DD Hong Kong take-away

[Kimba15]

My husband and I were taling about GD method the other day and he said from what he could gather is that all it is, is giving your baby loads and loads of exposure to different things within the world, and I think you trinity papa summed it up very well.

I think GD is very geared towards its professional mom/mums and dads, and I wish I could be one but unfortunately one has to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Which is why I think DVDS and LR are great teaching tools for busy parents. It allows you to expose your child to many bits without having to spend huge amounts of time making them.

Mtb999 If you watch the early learning seminar by Dr Titzer of YBCR he does do a short 5 minute segment on teaching older children. I cant remember exactly what he said but I know he mentions it in his talk. I think that would be more useful to your friend than GD.

Thanks for the great summary trinity papa Im sorry that it seemed that it was more advertising than seminar.

[purplefungi]

I think that it all makes sense that lots of joyous and caring time spent with your own little ones focusing on the things that will help them throughout a life time will produce excellent results. Children get excited at whatever you are doing, and they want to participate.

[KL]

Actually, I didn't feel that the seminar was overly 'advertorial' at all. In fact, I was surprised that a lot of it sounded as if it may as well have been from IAHP's 5-day course, with a lot of information.  He went into much more detail than I expected especially when talking about the importance of physical development, including crawling and brachiation.

For those who have read the books and watched the DVD's, there probably was not a lot of new information, but then I'm sure most people there had not read the books or watched the DVDs, so they would have learned a lot.  Of course, he did mention the books many times, but I felt that was fair and not overdone, because it's not reasonable to expect him to go into full detail in a 2 hour seminar (which turned out to be closer to 3 hours including Q&A).

What WAS new to me, was his saying that what they do has got nothing to do with 'flash cards'. He went on to say (and I quote):

"Flash cards do not work!"
"They are boring!"

That was quite a jaw-dropper.  He then held up a (um...) "flash card" (??) and said that these are "bits of information" or "bits of intelligence".  The key is that these things must be "discrete, concise, and unambiguous".

I suppose what he means is that the point is not whether you use flash cards or not. What you show them, which could be pictures, must be discreet, concise and unambiguous bits of intelligence.  He emphasized that in the case of pictures, it must just show that thing you are describing and have nothing else in the picture that may confuse the child.  It also ties in with his answer to the question of whether computer learning is OK when he said that what is important is not the medium, but whether it is showing discrete, concise and unambiguous bits of intelligence.

One more thing of note is what he said in answer to someone's comment that their child had a short attention span.  His advice was that the earlier in the day you teach, the easier it usually is, due to children generally being more attentive in the morning.  He added that that's why the institutes are sort of 'opposed' to kindergarten cos usually that happens in the morning and so they are not able to be given their (um) bits of intelligence lessons then.

[Edited - he said "discrete", not "discreet". Thanks Shuki!]

[purplefungi]

Oh my goodness KL, that's like "um" so funny! I would have been like, "what the heck too!"

Yeah, I think that he doesn't like the whole flash card thing because they have been given a bad rap. It's like we are from that one movie where the nerdy parent is flashing cards at his kids. I don't think that the institute wants to be associated with anything like that. Furthermore, when most people think of flashcards they might think of them being cold, insensitive, and something along the line of stuffing information down someone's throat. That's why they have to be done with excitement, honesty, and joyfulness.

I have never heard of the kinderkarten thing being said before. That makes sense, though. My sons are great in the morning, but their goodness wears off by 1800 every time.

Three hours is a short period of time to fit in all the information needed. It's all very interesting stuff, and it's neat that we are able to hear about it later.

[Nanayaya]

I too attended the DD seminar last night and like KL, was surprised at how much information was given. I found it very informative. Much easier to understand than reading the books. He does emphasis on the importance of mothers/fathers teaching the child, and also about teaching in an honest, unambiguous and precise way.

I did ask him about the difference in flashcards & Doman cards and he mentioned that the word 'flashcards' is a general term given to any cards any size any picture/word/combo that is used to cram information into children. He said that he used flashcards when he was 14 to learn French and did not do very well! But his 'bit of intelligence' cards are honest precise unambiguous. From this answer, what I gathered was that 'Bit of intelligence' is a type of flashcards but flashcards are not necessarily 'bit of intelligence' cards? Does that make sense??

purplefungi, I don't think we can 'send' our children to the institute to study even if we are loaded, can we? We as parents need to live nearby too and the children are selected based on how committed the parents are. Not sure if this is correct.

To be very fair, I did not expect a 2 hours seminar to be able to answer all my questions and I do know people who have attended the parents course and said good things about it. I guess to really appreciate Doman methods in depth, you really do need to attend the course. However, Philadelphia is really too far for me to travel, but if they really do do one in HK, I might consider.

The bottom line for me is that all so called methods (and everything else) will always have good points and bad points. The important thing to me is to find out and learn about what is available out there and choose the methods which will work best for me and my children. But I think all the 'experts' in the world agree on one thing: exposure early in life is the key.

