Oops, my bad.  It's been corrected and the new slides uploaded.  Just waiting for approval.  I've also recounted all the dots to make sure the numbers are right.  I think my eyes are seeing "red" LOL.

There are several reasons why your baby might not like the cards.

1. Could just be an individual thing.  I found my older boy didn't like dot cards, but my baby loves them.  To get my older interested in dot cards, I turn it into a game.

2. Going too slowly. Babies learn fast.  Are you showing the flashcards too slow?  Repeating the same stuff too often?  This is sometimes the reason why they get bored and look away.

3. Too predictable.  Are you showing the cards in sequence?  Mix them up a bit.

4. New concepts.  By the time we got to 70-80 dots, my baby started to lose interest in the dot cards, too.  However, I found that when I showed him equations, he would pay attention again.

5. Other distractions.  As your baby gets older, he/she notices more stuff around and it's harder to get their attention.  Make sure there's nothing else around that could be stealing their attention.  I find that I can't do flashcards with my baby when my older son is around because my baby is always more interested in what his big brother is doing.

6. Change perspective.  Sometimes I find that if I sit my baby on my lap and show him the cards, he is more attentive than when I sit in front of him.

7. Playful physical interactions.  Sometimes I find that if my baby isn't interested in flashcards, I play little games like peekaboo, tickle games, swinging and other physical stuff, etc.  After that, he seems more attentive.

8. Wrong timing.  Is your baby tired, hungry, sick?  Sometimes your baby's just not in the mood.  Sometimes we're not in the mood to do certain things.

Don't wait until your child is too old.  I think I remember the Doman support staff telling me that dot cards no longer appropriate for kids past three years old.  Also I remember reading in Doman's Math book that you should hold off teaching numbers - as in the symbols, e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4 until you've taught your baby to recognise quantities.  Children that can recognise numerals tend to tune out to red dot cards.

vanichezhiyan - my son went through a no. 7 phase.  Everything to him was 7.  He wanted 7 of everything - not 6, not 8, but 7.  We would do math sums up to 7 and he'd stop.  It's just a phase.  My son's over the 7 phase now - I think it lasted a couple of months - so just wait it out.

I attended a TweedleWink center today.  I really like it.  Tweedlewink/Heguru/Shichida classes are all supposed to help your child develop his or her right brain potential.  Although I'm currently sending my older son to Heguru, I'm considering changing to Tweedlewink because I think the classes are more relaxed.  Heguru and Shichida are very typically Japanese - regimented and results-oriented.

One of the most important parts of early childhood education is not to test your child - at least if you want your child to enjoy learning, you shouldn't.  Children hate to be tested.  I like that Tweedlewink subscribes to this philosophy.  Although it means you won't know how your child is doing I think it's better for the long run.  Your child will reveal what he's learned through day to day happenings - like when my son first read the word "duck" from a restaurant menu. 

Wennie Sun at Tweedlewink was also saying that you shouldn't worry if it seems your child isn't paying attention to what you're teaching.  Your child learns whether she's looking or not.  Even if you just have your Tweedlewink DVDs playing in the background while she plays with her toys, she'll be picking up stuff.  Children don't learn the way we do - our left brain dominance inhibits our ability to pick up information the way young children do so we do not realise that a child can seemingly pay no attention to you while being engrossed with his toys but repeat all things that you've said while he was supposedly playing.

It's good to start your baby swimming earlier.  I only took my older boy swimming after he turned one - by then he'd developed a lot of fears and didn't like to go where he couldn't touch the floor.  My baby loves the water!

That genetics has a role that cannot be denied.  But there is a lot to be said about nurture.  If Mozart never learned music, he would never have been the genius that he was.  If Tiger Woods did not pick up a golf club at the age of two, he may not be the world champion that he is today.  The key is to start early and as young as possible because that's when the true potential is available to be tapped.

What's a genius?  My definition is someone who is exceptional at something.  It doesn't matter what that something is.  It could be Math, it could be golf, it could be music, it could be something else.  Whether a person discovers his or her genius depends on whether his or her potential was tapped.  I agree that no matter what you do, you may turn a person into a genius into an area he does not have the potential for.  For example, if Mozart had been forced into sports, it is possible that we would not be regarding him as a genius today.  If Tiger Woods had gone into basketball instead of golf, his name might not be the household name that it is today.

