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I wish I HAD done something like this with my sons when they were toddlers! My oldest has had the most difficult time learning his sight words, and I really think I missed a valuable teaching window when he was 2 and 3 years old. He's 10 now, and is still way behind on reading, and of course that affects every other subject too. My 8 year old was behind when he started kindergarten, although he picked it up quicker than my oldest. I've been doing daycare since my youngest was 11 months, and she's 3 now. She knows so much more than her brothers did at that age because of the things we do at circle time. Reading, writing, counting, adding, subtracting -- all in very short sessions, all with lots of fun, practical examples, but all completely necessary skills for kindergarten. I don't believe a "baby" can read with comprehension, but I do think any pre-reading skills you can teach that baby can't be a bad thing!
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As a teacher..
I taught pre-k, kindergarten, first and second grade before doing daycare. I'm almost done with my Masters in Reading Education, so I can offer you some statistics...
Do kids under 5 need to be drilled with sight words? Definitely not. Should they be taught letters and sounds? Absolutely, when they are interested and able. Studies have shown that kids' abilities at age 3-5 is highly predictive of their reading ability through 6th grade. Is this stat. always true and things can never change? Of course not, but I think it has powerful implications.
Preschoolers need to do the cutting, coloring, socializing, learning colors and numbers...and letters and numbers. It should not be PUSHED on them by any means but by approaching it in a fun way (such as leap frog games and movies), you are putting the kids at a great advantage for later in life.
I work with 3-5 year olds only, mainly for this reason. Under 3 years old, children should not be pushed with formal education. They should be talked to and have things pointed out to them, in order for them to develop rich vocabulary and meaningful experiences. However, sight words? There is really no reason, at all.
Just my opinion.
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newtodaycare, I'm curious. With your educational background (particularly that almost-reading degree!) what's your take on the Montessori approach to reading, of teaching the sounds before the names of the letters? Although I am not a Montessori expert, I admit to being highly intrigued by this approach and Montessori schools seem to have a lot of success with this. What's your professional opinion?Hee hee! Look, I have a signature!Comment
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I've never had direct experience with Montessori students (only what I've read in research)...but I personally think it would be more confusing than teaching letters and then sounds. Obviously, it works for some kids (since kids in these schools come out just fine:
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Letters and then sounds is what I've learned in every psych. and educ. class I've taken. It seems like a logical progression to me, and clearly I've seen it work as well.
Kids process concrete thoughts (and have a hard time with the abstract), so being able to see "A" before learning the 'a' sound gives them something visual to relate it to.
Again, I don't think it'd be impossible the other day, but I've very pleased with the results I've seen from the other (more typical) instruction.
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well, i think the kids still SEE the letters and feel them- but instead of learning the name of the letter - they learn the sound.
like if you held up the letter A - they would say the sound instead of saying "A"...but still have the visual.
i think it's an interesting concept. it's hard to change and try something like that in public schools because of standards, deadlines, etc. - you do what you KNOW works.
kids look at words with the letter C all the time and want to make the "s" sound because C's name sounds like seee and they learn the letter name first. i'd be willing to bet kids who learn the sounds first don't do that.Comment
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Im new to this forum and already find topics that I have a issue with too! Its nice to see both sides though.
With saying this I had a parent with whom wanted me to have their 22 month old sit with his bottle and watch "Your baby can read" a few times a day. They told me they give him his evening bottle and sit him on the couch to watch it. Mind you the child was 22months, still on infant formula and was given a bottle (my options of cups, trainers, weaning proved nothing) during the day and night. Due to this insistence I had to add a area in my contract on TV education. It states that children would not watch TV (educational or not)more than half hour each daycare day if at all as I feel children learn better with hands on education. This is IMO and what they do with their children on their time is not of my concern.
These parents used this as a "babysitter" and then expected their child to come out above average. They couldnt figure out why their son wasn't learning the words when "he watches the show at least twice a day". If you use this as a teaching tool ALONG with hands on learning and coaching then they may have seen progress. I have not personally used the cds they gave me so I'm just using my opinion. Placing the almost 2 yr old on the couch with a bottle in front of the TV isn't going to teach anything. In fact I had many setbacks with this child and when they finally left my care do to re-locating to the mothers home country I was enthralled.
To each parent and educator their own and if I decide to try it I might have a different idea to back it. All the kids in my care seem to being doing pretty good at their own pace."Being a parent is wanting to hug and strangle your kid at the same time".Comment
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Yikes!
erin's daycare...
My brain stopped working when I read "22 month old with bottle"......
