Has EL ever had negative effects on a child?

[Tamsyn]

I'm just curious.  I only see positives of early learning.  I can see that it would have a negative effect if the parents were really pushy and never let their children play, but that's not what early learning is all about, as most of us know.  It's a joyful experience, or at least should be.

Naysayers give negative scenarios, but I wonder if there is an actual case where it turned out badly for the kid.  The closest example I could find in my searching was this boy's story:

http://chancetoshine.webs.com/ourstory.htm

Granted, in his case, it wasn't a negative for early learning as much as it was a public school that was inadequate to help him beyond that.  The parents are still glad that the taught him early, but they had to change their plans and homeschool their child.  I don't think every public school is like that.  There are a lot of people "after schooling" their accelerated children and they are having great success with it.  I'm optimistic in thinking that schools such as the one this boy went to are an exception and not the rule, although it would be good for a parent to know that if their child is very bright, public school might not be an option.  Big might.  I've always wanted to homeschool anyway, so that's not an issue for me.  But other than the challenge of teaching a gifted child and helping them progress, finding appropriate curriculum choices and what have you (a challenge I am loving, by the way), are there any actual cases where early learning simply turned out badly?  Are there any teeth at all behind the naysayer's barking?  Honestly I haven't seen any, I only see children soaring when given the opportunity.

FYI, I'm asking because I want to do a blog post on the subject and I usually try to give a balanced view on any educational technique, and I'm having a hard time finding any real cons for EL.  Isn't it wonderful?!?

[nuria2012]

Hi Tamsyn! I think that it is an interesting topic. I think that many mothers when beginning to teach their babies have the same obvious question. I am the first, although I have seen so many good testimonials here. If there is something negative, I would like to be aware of as well.  Sure, that there will not many aspects, perhaps  anything, but it is good to reinforce our belief in Early Learning to help our babies and toddlers. Merry Christmas everybody! The important thing is that they spend a good time  learning. I can see how my nine months baby enjoy with the flashcards, videos and so on. I am not obesed with if she is going to learn to read quickly or not. The important thing is enjoyment while learning.

[IrisGranstedt]

Hi Tamsyn,

I guess the biggest problem, as you said, is how easily schools will be able to adapt to the child's accelerated learning, especially if homeschooling is not an option. 

Another potential problem I can think of is that the child maybe very arrogant because he/she thinks he's clever than everyone else. But this will be up to the parents to educate/manage the situation. I don't think children should be held back from learning just in case they maybe arrogant one day!

[Kimba15]

Hi Tamsyn,

The only negative is really how other people approach your early learning. Some teachers don't like it (particulalry in a traditional school environment) and will not be flexible to your child's needs because it is difficult to tailor a curriculum to one child who is further ahead than their peers in the class room. Personally I think it is up to the parent to have a good relationship with the teacher and lots of communication and be willing to help the teacher if need be tailor a curriculum to that particular child.

I think most parents who enter into early education are looking at this for the long term and not 'I will do it until they go to school and then there the school's problem'

I think parents who enter into early learning are either very particular in the school they will send their child or will home school

I currently send one to a montessori school and I still have a very good relationship with the teacher and I showed her what Sophia was capable of doing. We worked together to help Sophia achieve her best at school and at home. Sophia will now be starting school almost a year early but I plan on keeping a close working relationship with her teacher as Sophia is incredibly head strong and needs consistency to get the best results out of her.

[mybabyian]

It may or may not relate to kids who do early learning but one of the things gifted children have a problem with is relating to their peers.  This is one of my biggest concerns for my son since having a strong social network is very important to a person's happiness.  I tend to think early learning won't very much effect his ability to make friends, but if there is anything I am concerned about it is that.

[presentashki]

I think school and teachers will be the biggest issue. I've heard many stories, when gifted children were not accepted to school earlier than normal age, because "it's never been done before". And teaching a child who is 5-6 years old can get very tiresome. I can't imagine keeping track of all the subjects the child needs to learn at this age.

[vanichezhiyan]

I sent my son to preschool named "i play i learn" when he was 2.5 years old. The teachers there did not recognize his reading and other capablities,initally i did not care for this as its not good to expect others to praise or accept our children's skills. But later on found that they are very harsh to my son and few other children. he was not allowed to play or learn, active children were kept inside a seperate room with tv (cartoons on). Because i gave early education to my son, he was able to tell what all happens in the school and i was shocked to hear all this. I stopped from the preschool. Now i have put him in another school and he is in LKG, but in this school they recognize his talent so well and they make him compete with higher grade students. The staffs are so happy to see his talents and encourage him by all means. Early education may give a negative impact once its taken negatively by his teachers. So its our parents role to choose the best environment our child requires..This is my humble opinion..