[trinity papa]

Yes KL was perfectly right. For the newbies it would be informative, as like the first time when i read the book, it was like wow. But with more reading and experience, you would come to certain road blocks and realise that there are some other problems that are not related in his books.

My views came across because i have most of GD's book, except the swimming one which was just released. I bought the latest edition from the original publisher early last year. As i did too, got most of the books from Shichida. I read it twice, thrice over, dissect the book and re-summarise the key points, and make their teaching part and parcel of my daily affair. How i speak to my child, what i spoke, and how i response to them i make it part of my life now. As such there were certain qns that arise that i could not find the answers in any of his books. And was hoping the qn and answer session would help solve it.

There was a HK couple in front of me, they asked DD a qn, and his response was, "Did you read the book?". The coupled answered yes but it was the translated form in traditional chinese. His reponse was "well that is the problem, the translated book is illegal, they probably translated from his earlier edition, and his book is in the 3rd edition now, do you read english? yes, then get my latest book" and that was it, the couples qn was left unanswered, and i really pity them, they probably would take much longer time to read and comprehend his writing, by that time their child would be much older.

When i asked him my qns, his initial response was the same, "Did i buy his book, did i buy the latest book, did i buy all his book, and did i read his book." hmmmm..... i am not sure if he treats all his reader the same .... but perhaps he was disgusted by the pirated copies, and lost of royalties. I can understand his view, so i try not to be offended by his remarks.

In any case, i do recommend that for beginners who are interested, to do read his book first, that is the acquisition of knowledge, and know how, before applying it. "How smart is your baby", has descriptions on how to make your baby physically superb as well. But i doubt working parents would have the time to do all his physical exercsie anyway, and i doubt many could afford the crawling track or the briachiation laddar. The other book i would recommend reading is "How to multiple your babys intelligence". It covers how to teach your baby to read, math and EK, so you save on all 3 books since this one book covers all of it. But i do notice that in different editions, there are some minor changes, or up-dated, so the process of teaching your baby by IAHP, is still an ongoing process, like there was some confusion about whether to mix  division with multiplication etc on maths. The subsequent editions gave clarification on it. But like i said, don't tie down on every word it says, you would be boxing yourself in and feel despair, flexibility and open mind is better. As for translated copies .... well that is a legal issue, but i do pity those in asia, or non-english dominant speaking country whose command of english is not that good yet, and therefore has to resort to translated versions. But so we are fortunate to have Brillkids forum for us to discuss it. There are plenty of helpful people here.

Another point or impression i took away from the seminar was, DD son of GD, is more of a physical educator type. His father GD and JD, wrote the book how to read, math and EK, other than revisions there really isn't anything else new. So DD's expertise is more on physical development, and hence why his talk is more on physical side. DD's son just graduated and joined IAHP, (family business? maybe better commitment?) he started newsletter. I suspect his son would push the advance into the digital world. But then Brills kids there first.

As for the mroning teaching, its because the baby is well rested, fed and therefore more attentive. IF your going to teach bits of information or intelligence, best to do it during the morning when he is well rested and fed. But unfortuantely kindergartens are also in the morning, which clashes with the best time to teach your kids.... hmmm kindergarten .... how old before they attend most starts at 3 some at 4..... but if your followed GD and start reading, maths etc as young as possible, by 3 they would have already started reading ....... so .... i felt that was a non event ....., but then again if your child takes a afternoon or evening naps, 1-2 hours, have water and some biscuits after that ... he would be as good as new ..... and you can flash again .....

[trinity papa]

When he was talking about bits of info or intelligence, depends on how you want to see it, the word "tiger" is an info and its also an intelligence. Intelligence for a baby, wow a word a description of something, but for adults its just another bit of info, so i go straight to the point instead of playing with words.

Bits..... Sound like computer bits and bytes ..... rather saying small amount of info .... bit by bit .....

Flash card ... its the confusion caused by adults, when they study for their exams they cram lots of info into the card hoping to make last minute memorisation before going into the exam hall..... I done that during exam time too ...., his worried that just because GD is about flash card, people who hasn't read his book, would be thinking, hey flash card that's easy i just squeeze all the info in and flash to the baby. Which personally, as like DD, is the wrong approach, hence he wants to move away from the idea "flash cards"..... and focus on the information or intelligence, bit by bit of information, and not clustered information.

He also did mention about convergence of the eye sight. Or focusing. You can do this regularly by playing toy games and letting him pick up small toys, also when he starts to feed himself biscuits or cereals, he would have to practice the focusing and gripping and letting him feed himself helps. Which i figure is the same, as using the briachiation ladder, except the briachiation ladder builds up more strength, but we can do that by using our thumb or playing pulling games. The idea isn't the ladder per se, the idea is the convergence or focusing, the idea or gees is the exercise needed. The idea isn't the flash card, the idea or gees is the bits of information or intelligence or data being shown.