Oh brother!.....what do they it will be easier to transition a 2 year old from a bottle to a cup?!!!! Good luck with that!::::::
Where do these parents come from?Comment
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The mother was Austrailian and the father was American. My son was weaned off the bottle at a year almost on the dot and I always told them I was trying with cups during the day with their son but they never seemed concerned with that as they were with him working on his "reading". Before they left the mom said "I was thinking of trying to potty train him before we re-located but then he might regress when we get there". How about first trying to get him off the bottle AND then work on the other things like potty training or reading or even doing simple tasks like engaging me? That wouldve been better but they were....off....
Because of them I had to add things with my contract about educational videos and other more pressing issues. Like fleas.
Needless to say, the kid STILL couldnt read after a year on his parents "program". I dont blame that specific educational system though..."Being a parent is wanting to hug and strangle your kid at the same time".Comment
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I wish I could share a video clip with you..but I can only view it through my online grad class. It's a Child psychologist speaking who references this type of research and it says that the general idea, of preschool experiences predicting later performance, prove true in "American schools".
Obviously, there are expections and people work hard to succeed in difficult life situations-but these numbers are averages.Comment
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I definitely think that learning words by sight instead of by phonetics is NOT really reading. It will not help them learn to spell or to read new words they've never seen before.
However, my family of 3 dck's (ages 3, 4, 4) purchased Your Baby Can Read system about a month ago. The parents have worked with them about once or twice a week for this time period. In this time, I have noticed the 3 yo is starting to dissect the words she says. For ex: she would say "V-V-Violin!" emphasizing the V sound. Then she would say, "Violin starts with V". She was not doing this before. And now one of the 4 yo boys has started to write letters on his paper trying to spell words. We purchased hermit crabs two weeks ago; and he wrote on a piece of paper "T-A-T-R" and said "We should name him Tater! Look! I spelled it!" He has never tried to spell words before. In fact, every time we try to sit down and do any sort of learning activity; he is the most difficult one to engage. I'm not saying this progress is b/c of the system, but it seems to be.
I mentioned their progress to dcm. She then tells me that she is finding she doesn't have enough time to really work with them like she wants to. She asked if she could bring the whole system and leave it at my house for me to do with them. I told her I could not guarantee that I would do it everyday b/c I have my own things planned to do with them during the day; but I would give it a try. Plus, I have my own DS who is 3 that I would like to try it with.
She brought everything in this morning. I'll give it a shot. I am a skeptic, but I think it won't hurt to give it a valiant effort.Comment
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It is hilarious that this topic has come up since we just did all this with my daughter yesterday. It's funny to me because I haven't heard anyone explain this since I was in elementary (and sometimes on tv) and we did it yesterday and now it's come back up again.
We showed my daughter examples like this and then taught her the difference in the sound:
rat rate
mat mate
hat hate
mad made
you get my drift.Comment
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girls develop faster than boys. And every child is different. Everyone in any grade does not read at the same level, even if they've all received the exact same learning tools throughout.
Some kids get it and some kids don't. It's the same as math, some kids are math whiz's and some are not.
I think it's important to engage kids when they want to, but never force them. Forcing a kid turns them off of learning. And can also make them feel like failures.
What if you had a 3 yo, 4 yo, and 5yo in your care. You did the same thing at the same time with all 3 of them. What if the 2 younger ones were girls and the older one a boy. And what if the 3 and 4 yos started reading first? The little 5 yo boy isn't going to feel too great.
I noticed with every kid that i've been around, just before entering kindy, they start taking books, and since they don't know the words, they look at the pictures and make up their own stories. I think this is where children learn to read. By looking at the pictures, figuring out what is going on, and then putting words to it. So what if it's not the words in the book. Eventually they will get it. Doesn't mean don't work with them, but just let them explore the books as they would anything else.
And what worries me the most, is the kids that are being forced to "read' before they are ready to, what critical development are they missing out on? How long will it be before it is figured out what went wrong with this system.Comment
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It does work. I've seen actual babies who can read.
But, it takes work, every day... every day, the baby needs to watch the videos and work with the flash cards.
I, personally don't see the point. I'd rather just let a baby be a baby and explore the whole world, and I think an hour or more a day out of their little lives is too much.
I probably wouldn't do it with my own child, but I don't think it's absolutely wrong. We parent how we choose, and I don't see a benefit, or a drawback to it really.Comment
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My son was reading before he was two years old.... something he did all on his own. Along with being autistic he has Hyperlexia... this was a huge blessing to him and us as he didn't develop any sort of functional verbal language until he was nearly 5 years old... so we were able to do a lot of communicating with him through the written word.Comment
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