Profile of Justine Simmons, Your Baby Can Read Enthusiast

Here is an interview with Justine Simmons, a celebrity Mom who teaches her baby with the Your Baby Can Read program. Check out the first comment to the interview, where she describes how Miley has thrived with the program.

"KSA: Any baby products you want to tell other moms about?
JS: I would love every mom to know about the Your Baby Can Read program (http://www.yourbabycan.com/ ) based on the research of Dr. Robert C. Titzer, Ph.D. My daughter Miley is 16 months old and reading words! As young mothers we don’t always know all that is out there to help our children thrive, so all our kids do is want to dance or other things that don’t necessarily help them get ahead in the world. When Miley goes into her room she wants books not toys. If every mom could get this for their kids and give them that strong foundation for reading and learning, our kids will be out of this world."

Whole Words v. Phonics

My personal views about reading instruction tend to mirror the position spelled out in this article.

Basically, neither mode of instruction is the holy grail. Both ways of teaching should be made available to all children, and while they are sorting out a way to view and think about print on a page according to their own learning style, it should be made fun, engaging, and relevant.

Many try to superimpose the argument against whole language instruction in a classroom setting with children age 5 and up and apply it to children 4 and younger who are receiving whole language instruction in their home environments. I think it is a big mistake to conflate the two.

Good Interview with Dr. Titzer!

Here is a good interview with Dr. Titzer!

It answers quite a few of the questions about the program!

Enjoy!

The Debate

I enjoy some of these lively debates I stumble across sometimes.

I've had many online discussions about this program as well. There seems to be 3 camps, and many people cross over or straddle a line within these three groups.

1) People who believe that the program works for its intended purpose, whether they would like to do this program with their children or not.

2) People who do not believe that the program works, meaning children cannot learn to read by using this program and that other methods should be used.

3) People who do not believe that children this age should learn to read at all, and whether the program works is irrelevant.

Further, there are 2 groups that cut across all of these groups: people who have have seen and used the materials, and people who have not. Seeing and using the materials convinced me to make the purchase. We actually did not do the trial, we paid for the full package because I already knew that the package was well worth the money.

I understand the point of view of group 3, although I do not agree. The most nonsense seems to come from group number 2 as they seem to cross over into group number 1 and 3 often, and their response tends to be emotional on some level. Something about this program disturbs their world view, views about themselves, and children. Parents should not bring their personal emotional baggage about their upbringing to the table when making decisions about their children's education.