I guess it comes from a lot of reading or exposure and cross referencing to get the gees. But in so saying i like LR, it certain is environmentally friendly, and saves alot of time too. And the materials involved can be vast. Although i would recommend using a large LCD screen as a monitor, its a lot cheaper now, for those under 1, due to problems of convergence or focusing. It can be easily done using a HDMI or DVI cable.

[Nanayaya]

Trinity papa, I agree with you that DD is a physical guy. My friends who went to the courses said that JD & some other lady is the intelligence person whilst DD is the physical person.

I must have been in a different seminar than you (I went on 12th - Sunday) because all questions during my session were answered and he didn't mention anything about reading his books. There were questions about concentration level of a child and also a question on whether it was possible to brain injure your child if they fall out of bed many times. He answered most of the questions that night.

I agree that he seemed pretty annoyed about the pirated copies of the book as well as a local early learning centre which keeps using the Doman name. One parent asked him about this 'school' after the Q&A and he was very annoyed saying that school has nothing to do with them etc. and that the kits that this school produces are all illegal too. I guess I can understand why he was annoyed as I think all the profits from sales of the books and kits and courses go back to the institute for research and also to help the brain injured children, so I guess it's not as simple as not getting royalties from the sales, but also affecting lives of those who need the help.

[Nanayaya]

By the way, can you let me know where I can find books by Shichida, I cannot seem to find anything. I need them in English since I do not read Chinese (I know there are some in chinese). Can you share your findings from his books, would be interested on what his research says too. Thanks!

[trinity papa]

Hi Nana, yes I was on the saturday one. There wasn't much time for qns and answer, and we only got our chance when most of the parents left and DD returned back to the stage that we were able to ask him qns personally.

So pls do share with us about what you hear on sunday, and the qns and answers that took place on that day i am sure alot of mummy's and daddys would be delighted to hear too. Sunday's talk i was told was for brain injured children hence i did not attend. I'll offer some karma points....

Also they said that if response is good they may conduct a 5 day course in HK somewhere in oct or nov, i think they conduct once every year in singapore, by their asia distributor. Course being "How to multiple your baby's intelligence".

I am just wondering, why GD doesn't print translated books or authorize it to be done. Shichida allows their taiwan office to do it and most books in Asia are printed using traditional chinese. My wife reads chinese so i am lucky. But i also ordered the book from Japan by calling their number and asking to speak to an english speaking sales rep and getting their email so that i could email to them personally my credit card number and the order form. Very quick very prompt but the courier cost about the same as the books. Well not really books, its more like binded A4 copies, and english translation was hmm pretty poor, and my wife and i have to cross reference our reading and our understanding of what is written.

I think you can try searching shichida under search entire forum. There are quite some large area of shichida discussions, from memory to maths to its method, and its all in english. I think i posted some there much earlier too.

oh yeah you can try this link for other methods of teaching too, i notice nobody posted it before ....

http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/shinichi-suzuki-early-education/msg25405/?topicseen#new

[Nikolett]

Thanks for your input, everybody,
as I am a non native English speaker, can anybody elaborate on what exactly is "discreet, concise, and unambiguous"? Esp. unambiguous...

[KL]

'discreet' - This has different meanings, but i think what he means in this context is that it should be simple and not overdone.

'concise' - This means brief and to the point.

'unambiguous' - This means it should be clear and have nothing there that may cause confusion over what you mean.

A good example is if you are trying to show what "dog" is, you should show a picture that only has a dog, not mixed in with other things.

[Shuki]

Perhaps the word he said was "discrete", which means separate, isolated or distinct from other elements. That would also make sense in the context (i.e. a picture of a dog, not a dog eating out of a bowl in front of a house by a tree).

[KL]

That must be it! Thanks, Shuki! I'm going make sure I add "discrete" to Felicity's reading curriculum!! (mine too!)

[Frukc]

Hi,
as I was in DD seminar in Latvia half year ago, I can also exchange my opinion.

After that seminar, there was also a lot of disappointment in LV parenting forum. Mothers wich are doing GD system for years and have done wonders with their challenged children were disappointed because they did not hear anything new for them. There was also disappointment among people which listened to translation because sometimes it was very bad.

I was very satisfied. Before this event, I was very negative about IAHP at all. My opinion (which I got from books of child psychologists)  was that teaching a child to read before 4 years can harm.

This seminar changed my mind totally. I started to look at my child in antoher way, I started to speak in another way, and I found that the best way to stop baby crying is to teach him. I purchased books.

I think this seminar was about the introduction to IAHP system. It's aim was to make an interest among parents which don't know anything about early education. It's aim was to convince. If you want to convince someone, you must speak in a very simple way, with very few facts
So, some parents will allways be dissapointed. But I think that it is more important to convince as many people as possible, about the importance of early education. Later, they will find their answers on their own


(But I agree that there was something wrong with a seminar attended by Trinity papa.)

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