Elizabeth,
In reply to your request for details regarding how i taught the GD maths to my children. My children are currently 17, 14 and 11. I started the GD maths sometime around 20 months with my eldest daughter, 10 months with my youngest daughter and from birth with my son. Obviously in the case of my son, it was initially a program of visual stimulation. I constructed quantity cards 1-14 and ensured that the spots were very large. I appreciated that he would struggle to see outline, so i used black dots on white card to provide appropriate contrast/intensity. The cards were shown regularly throughout the day and i was careful to ensure that he had adequate time to locate and focus on the card. At this stage the goal was to stimulate the visual pathways. I concentrated on a different card each day and showed the card 10 or more times during the day. Sam clearly enjoyed seeing the cards and it appeared to be a promising start. Once i was sure he could focus with ease i started to use the 1-100 set that i had purchased. The set comes with a list of equations on the reverse of each card. I was careful to follow the steps as outlined in the book with all my children. I appreciated the need to present the information quickly and was not tempted to go over old cards. There was no need as the earlier cards were reviewed during the Equations and Problem Solving stages. My children appeared to be able to recognize quantity as previously discussed. I could go into a lot more detail, but basically i followed the instructions in the book.
P.S. i have not ,as yet, received a reply to my email.

The Labybird books contain large font with pictures on a separate page. The Ladybird key word reading scheme, commonly known as Peter and Jane books, might be useful in the early stages. The earlier books only contain a few words per page and the words are repeated throughout the story. There are better schemes, but their lower level books are a good place to start. I used several of their books and i think that it was one of their Peter and Jane books that my children first read independently prior to their third birthdays. They have a "Well loved tales series", titles like The Three Billy goats Gruff that are also appropriate-text on a separate page. You could always enlarge the font if necessary. Once your child has started to read independently you could progress to other schemes that introduce new words gradually whilst reviewing words already introduced. Some of these schemes lack interest and should be avoided.  Oxford Reading Tree:Biff and Chip Storybooks are an excellent set of books that my children thoroughly enjoyed reading.
I appreciate that the Ladybird series appears outdated but some of their early books are ideal as they contain few words in large font with pictures on a separate page. These books are very cheap and are still available. A page in large font might contain something like this-Jane likes Peter, next Page, Peter likes Jane etc. Not exactly exciting stuff but a good place to start.  Reading schemes are an important part of the process. They are not necessary, but will certainly speed up the process of learning to read fluently.
Hope that this has been of some help.

Tanikit,
 Sorry i didn't explain my proposal very well.  29 would be constructed from 3 cards -that is two cards with ten spots and a third with 9 spots. I used this and other approaches with my son once i realized that he had not retained an ability to recognize quantity. He had already learned the numerals and constructing quantity from groups of ten and units provided an understanding of place value.

Hi Maddy,
I didn't get the ladies name or job title. The number came from one of their books. As yet, i have not had a reply to my email but will forward details when received. If you go to page 22 of their book on teaching Encyclopedic Knowledge you will see a list of the students in their program as of December 1, 1983. Included in the list is Marlowe Doman aged 3 1/2 years. Web evidence of the ability to recognize quantity in later life should be available. (The math system was introduced prior to 1983.)
I agree with the comments made earlier regarding the need to teach quantity prior to numerals but wonder whether this is the best method. A less commercial approach would be to construct cards containing no more than 10 spots along with Cards 1-9. Any quantity from 1-100 could be represented in this way. This would develop an awareness of place value once numerals were introduced.
It is not necessary to be able to perceive quantity in order to perform rapid mental calculations-numerous examples exist and the methods used are easy to learn.  Math Magic by Scott Flansburg or Vedic maths.  They key to performing mental math is to calculate from left to right and not right to left as taught in school-most significant first. Take squaring numbers  ending in 5.  Example 25x25   method 2 x 1 more than itself for the first part of the answer. This gives the hundreds part of the answer-most significant result first. so we have 600 to which we add 25 obtained by multiplying 5 by 5. This works with 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, etc
35x35 same method    3x4 to obtain hundreds part of answer and add 25.

