Your Baby Can Read - Streetsboro,OH

I've never known a toddler who learned to read from YBCR, but I know over 20 who learned to read from www.starfall.com (which also happens to be free).

Just be warned... having a toddler who can read means that (amongst other things) you're on suicide watch for several years. No impulse control + reading = recipe for disaster. Warning labels and instructions became the bane of my existence for about 2 years.

It also means that each and every single headline at the grocery store (Mom what's ge-no-cide mean? What's be more sexy mean? What's a car bomb?) is at eye level.

I have actually had YBCR for two years now. The first year, my 4 year old really didn't like to watch it. It did NOTHING for him. He was already far beyond his age. Anyway, I am now using the program for my 1 year old and have been for about 6 months. He actually can understand and mimic the words he sees and reads. He recognizes the words, "clap, arms up, arms down, toes and nose". He recognized those at about 10 months. I also read to him as well. YBCR didn’t work for my 4 year old, pre-school did, but it certainly is working for my one year old.

I have worked at a specialty children's bookstore for over a decade and have worked with HUNDREDS of kids- reluctant readers, early readers, gifted kids, you name it.

I absolutely DO NOT recommend programs like this. Rote memorization is NOT the same as learning to read and there is no actual research to back up claims from programs like this.

1) Why does your baby need to read? A baby is CONSTANTLY learning and processing information, all the time. Reading is one way of doing that, but your child will learn to read when their brain and attention span are developed and ready to do so.

2) There is absolutely no research to show that force-feeding reading on a young child will result in better grades or higher intelligence later on. NONE. Please- I have seen this approach backfire on so many parents who meant well and only want the best for their kid. But a baby or toddler who uses these systems is much more likely in my experience to 'burn out' at a young age where most kids are just discovering how much fun reading can be. Please don't do that to your baby!!!

3) When the time comes, what your child will need to know is that reading is FUN. It is a wonderful, thing. The absolute best way to teach your child this is so simple that of course companies like 'Your Baby Can Read' who want to sell you something don't want you to know about it:

READ OUT LOUD TO YOUR BABY.

Honestly that is all there is to it. Read for 20 minutes or a half hour every night. Start now while you have a baby, keep doing it when they are a preschooler and keep reading out loud as long as you can. Reading aloud serves several purposes:

1) It creates a 'special time' where the child and the reader are close. It is comforting and gives you a chance to reinforce the 'positive' aspect of books with snuggling. It shows even a young child that reading time is important and something you set aside time for in your day.

2) Reading aloud stimulates neural pathways in the brain, especially books that rhyme. Your child is learning, even if it looks to you like they are just listening to the same story you've read a thousand time.

3) Reading a book with CONTENT- a story, however simple, helps teach children to follow along.

Try these books :
Read To Your Bunny by Rosemary Wells
Jamberry by Mike Degan
The Cozy Book by Mary Ann Hoberman

I always read to my son. Even as a toddler, he was very 'self-soothing' and would sit in his highchair and look at a board book, etc. When he started kindergarten, he was at an average reading level, despite the fact that I am an avid reader. I was a little disappointed, but wanted to let him develop at his own pace. I knew he loved books, so that was good enough.

In 2nd grade, something just clicked. He began to read voraciously, all the time. Now he is 10. He has been in the gifted program in school for two years and reads at an above-average high school level. He's a happy, well rounded kid who loves video games and sports- but also picks up a book and reads for hours without being asked to.

All I ever did to achieve that was read out loud to him. We still read out loud (Treasure Island right now) and when his best friend comes over, he asks to sit in on the chapter reading too!

Don't buy that stuff- just read to your baby and keep doing it!!

I haven't used it but I heard of it from people who have and they say you have to put a LOT of time into it. I've also read a bunch of books and articles that say pushing your kids to read at too early of an age can backfire b/c yes, they'll learn to read early but their enjoyment of reading tapers off when they enter school whereas kids who learn to read on their own time learn to love reading as a hobby as well. i don't know how old your kid(s) are but unless your child is at an age where he/she SHOULD read, i would just let them enjoy being young and having unstructured play.