Achieving genius is part having the potential for something and part having the opportunity to realise that potential.  What potential do our children have we don't really know but as parents it is our duty to help them explore.  The only way to discover that potential is through exposure.  Give your child the opportunity to try everything and when you discover what he likes, home in on it like a heat-seeking missile.

I think that genius is probably a somewhat misleading term.  Perhaps a better word to use would be "expert".  Tiger Woods is a genius in golf because he's got years of experience in the game.  If you played golf as much as he has, who's to say you can't be great at it if you had the potential for it?  There was a study some time back that examined the genius in chess masters.  They found that if you showed a chess master a chess board of a game in progress for just a few seconds, the chess master is able to recreate the chess board on a new board and with all the pieces in the right places.  However, if you show that chess master a game board with chess pieces randomly placed on the board, the accuracy of recall is a lot less.  This is because the chess remembers the chess board in chunks, not as individual chess pieces on a board.  Chess genius is based on the sum of the chess master's past experiences and it is the same for everything else.  Geniuses are only geniuses in their field of expertise.  Put Tiger Woods in a tennis match and while he may be able to play the game, his expertise in it drops dramatically.

In all early childhood development programs, the focus is on fun and enjoyment of the process.  If your baby isn't having fun - stop.  That's because we learn things a lot more quickly when we're having fun.  If we like something, we tend to do it more - doing it more helps us get better at it.  The better we get at it, the more we like it and so the cycle continues.  Know any geniuses who hate what they do?  Having the potential for success is important but above all, there must be a passion and heart for it. Michael Jordon - one of the world's best basketball players - didn't make his high school basketball team.  As a basketball player, he's also considered short.  Despite these setbacks, he still went on to become one of the world's greatest basketball players of all time because he had the heart for it.

What works for one child doesn't necessarily work for another.  We're individuals with our own distinct and unique personalities.  Learning styles differ for different people.  Some people need to be "hands on" to learn new things.  Others are better able to grasp abstract ideas.  I think a good example of how these differences are reflected can be seen with the Meyers-Briggs personality test.  There is a reason why those who are "Intuitive", "Thinking" and "Judging" score better on IQ tests compared to those who are "Sensory", "Feeling" and "Perceptive".  That's because IQ tests present information in a way that NTJs prefer.  People who are more "sensory"-oriented prefer to be able to touch objects to learn and find it difficult to grasp the abstract nature of some of the questions in an IQ test.  That's not to say they're stupid just because they can't score well in an IQ test.  They just have a different kind of intelligence.  It is important to how your child learns so that you can present information to them more easily.  For this reason, I believe the multi-sensorial approach is better than straight flashcards.

Then there is the effect of upbringing.  DadDude mentioned knowing people who were smart but lazy or never made use of what they got.  Some of it might be true, but I think Bronson and Merryman's book "Nurture Shock" sheds some light on this.  Children who were praised for being smart often felt afraid to try difficult things.  Instead of taking the praise and building their confidence, it actually made them less confident.  This is because they developed the idea that intelligence is innate - what you're born with is all you have.  They felt that since they're supposed to be smart, they cannot make mistakes and everything has to come easily to them.  When they run into difficulties, they would rather not try than to risk the possibility of failure and exposing themselves to be "less intelligent".  Children who were praised for their efforts were more willing to tackle difficult tasks and weren't afraid of challenges. They weren't afraid of making mistakes.  In other words, the wrong kind of praise can prevent a child from reaching his full potential.

Okay, I realise I seem to be all over the place here (please excuse me - it's extremely late, I'm tired, but I can't sleep because my baby's sick with a congested nose and can only sleep if I have him upright so he's in the baby carrier while I type this)  but basically what I'm trying to say is that there are so many variables that can affect whether a child becomes a genius.  Yes, there must be some genetic potential, but I reckon nurture still rules.  Without nurture, having the genetic potential is useless.

It's exactly as jtsbaby says - at the end of the day, we're just trying to give our children the best possible chance of maximising their potential.

(btw, I apologise if I keep referring to "he" and "him" but I have two boys...)

My son's the same!  He loves the book shop more than the toy store.  We can usually get good behaviour out of him by promising him a trip to the bookshop but not so for the toy shop...

Unfortunately, we don't have much in the way of libraries here, so we have to make do with the bookshop.  Since he was very little, I've taught him to respect books so he treats them well and always puts them back on the shelves after he's done looking through them.  We've got tonnes of books at home but he still loves going to the bookshop.

