Thanks, KL. That's an excellent idea. I might show pictures of herself with the Disney princesses as she is really into them at the moment. Hope she will be more interested.

Hi everyone! I am a full time working Mom in HK also. It is thrilled to know there are so many of us here in HK.

Here is my experience with Littel Reader I would like to share with you:

We subscribed to LR since 14 months of age though I have been showing her paper flashcards when she was 1. She quite enjoys it. Although she can only speak coherently at the age of 22 months, I am amazed that she could remember what she learned from LR (though she pointed at a Siberian Husky and said wolf once). I have not tested out if she could read the words without the pictures but I guess it is good enough. She really enjoyed it when she was little. Now turning 2, it is difficult to get her to sit still and read the screen but she still enjoys LR especially it is new topic.

We also subscribed to Little Math when she was 22 months. However, the result is not as good. She does not pay attention and would look up to the ceiling or look away during the session. Recently she would say "Bye bye. Bye bye." to the screen and was nearly in her tears when LM goes on. We don't want to scare her of Maths so we stopped showing LM, and just keep on with LR daily.

I wonder if it is the topic of Maths which bores her or we start showing it to her too late, so she is not used to the style or what. I would like to know about others' experience on LM. Thanks.

Thank you so much for all your encouragement. It is good to get support from others as my in-laws sometimes raise queries for so many language exposures. I shall have faith and keep up with the routine!

Hi everyone. May I seek help from you for my situation.

My daughter is going to be 17 months old. She cannot speak anything apart from "ball ball" (as she has a crash on round objects......), not even Mama or Papa. We usually speak to her in Cantonese at home and her grandparents speak Mandarin to her. She goes to palygroups three times a week (led by French, English and Mandarin-native teachers respectively) I teach her LittleReader daily so I speak to her in English everyday. Also we will play her DVDs and CDs of English songs once daily. She understands the English she learned from LittleReader as she could give me the correct paper flashcards when I tell her the words. I know a little bit of French and would sing the French songs from playgroups to her at home from time to time.

I was told that babies treat different lauguages the same. Their synapses get established by exposing them to different lauguages at an early stage, and it would be easier to learn different languages at a later stage. However, somebody told me that teaching so many languages to babies may confuse them and delay them from speaking. I am wondering if this is our case.........

Liz,

I want to give a bit of encouragement to you also. I agree with the others that you have been a great Mom and have started off the teaching. It is a matter of keeping it going and that needs perseverance and patience. I fully understand your frustration as I work long hours too.
I would like to share some tips that I experienced in teaching my daughter:
Try to do it in the same environment and around the same time. I take my daughter to the computer and show her LR for around 5 mins before going to work and after work. She now claps whenever I bring her in front of the computer and waves goodbye to the computer when we finish the LR session. It is an enjoyable experience.
Give lots of encouragement and praises during the session and try to reinforce their memory in daily encounters.
Make it into a game. Although we use LR mostly, I still keep some printed paper cards and keep them in a box and hide it. From time to time, my daughter would seek and pull out the box and I flash a few cards to her to keep her happy.
It takes some time to get into the habit but babies like regular routines. Keep going!

I read that it is recommended to show the set of flashcards twice a day: the same cards for 5 days. To share my experience: I usually show LR to my girl in the morning and in the evening. LR scheduled three rounds per session. You can choose word only, word and media, and media only. I choose combination of these in the three rounds:
Morning: word-media(pronounciation of word only); word-media (with audio effects); media only (pronounciation only).
Evening: word-media-word (pronounciation only); word-media (with audio effects); word only (pronounciation only).

Although my daughter finds the audio effects amusing sometimes, e.g. zzz sound from the lizard, da da da from the rabbit, I find my daughter concentrates most at word-media (with only pronounciation of the word and no audio effects during the pictures).

Give your kid a try of the various combinations and find out which one is suitable and gives most attraction!   

I agree with the others on the physical flashcards. I started showing my daughter paper flashcards, including a packet of "Little Eistein" cards when she was 12 months. She showed some interest but it wasn't consistent. I subscribed the Little Reader was 14 months and has been showing it for a month. It was quick and most of the time she paid attention to the computer screen (though she lost interest about the colours). To our surprise, one day she picked out "chicken" and "rooster" from her Little Eistein cards (she had learned "chicken" from LR before) and looked from one card to another (the two figures were awfully similar and the only difference was the colour of the figure). Since that day, she could pick out the correct card when we asked for "chicken" or "rooster". I think LR did help in teaching babies words and figures.