Great Interview with Janet Doman

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114247630

I am sorry for her that she got so flustered at the other interviewee. He threw up a bunch of red herring type accusations such as "Show me studies" and "You charge $5000" which made her defensive. I could not tell what type of study that he was suggesting. It seemed like he was suggesting that babies can't learn to read, but then later said that the true test is outcomes at age 15. Well, I can say for 100% certain without any study that every baby who reads will also read at age 15. They may or may not read better than some of their peers, but they absolutely not suffer the fate of many of their peers who never learn to read. The truth is, he cannot show a single study which will show that early reading is detrimental or makes no difference in the ultimate literacy level of a child. The population of babies who read will have a 100% literacy rate, while the population of babies who did not read will have an alarming amount of illiteracy and functional illiteracy. So, there's your "study." And the notion that babies can't learn at this point is laughable in the face of the proliferation video after video on youtube and elsewhere that reveals the truth pretty clearly. The entire country of Singapore is on the Your Baby Can Read bandwagon, I would love to see "studies" on these children. One thing is true, there is a dearth of legitimate study on how babies learn.

Why does Baby Sign Language get a "pass?"
My question is why does teaching hearing babies sign language get a "pass" from the powers that be. He admitted at the end there that babies can learn visual and auditory language cues, I think he stumbled a bit because he realized he was repeating the exact thing that Janet said earlier in the interview, basically that babies are primed for language acquisition through all pathways, including visual. Mothers who teach their babies sign language are universally applauded, but parents who teach their babies to read are frowned upon unless they can somehow claim that it happened through some organic non-deliberate unplanned process which occurred while they were "just reading" to their babies.