I only used an element of phonics rather than a program and it was only introduced to teach spelling rather than reading. I very quickly went through the phonemes and went on to spelling words with sandpaper letters. Sandpaper letters to teach the letter shapes for writing. Examples of words taught- bad bat sat mat rat etc. My son was already a fluent reader and phonics played no part in teaching him to read. I had previously made the incorrect assumption that a fluent reader would automatically be a good speller. I only spent a few weeks encouraging my son to look at word structure and later went on to finding words within words. Sam enjoyed finding words within words and this was something that we did on a regular basis. If we were down town and i saw a good example i would draw this to his attention.

I fully agree with all of your earlier comments, Regards Chris.

Hi Heath, i have just sent an email to GD and will post the reply once received. I have asked them to confirm whether the ability to recognize quantity is retained and requested details of any websites of older children or adults demonstrating this ability. The book became available around 1979, so it would be reasonable to expect numerous examples of this ability on the web.
I avoided showing numerals in the early stages and followed the program as directed in the book.

Thank you for your reply. The lady that i spoke to stated that the ability to recognize quantity would be lost but stated that some of their children went on to be capable at mental math. Please consider ringing yourself to check, as i wouldn't want to mislead anyone and it is possible that the lady misunderstood my question. It seems odd that they are unable to provide details of any website with examples of older children or adults with this ability. I am very pleased to hear that your son has retained this ability and i am sure that he will continue to enjoy maths.

If a young mind can recognize quantity as claimed, then the GD program is basically labeling quantity rather than teaching quantity recognition. Quantity presented in an organized manner as apposed to a random presentation should achieve the same result-that is attach a name to the quantity. Child research seems to indicate that children can reliably recognize quantities up to 5. It might be worth considering presenting quantity on cards containing no more than 10 items/spots. The spots could be arranged vertically and two colors used to separate quantities greater than 5.  Quantity 10 for example could be represented by 5 blue followed by 5 red spots. Numbers like 33 would then have to be constructed by placing 3 ten cards and a 3 card onto the floor.
 The Soroban abacus represents quantity with a 5 bead and 4 unit beads and the above suggested presentation of quantity could progress to a visual representation that matched the Soroban without the distractions of the other beads.
I will attempt to send a power point of 1-100 based on the Soroban. Please refer to my earlier message regarding a recent telephone conversation that i had with a lady from the GD team.   

Hi, some very interesting comments. I Would like to share my experience of teaching my three children to read and on their ability to spell. I followed the GD method and they acquired a large sight vocabulary which resulted in my children intuiting the rules and  reading early with impressive fluency. I avoided teaching phonics with my first two children until after they started school and they both experienced some difficulty in learning to spell. They eventually overcame these difficulties which i believe were a result of their ability to sight read without having to consciously examine each word. My son was shown sights words almost from birth and could demonstrate an ability to read at 10 months. After he had acquired a sight vocabulary of around 2000 words, i decided to introduce an element of phonics and introduced games like finding words within words. These additional activities gave him a deeper understanding of word construction and enabled him to spell extremely well. He never had to practice any of his school spelling lists and at around 7 years was tested by the school-it was determined that his spelling age was twice his chronological age.
Hope this was of some interest.

All three of my children appeared to be able to recognize quantity following GD maths, but this ability was not retained beyond their third birthdays. I recently phoned the GD team and was shocked to be informed that the ability would not be retained even if taught from birth. Prior to the call i had concluded that i had been fooled into believing the system worked and that my children were responding to gestural cues. I'm not sure what to conclude now-i can say that an ability to perform rapid calculation was also not retained and i introduced other methods to develop an understanding of numbers. On contacting the GD team i asked if she could direct me to any website that provided examples of older children/adults demonstrating quantity recognition which she was unable to do for the reason stated above-there was no confusion over what was said but perhaps someone else could check to confirm. Clearly this has implications. I spent a considerable amount of time preparing materials and probably spent over 6 years in total (3 children) showing these cards daily(3 sessions total 60 seconds each day) and avoided introducing numerals during the early stages as instructed. Had i known that the ability would not be retained i think i would have adopted alternative methods earlier. I stated that their book did not make this clear and was told that the "window of opportunity" was explained in the back of their book. Like most, if not all parents, i concluded that the system would only work if taught during this "window of opportunity" and that the ability would be retained. I asked whether the GD math was the result of visual stimulation methods used to promote optic nerve development on brain injured children and that their success might have been the result of their children falling on the autistic spectrum. The lady didn't give a detailed answer but did state that some autistic children might retain the ability.
Looking forward to your comments, Chris.

