side, for a 3, 4 or 5 year-old, but I think that is huge for an infant or toddler.

Technology replaces and enhances many things very well. But, for a young child it just doesn't do justice to a touch-and-feel or pop-up book. I hate to think of the delight of these reading experiences being replaced with a flat screen. I appreciate that we all want the best for our children, but I hope if parents introduce digital media with their young children, they do so sparingly.

Thank you for broaching the topic and providing a forum for discussion.

I tend to disagree with the previous poster regarding screens versus physical books—one does not replace the other! By teaching a child to read through the use of carefully controlled media, early literacy experiences become even richer for a child as they learn to read the words on the page they are turning. I would venture to guess that a child that knows how to read (regardless of how they learned) has access to and picks up MORE physical books than a child that does not.

You won’t find me picking up a book written in Japanese any time soon because I cannot read the characters, they are meaningless to me. I could scan the pictures but my literacy experience reading Japanese will only go so deep without being able to decode the written language. How is that any different for a child? For me, the entire purpose of using media to teach reading is so that my kids will read more physical books and find greater enjoyment in them at a younger age.

When it comes to screen time, when using the BrillKids Little Reader program kids are shown about 10 minutes of screen time each day, which is broken up into two five minute sessions. A parent always has the option of printing out the words/ pictures to slide them into the flap binders provided in the deluxe kit. This still allows the child to have the opportunity to physically turn the page if it is important to them. Realistically, media does not replace the experience of reading books with your child; it enhances it because they can better understand the symbols and meaning of words. As with my own children, the love of reading will grow even deeper and they will ask to read and be read to more and more frequently as their literacy skills grow.

I applaud Dr. Gentry for advocating the use of media to nurture our children’s early education. My daughter began reading at 13 months and now reads at a 1st grade level at 27 months old. She also reads in Spanish and has begun recognizing words in Russian, thanks to the Little Reader program. My son, now 14 months, also began reading a month or two ago and is on the same path. Early literacy has given my children an exceptional amount of joy and independence when it comes to reading. It has been so easy and fun for them to learn, I simply provide the right opportunities and they basically teach themselves! I only wish I would have learned about it sooner.

Additionally, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation "74% of all infants and toddlers have watched TV before the age of 2."

If kids under 2 are watching TV anyway, wouldn't it make sense to encourage parents to use that time to provide high quality literacy based programming? And I am not referring to the pseudo-educational programs shown on PBS, I don't even allow broadcast TV in my home! There is no doubt that truly educational programming will always be better than Barney or Sponge Bob.

Kaiser also states, "Children as young as two years old were found to have established beliefs about specific brands that were promoted by television advertising and parental behavior." If kids can learn branding through TV/screen time, they can certainly learn words, the alphabet, and absorb their parents attitudes when viewing educational software/programs together.

They are simply another tool that can be used to promote early literacy. It doesn't have to be either/or. Either you have books or you have electronic media. You can bet that toddlers who are exposed to electronic media like Your Baby Can Read, Little Reader or starfall.com will pick up far more books that the ones that aren't. They will pick up more books because they will actually be able to read them by themselves. They won't have to wait for an adult to find the time. My 6 year old spends one to three hours a day reading. That is in addition to the time I spend reading to her. She could not do that if I had not used electronic media to teach her how to read before the age of two.