Your Baby Can Read Parent's Guide

I read over the introductory "Parent's Guide" that came with the system. It was mainly a little bit of history on how Dr. Robert Titzer conceived of the program, how he used the program on his daughters, and citations to several studies to prove that teaching reading to babies is beneficial. Oh, and I use the word "baby" loosely. When I say baby I mean newborn up the preschooler. They are all babies to me until then, if I need to make a distinction I will say infant, newborn, toddler, preschooler etc. My little one is officially a toddler at 15 months.

He also gave information about how to best use the DVDs, and how to use the entire system which included flashcards, books, pictures, etc. He also addressed the AAP stance on TV viewing, which I brought up in a previous post. He basically said that the AAP has no data to back up their stance on all TV viewing being uniformly detrimental to the child. Additionally, there are not many pediatricians who were also stay-at-home Moms (or Dads, or daycare providers) at any point. So it is unlikely that they are aware of how parents must create an environment that accomodates all of their children's needs (not just the ones that are under age 2) and neither are they aware of high quality educational programs that can actually instruct a child well as long as there is parental reinforcement.

With this said, he recommends that TV time is at least reduced by the Your Baby Can Read program. This is understandable, as the babies only have so many waking hours anyway, and adding an hour of TV time might cut into other important activities.

I enjoyed the guide, it was realistic and in line with what I believe about teaching reading to babies. If you can't bring yourself to read it, put it in your bathroom or bring it with you when you know you will have a wait, like the DMV or doctor's office. It seems to me to be required reading before starting the program, but a skim will do until later if you are just not one to read the manual.