My older son was like that - even at two years.  It was worse for me because he wouldn't even go with his Dad.  It's because I am his primary caregiver and he spends the bulk of his time with me.  It will pass in time.  My son is now 3+ and he goes to pre-school without problems.

Is there another sibling on the way?  That can also make things worse.

Just remember - children are like adults.  They have their own personality, too.  Some adults are shy and don't like meeting new people.  A child can be like that, too, and there's nothing wrong with that.  Your friend's child is only two - it isn't necessarily strange at all.

As far as I understand (someone correct me if I've misunderstood), it has to do with the speed and frequency that you flash the cards.  The right brain is like a camera - it takes pictures.  If you want to stimulate it, keep the viewing time short.  In other words, you need to flash your cards more quickly.  The left brain takes in parts only and usually requires more time and repetitions to remember things.  Therefore you should flash quickly and avoid over-flashing (as in repeating the same flashcards too many times) because that promotes left brain development.

There is another two Japanese programs called Shichida and Heguru which are also focused on developing right brain.  It is a little more intense and regimental compared to Right Brain Kids Tweedle Wink and Wink programs, but a lot of the activities are the same.  A couple of the things they do:

- linking memory (also known as Silly stories, memory train): where they show a series of unrelated pictures and link them together with a silly story.  For example, they might have a picture of a bell, a bird and a comb.  The story will go something like: "We listened to some bells.  The bells sounded like a bird.  The silly bird was using a comb on its feathers."  The aim is to eventually link 100 unrelated pictures together through a story to help remember them.

- mandala (also known as observation training): a picture pattern is shown with lots of colours.  You observe the picture for a while and then the picture is removed and you have to try to recall the picture as accurately as possible - what was in the picture and what were the colours.

I started my older boy when he was 5 months.  He was pooped-trained by time he was 7 months.  We live in a tropical country and it was about that time that I took him to Australia during winter.  I think the cold was a real shock to him and he didn't like having his bottom exposed so he stopped pooping into the toilet bowl. 

I was always very bad with the peeing part because I have zero intuition and cannot read my son's body language to save my life.  I tried several times to help him pee into the toilet and was successful half and half.  Then again, the public toilets in this country aren't exactly conducive for early toilet training because they're filthy so potty training only happened when we were at home.

I have read the diaper free books and literature and they say that if you want your baby to go diaper free, it's best to do it before your baby turns six months.  Before 6 months your baby will respond to a need to avoid soiling himself (herself).  After six months, your baby is effectively "trained to pee and poop in diapers".  Then again, I've also read that Jane Fonda's child was potty trained at 1 year by a local maid when she was in Vietnam so anything's possible.

I've used: LR, YBCR, Doman flashcards, Tweedlewink and my own flashcards on powerpoint.  I agree with nhockaday - the more variety the better.  It is difficult to keep my children's interest for long and switching around helps a lot.

When I started my older boy on flashcards, I didn't know anything about Doman, LR or YBCR or any other early reading program.  Because I didn't understand how a child's brain worked, I showed him the same cards over and over until I literally bored him to death.  I also flashed them too slowly thinking he needed more time to absorb them which was my second mistake.  After a while, he got so turned off flashcards he would immediately turn away when I brought out the flashcards.

I dropped the flashcards and showed him YBCR which worked well because it was multi-sensorial.  But since I started doing flashcards with his little brother, he now wants in on the action and we're back to flashcards again.  I swap between Doman flashcards and computer flashcards just to keep the variety happening for both boys.  Sometimes it's just the words, sometimes the pictures, and sometimes both.  With my baby I also tell him the names of objects we encounter during the day to reinforce the meaning behind the words he's learning.

I think twice a day is plenty.  My older boy sometimes only needs to see it once a day and it's enough - I don't think I could get him to do it more than once anyway.  You have to play it by your child to see what she responds to.  The important thing is not to bore her.  If she's losing interest, it means you're not going fast enough.

There are two methods to teach a child how to read: "whole word" and "phonics".  LR offers both, YBCR is purely "whole word". 

Benefits of teaching children to read using “whole words”:

    * children learn to read more quickly
    * children can understand what they read
    * children can start reading their first books within a few months

The disadvantage of teaching children to read using “whole words”:

    * children cannot read words they have never seen before

Although Glenn Doman believes that if you teach a baby to read enough words, the baby will eventually be able to extrapolate and apply what he has learned to new words he has never seen before.  That said, I'm not sure if YBCR teaches a child enough words for them to extract the rules of phonics and apply them to new words.