You will not find two kids who love reading as much as my girls, 7 & 11 years. If you want to develop a lifelong love of reading in your child, read aloud to him/her. Take all the time you would have spent on this stupid, expensive program, go to the library (for free) and get a big stack of books. Read everyday, some days several times a day. Read poems, read picture books, read chapter books even before you think they can understand them. Read yourself, infront of your children, magazine, newspapers, novels, non-fiction. I promise they will be interested, engaged and WANT to read as soon as possible. That drive is what you want, there is no replacement for the passion that will push them to learn, when they're ready. In the mean time you will be enjoying some of the best moments of parenthood. Enjoy your baby!

Not only is it a lot of work and can squash the future love of reading, babies who learn early aren't found to have "better" or "advanced" reading skills beyond peers once they get to a more traditional reading level average. They may get a bit of a boost initially but they fall into the average skill category.

I teach my little ones as they show interest in things. We don't sit down to have focused learning time. Nope can't imagine trying to keep 2 year olds still to pay attention to such things. We learn in couple minute intervals.

Early reading is no predictor of academic success later, and backfires if kids either get burned out by too much pressure to perform or too much boredom while their classmates learn the alphabet.

The single strongest predictor of academic success is a large vocabulary. Kids get this from parents who read to them and talk to them about everything.

I don't want to sound harsh, but as an educator of young children I would not waste my money on this program. The brain of a baby is not even fully developed for a number of yrs. As a parent myself I ask why would you even consider this pgm for a baby? I encourage you to do some research and check out some child development books, or look on-line on child development web-sites; you will learn that TV is not good for your baby's or toddlers brain development , many studies have shown this. Even toddlers shouldn't be exposed to much TV. Did you read in 2009 Disney's Baby Einstein DVD pgm is in trouble, last yr a study found no benefit to babies that Disney claimed in mktg this DVD program? They had to spend millions to recall the Baby Einstein "educational" DVD's and issue refunds to parents who had purchased them. Personally, I would spend the $ on board and picture books and bond with your baby while reading each day. This is much better for you and your little one.

It is memorization, not reading. There is a difference. Please do not waste your money or try to get your baby to read now. Let the child develop naturally. When it is time for your child to learn to read, it will happen. For now, let the baby explore his/her world and learn that way.

My husband came to me all excited because he saw the commercial. He thought I'd be on board since I teach and I told him to forget it! Our daughter is 2.5 and developing beautifully! She's smart, funny and creative. She's progressing naturally and the beauty is watching her develop and grow into her own.

If you want to do something, read, read, read. Read every day for at least 10-15 minutes. Point out things around your home, around your neighborhood, or in the stories read and name them for your child. Encourage your child to "read" books when he/she shows an interest in picking them up and flipping through them. Sing silly songs with your child and encourage drawing and "writing" with crayons, sidewalk chalk, etc.

All of the above are ways to develop literacy and without spending a large amt. of money on a program that is not developmentally appropriate for any child.

Have fun with your baby and the rest will come!

:)

That program sound annoyingly rediculous to me! I don't believe you can say your child can read if they are just memorizing the visuals of sight words. There is a lot more to actual reading. I don't believe in teaching kids to read until they are ready for phonics at about age 3 1/2 - 4 1/2. -former teacher of special education.

Learning to recognize sight words is only part of reading. It's my understanding that is what the program does. Babies are smart and absorb alot and can learn, with enough repetition that a group of letters arranged in a certain way means "cat". However, that is NOT reading. Reading is understanding the phonics involved to sound out any word. It's knowing the prefixes and suffixes to make an educated guess as to what the word means. It's being able to understand the grammar involved.... "Let's eat, grandma!" is VERY different from "Lets eat grandma!".