[teachingmykids]

I haven't looked into the studies to deeply and it seems like there really isn't a good one out there on the topic. I seen a few that showed that kids who did doman math as a baby were not scoring better and I saw the ones on here. Nothing really seems to be a well put together study. There is certainly lots of testimonials and anecdote on here but there are people who come on here and don't get results. I think most kids will get benefits from EL but I don't know that all kids will end up super advanced, gifted or well ahead of the curve. I think a lot of kids will end up with good reading and math ability because of the focused learning at a time when their brain is primed to pick up things. There are examples of that for sure but some of those kids could be bright or gifted already. That said if you go by the child and they are enjoying it and have plenty of time to play too which the majority do anyway even if it doesn't have great results I don't see any great harm either. It certainly is better then watching cartoons, baby Einstein type of things or other shows. I didn't discover EL until recently so I will never know if it made a difference or not. I am starting earlier with my 2 year old and haven't really seen many results yet. She is is still young enough to get benefits I think where I think it is too late with my older two who I am working with them but with different techniques.

[kmum]

I really tried to research this before starting a Doman program with my dd when she was a baby. I found lots of "expert" opinions but very few true facts/studies or even personal experiences that were bad. The only real negative opinion from a parent that I found was a father who claimed that doing a Doman fast flashing program caused his son to develop autism - That one kind of baffled me. I just can't see how flash cards cause autism. I'd love to have asked that dad about vaccines, environmental factors, etc

[LDSMom]

You may want to check Your Baby Can Reads Facebook page, they listed several studies/reviews of their program and if I remember correctly, 0% of people found that it negatively impacted their child.

[c4andy20]

I agree with most of the posters here the teacher/school your child attends can possibly be a negative to early learning. I have done EL with all of my children and my oldest is now 10. The Only thing negative I have experienced was when my oldest went to kindergarten.  My daughter was really bored with the work (because we had covered most of that 2 years before at home) and was talking/disrupting too much in class.

The teacher did not believe my daughter could read at the beginning. At the end of October (they started school in the middle of August) the teacher finally decided to test her during a parent teacher conference, my daughter blew her away by reading at the 2nd grade level. The class was on their 4th letter and my daughter was reading chapter books!

I thought well now that she knows my daughter can read at a higher level things would be easier right? Nope, I was completely wrong. Things actually got so much worse. The teacher refused to make any changes to my daughters school work. She said that she had to stick with the curriculum. I even offered to send challenging worksheets to school so that they could just hand to my daughter when she was done with her work. They (the teacher and the principle, yep I went all the way up to the principle but got no luck) said they couldn't do that either.

By January my daughter was bored out of her mind and didn't want to go to school anymore. She was so frustrated she stopped doing reading at school all together. They took a special reading test on the computer and she failed it because she didn't even try. At this point the teacher actually told me that I needed to stop reading with her at home!!!! I could not believe my ears. Apparently my daughter told her she only wanted to read at home not at school because it was boring at school. Hello!!! If that doesn't tell you, that you need to give more challenging work then I don't know what does.

The teacher said that if she didn't pass the second computer test in May she would fail kindergarten. I asked her if she was serious. Why on earth would they fail a child from kindergarten when they knew that child could not only read at a second grade level but add, subtract, and skip count? She said there was nothing she could do if she failed the reading test she failed kindergarten, even if they already knew she could read.  >

I didn't want my daughter to fail so I stopped reading with her. I mean really, how could I let her fail kindergarten? That was the biggest mistake of my life. I truly wish I could go back in time and remove my daughter from that school right then and there. The rest of the school year was horrific my daughter cried, pleaded, and begged me not to send her to school every morning. It was heartbreaking, but the worst part of it all, she went from loving reading to hating it.

In the end she passed their computerized reading test and kindergarten. But she lost so much. I took her out of that school at the end of that year. It was so traumatic for her she didn't want anything to do with school. I decided to give her a break and homeschool. I am so glad that I did. I wasn’t sure if that was the right decision but I figured she learned so little at school and so much at home that I couldn't possibly do any worse. It took a year just to detox. She really didn't gain much that first year after kindergarten and still hated reading. The second year went much better and she learned so much. Pretty much every year since has been great. Now that I have 2 little ones that can read I will not be putting them in school.

It is really heartbreaking to watch a child’s love of learning squashed. Especially after spending all of your time and effort to grow and foster a love of learning.

What I can tell you is that if you do EL and are planning on sending them to school, just make sure it is a school that will work at your child’s level and not just stick to the curriculum. Research the school as much as possible and don't just trust the schools word, try to seek out parents of children who are advanced for their age and ask them as many questions as you can. I did research before I put my daughter in her school. They said they were able to accommodate her but in the end they obviously weren't willing to.

Ok end rant...

As far as EL damaging the child in any way I really can't think of any. I did early reading and math with all of my kids and haven't experienced anything that hurt them intellectually, emotionally, or in any way. My 10 year old is still advanced for her age and has a large vocabulary. She will often talk to adults and there have been times where she had to explain what a word meant (to the surprise of the adult). The adult will usually turn to me and give me a questioning look and I will usually say that she is right.

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