The advantages of teaching a child how to read using “phonics”:

    * children learn the rules of letter pronunciations
    * children can read words they have never seen before by applying the rules they have learned

The disadvantages of teaching a child how to read using “phonics”:

    * takes longer for a child to learn how to read
    * children usually take about 1-2 years before they can read their first book

Ideally what you want is to teach your child both methods.  A younger child will do better on the whole words methods because it means more to her.  "Cat" refers to the furry animal she likes to play with as opposed to "c" is "kuh" which means nothing to her.  Once your child has armoury of words under her belt, I believe she will be more responsive to phonics which will teach her to read other words independently.

Oh yes, languages - I'm using EuroTalk which is a CD ROM program for adults wanting to learn a foreign language.  I do this because I cannot speak any other language other than English but I want my kids to be multilingual.  The program works well for my older son.  With my younger son, I'm using TweedleWink World Languages DVD, and Wink to Learn (which is a Chinese flashcard program on DVD).  That way my kids learn the correct pronunciation even though I can't speak the language.

Hi Niniedney,

There's really a lot you can do to help your child's early development.  Not all of it has to be about academics.  Sounds like you're already doing quite a bit but let's clarify a little first.

Tweedlewink - is this the classes or the DVDs?
YBCR - I'm assuming this is the program by Robert Titzer?

You might want to consider adding physical activities and "bits of intelligence" cards (Doman program).  You can buy them from Doman or make your own. Just pick a topic, e.g. Solar system.  One a card, paste a picture of the subject, e.g. The Sun.  On the back, write down 10 facts about the sun.  Make a series of cards - for this example, it could be Earth, Venus, Mars, Saturn, etc.  Flash the picture part of the cards to your child and read the name of the card.  Flash the cards again but this time read out the first bit of information you have written on the back of the card.  Do this three times a day with 4 bits of intelligence cards.  The next day, flash the cards and read the second bit of information.  It should take you 10 days to get through four cards.  Then start on another four cards.  You can stay with the same subject or change topics.  Follow your child's interest.  THis will be great for your 2.5yo.  The recommendation is to start at 8 months, but you can see if your 6 mo is interested.

Physical activity - have you heard of Doman's book "How to Teach Your Baby to Swim"?  You can introduce swimming to your 6mo.  Babies have a natural reflex for swimming because they have been suspended in amniotic fluid for nine months so now is the best time to get her started.  Swimming offers other benefits to your baby’s development - because the brain grows through use, swimming provides additional sensory stimulation and opportunity for a baby to grow his brain.  This translates not only to physical development but mental development.

Another program is called Shichida/Heguru - they are Japanese based.  As far as I understand Shichida came out first but the teachings and methods are similar.  Shichida's ideas are based on Doman's philosophy so they are all linked in some way.  Some of the Tweedlewink stuff is also similar. The idea is to promote brain development and right brain potential (photographic memory, speed reading).

More about Heguru: http://figur8.net/baby/2010/01/25/henguru-right-brain-creativity/

I take my son to Heguru classes but I find that a lot of the activities can be replicated at home if you're willing to put in the time to make the resources.

As I mentioned earlier, not everything has to be about academics.  Jill Stamm - author of Bright from the Start talks about the critical first three years on the development of the brain.  The three key requirements of a child are attention, bonding and communication.  You can read a lot of the content from this book here:

http://books.google.com.my/books?id=jDLzs0LqlawC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bright+from+the+start&source=bl&ots=xg_msFk30G&sig=5auaN09eESHTTl3F6t8umcl9m30&hl=en&ei=1j3LS9DwH4fCrAfM6Yy5BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Bronson and Merryman - authors of Nurture Shock - also talk about things you can do to jump start your baby/toddler's language skills: http://www.babble.com/jump-start-language-skills/index.aspx.  According to the research, the way you respond to your baby and the timing of your responses can make the difference between whether you baby learns to talk early or late.

If you follow the Vygotskian approach - also referred to as "Tools of the Mind" - imaginative play (particularly for your 2.5yo) is very important for her development.  By imaginative play, they refer to games such as role playing.  It helps children develop concentration, focus, and self-control.

Anyway, that's just a start...  Hope it helps.