Hi, could you please read my posted comment as it might be of interest. Posted today at 10.12 titled Reading and maths.

Hi, i used the GD method to teach reading to my 3 children. They were able to demonstrate that they could sight read at 10, 14 and 18 months. I started teaching my eldest at around 16 months , my middle daughter around 10-12 months and my son from birth. I doubt that it really matters whether you point at the words whilst reading from a book provided your child is shown sufficient single sight words to intuit the phonic rules and that you introduce simple sentences once these words are known. If taught in this order left to right would be understood and pointing would not be necessary. Despite this i always pointed at text and or illustrations whilst reading to my children.
It took faith in the process, and discipline on my part to avoid the temptation to test. Testing introduces tension/anxiety which should always be avoided. I probably spent no more than 30 to 60 seconds a day showing the sight cards, ensuring that i retired familiar words and introduced new words daily. Review of retired words should be done briefly and ideally as part of two word , three word phrases and later simple sentences. For example, if you have taught the colours (which ideally should be matched to a colour card to give meaning) along with nouns/verbs you could review by pairing the words e.g. red door, black cat, green cat , running dog etc.
Choose a well structured series of enjoyable books to read that introduce new words gradually-ensure that you find the story interesting and have fun. There is no need to worry too much about the method of teaching. Have fun, be consistent and ensure that the text is large enough for your child to read.  My children all read books independently prior to their third birthdays and have continued to enjoy reading. 
All three of my children appeared to be able to recognize quantity following GD maths, but this ability was not retained beyond their third birthdays. I recently phoned the GD team and was shocked to be informed that the ability would not generally be retained even if taught from birth. Prior to the call i had concluded that i had been fooled into believing the system worked and that my children were responding to gestural cues. I'm not sure what to conclude now-i can say that an ability to perform rapid calculation was not achieved and i introduced other methods to develop an understanding of numbers. On contacting the GD team i asked if she could direct me to any website that provided examples of older children/adults demonstrating quantity recognition which she was unable to do for the reason stated above-there was no confusion over what was said but perhaps someone else could check to confirm. Clearly this has implications. I spent a considerable amount of time preparing materials and probably spent over 6 years in total (3 children) showing these cards daily and avoided introducing numerals during the early stages as instructed. Had i known that the ability would not be retained i think i would have adopted alternative methods earlier. I stated that their book did not make this clear and was told that the "window of opportunity" was explained in the back of their book. Like most, if not all parents, i concluded that the system would only work if taught during this "window of opportunity" and that the ability would be retained. 
Looking forward to your comments, Chris.

Hi, i used the GD method to teach reading to my 3 children. They were able to demonstrate that they could sight read at 10, 14 and 18 months. I started teaching my eldest at around 16 months , my middle daughter around 10-12 months and my son from birth. I doubt that it really matters whether you point at the words whilst reading from a book provided your child is shown sufficient single sight words to intuit the phonic rules and that you introduce simple sentences once these words are known. If taught in this order left to right would be understood and pointing would not be necessary. Despite this i always pointed at text and or illustrations whilst reading to my children.
It took faith in the process, and discipline on my part to avoid the temptation to test. Testing introduces tension/anxiety which should always be avoided. I probably spent no more than 30 to 60 seconds a day showing the sight cards, ensuring that i retired familiar words and introduced new words daily. Review of retired words should be done briefly and ideally as part of two word , three word phrases and later simple sentences. For example, if you have taught the colours (which ideally should be matched to a colour card to give meaning) along with nouns/verbs you could review by pairing the words e.g. red door, black cat, green cat , running dog etc.
Choose a well structured series of enjoyable books to read that introduce new words gradually-ensure that you find the story interesting and have fun. There is no need to worry too much about the method of teaching. Have fun, be consistent and ensure that the text is large enough for your child to read.  My children all read books independently prior to their third birthdays and have continued to enjoy reading.