Very-Early-Learning: Can Babies Be Taught To Read?

When researching developmental programs and considering homeschool for my disabled daughter, I bought and implemented a book calledHow To Teach Your Baby To Read by Glenn Doman.

I realised, when showing Chloe the flashcards, that something about this very-early-learning program was familiar to me. When I questioned my parents I found out that my father had bought this book in the 70's.

He had originally bought it to give my elder brother and sister (6 and 7) a boost with their literacy. He didn't think that the book really meant "babies" and so embarked on the program with them.

I was only an infant, just learning to walk, but insisted on being included in the sessions. It got to the point where I was beating my siblings to the mark and calling out the words every time a card was shown.

I am no more intelligent than my elder brother and sister. We have a similar genetic mix, yet as a baby I was keener and more adept at reading.

I have found out since that this is perfectly normal. 90% of brain growth occurs before the age of five. A baby's greatest pleasure and motivation is learning, for that is the path to independence - the goal of every child.

So You Could Call Out Words, So What?

Well, the Doman program moves into couplets and phrases quickly. The size of the print is reduced and more reading material becomes available and easy to tackle.

The upshot is that I was reading, with comprehension, by the age of three.

Impossible, No One Understands What They Read That Young

Oh yeah? When I reached my thirties, I found a book by Janet Doman called "Nose Is Not Toes" in my mother's attic. 27 years had passed since I laid eyes on that book and I could still remember the story and how it had entertained me when I was a tiny kid.

I couldn't remember it word for word, as I had never memorised it, but I could retell the gist all those years later.

How could I do this if I wasn't understanding what I was reading?

What Did All This Learning Do For Me? And More Importantly, What Can It Do For You?

I can only speak first-hand, from my personal experience, but here is a sample of how my life turned out as a direct result of learning to read and learning to learn as a tiny child:

I was able to read and write before school
At the age of five I wrote poems and stories while my classmates were learning their ABCs
At the age of seven I read "The Hobbit" and decided that I liked Tolkein
By the age of eight I consistently scored off the standardized scales in reading and writing tests
At high school I rarely needed to study
I have a very accurate memory
I have enjoyed learning foreign languages with ease
I have a high IQ

Was all this nature, or nurture? I thought it was nature, as I don't remember my father doing the actual program with me.

My siblings are bright, but I was always a bit different in my ability to receive, store, retrieve and cross-refer information.

Perhaps I received a fortunate genetic endowment. And yet...these things...this exceptional cognition... I am certain were created in me.

Second Generation Reading Babies

Alright, Lyn, put down your trumpet...

Actually it embarrasses me to go on about myself like this, but I'm trying to make a point...

Now my own children have had the benefit of early input. I don't think it has been a waste and feel closer to my two, four and six year old girls because of it.

They are all avid learners with huge sight-word vocabularies.

So What's In It For Me?

If you have very young children, I would encourage you to explore early learning. Preschool is the best homeschool as I always say!

This page is not about me. It's about letting people understand how grateful I am for the vast choices and enormous happiness my early learning provided me.

It's about letting people know that very early learning is a good idea. It's simple to do. It's fun.

The Gentle Revolution: What Are We Trying To Achieve?

This quote from Glenn Doman says it best:

"The Gentle Revolution began quietly more than a half century ago. It was, and is, the most gentle of all revolutions.

Consider the objective of The Gentle Revolution: to give all parents the knowledge required to make highly intelligent, extremely capable, and delightful children, and, by so doing, to make a highly humane, sane and decent world.

The Gentle Revolution proposes that tiny children have within them the capacity to learn virtually anything while they are tiny."

More Votes For Very Early Learning

I will leave you with two major points:

No mainstream student who has ever walked through the doors of my learning centre needing literacy help has EVER had an early developmental program. NEVER.
There have been many times when I have wished to be invisible, when I have wished that the ground would swallow me up after making some ridiculous mistake. Many a time I have wished to turn back the clock and do something in a better way. But I have never wished I was less literate.