Many studies done over the years show that by 3rd grade, kids who learn how to read early (before age of 4) are at the same reading level, if not below, those of the kids who didn't learn to read until age 5 or 6.

If you want to give your baby the best head start on learning and boost his/her IQ, then read "Einstein Never Used Flashcards".

i cant believe i am reading this, i thought everyone would talk very highly of the program, when in fact it is a complete waste of time. Basically its just memorizing and the words really dont have much of a meaning to the babies, i recommend a library card, and to read to your baby, so that one day she/he would like to read for the fun of it.

I do not know if I believe all of that stuff. I think that it is important to work with your child. I did the foamy alphabets in the tub when he was a year and by the time he was 18 months old he knew all the letters in the alphabet. He can associate letters with things like D is for dolphin,Q is for Queen. He learns some of it by playing with his educational games on his kid computer. I let my son have fun and do not feel that you need to push your child. I think kids learn better if they have fun and want to do it themselves.

Although there is a lot of negative comments here about "Your Baby Can Read" it actually does help. No, my baby isn't actually reading but it has helped him recognize so many words such as: eye,nose, belly button, chin, dog, ball, etc. All we have to do now is ask him where his nose is, eye is, etc. and he can show us. It has helped him to recognize different objects even though he can't actually say them all yet. I think as he gets older it could possibly help him to recognize words that could help him to read but my son is only 19 months old. Because of the videos when we read his books he recognizes and can say certain things like "ball". I show him the videos twice a day and we also use the flash cards. I think it's great and was worth the money. Granted, if you want it to work you have to make the time to incorporate it into your lives and interact with your child as they watch it.

This is a silly waste of time. Why does your baby need to read? There are other milestones a baby needs to focus on and learning to read isn't one of them. I teach reading. When my daughter was 4 months, I began reading her simple, colorful books. She was hooked. She is 3 now, has an enormous librbary of books and can read most of them on her own. She grasped phonics by age 2, so she really is reading and not recalling. I can give her something at a second grade level she has never seen and she can read almost every word. Her comprehension needs work, but I continue to ask her questions while she reads to me. The best things you can do as parents to encourage reading is to have a lot of books within your child's reach, read some every day and every night to your child, and become engaged yourself in what you are reading. Feel out your own child's interests, and don't push the reading hard if he or she isn't interested at this point. Turn the TV off while reading. My daughter is very active but she still works in a good 4-5 hours a day reading by herself.

I don't think it works. My view on it is that the kids are just memorizing the way the words look and that's how they know what it is. As soon as my kid could talk, he could look at the word Disney and know say it but I am 100% sure that it was because he saw it and recognized it as opposed to actually reading it (we had recently gone down and he saw it about a million times). I believe that it's the same thing with that program.

I have a different reading program called MonkiSee. I have seen the Your Baby Can Read videos and tried a few of them with my baby, but my baby just wasn't very interested in those DVDs. Anyway, if you want to try out a good reading program I am really impressed with MonkiSee and would reccomend it to you. I hope that this helps :)

I just saw a report on this!!! TOTAL SHAM! It doesn't teach reading, it teaches a slight recognition. But when they looked at a lot of kids, only a few could recognize short words and when they kept track of them, there was no evidence that they were better readers than children who were taught to read later.
People claim it works, but it makes no difference over taking the time to read every day to your children at least 30 minutes each day. It's the time spent teaching about reading, not how you do it or how early you start.
The infomercials pick out the very few kids who pick up on it well, but even those few, when tested later, showed no better reading skills than other children who had been read to :)
Save your money. Spend time reading to your kids instead of sitting them in front of the TV and letting an expensive DVD do it for you.

we have the dvds. we dont follow the program at all really. my 14 month old likes watching them so i will put it on if i have dishes or cleaning to do, or if i need to take a shower. it gives me a good 15-20 minutes to get what i need to done and i dont feel like i am plopping her down in front of mindless television...i really think she just likes to see the babies and little kids on it...she likes the songs and music too. she gets really excited when she hears it lol