How I taught my toddler to read - .:Early Learning Community:.

Jeimy64

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« on: May 01, 2009, 04:54:32 PM »

I have a daughter (now 34 months) who can decode just about anything. I'd like to share my story in order to help others who are interested in teaching their young child to read.

First a little about me. I'm a former 2nd grade teacher who now teaches ESL part-time to international college students. I have Masters in Education, and a Masters in Teaching English as a second language. My husband is a professor of applied linguistics.

When my daugher was 14 months old, one of my husband's students gave him some pirated DVDs from the "Your Baby Can Read" series. And I thought "what a load of crap"! I hadn't let my daughter watch any videos/TV during her first year and was/am not a fan of baby Einstein... but YBCR seemed kinda cute, and she seemed to like it, so I let her watch it 3 or 4 times a week. After one month, I bought some "sliding word cards" from the site above, and tested her to see if she'd actually "learned" anything. At that point, she could only recognize that "hi" was "hi", but more importantly she seemed to understand the concept that the printed word corresponded to a spoken word.   It was enough to convince me that there was some merit in Titzer's theory...
   So then I decided to go the library and check out Doman's "Teach your baby to read". For about 2.5 months (When she was 16 -18 months did a modified version of Doman's method. This involved 15-30 seconds of quickly flashing word cards 9 times throughout day. (Doman suggested 5 groups of 5 cards, but I only did 3 groups of 5 cards) After only about a week, it was clear that she was learning -- if I held up two cards, and said, "Which one says monkey?" she could point to the correct one. She caught on quickly, and within a few weeks, she could recognize dozens of words by site, and she really seemed to enjoy it. (I would not have continued, otherwise) Using this method, I was introducing 3 new words each day -- not a lot, but that's 90 words per month-- so over the course of my 2.5 months, she learned over 200 words. I basically chose the words based on what she was interested in, and went through thematic groups -- foods, parts of the body, family members, action words, etc.
   In the middle of this, after I had been doing the word cars for one month, I found starfall.com, and I started doing the ABC part with her on my lap. She learned the entire alphabet, upper and lower case (and the sounds they make) in about a month. I believe learning the letters and sounds really complemented and enhanced the whole-word approach.

After I had done the word cards for 2.5 months, i felt we were done with Doman's stage one - that a 'critical mass' had been reached, so I stopped doing the word cards. She was also 18 months old and starting to move from speaking only one word at a time to putting two words together. I started to do word couplets, as Doman suggests, but it didn't really feel all that "fun"... and I realized that there are so many more large print books and resouces available for small children than were available when Doman's book was written. So I started pointing to words as we read, at first only in books with large print, and then with everything. At first it was a little weird to do this, but then she started following along. I used a book called "Best books for babies and toddlers" by Odean to help me find good books to read, and we checked out about 30 books at a time from the library. I also made a few books with our family photos and large print captions. We continued to do the ABC's on starfall, but we also moved onto the "Learn to Read" section which emphasizes blending sounds and phonics.

By the time she turned 2, she could recognize hundreds and hundreds of words by sight, read simple books by herself (even when she's never seen them before), and could figure out short words she's never seen before. -- please also note that I hardly spent any money to get these amazing results!

During the past year, I haven't been "teaching" her to read -- rather we've just been reading. Lots and lots of books, based on her interests. Either I read while tracking the words with my finger, or sometimes I read a page and she reads a page if she's in the mood. I scour the world for books that will interest her. She's building fluency and her knowledge of the world -- it has been and continues to be a fun journey for our family. But it's not something the rest of the word can exactly relate to -- I didn't find this or any similar forum until now, so I'm excited about connecting to others who may have similar experiences.


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AprylP

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Re: How I taught my toddler to read

« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2009, 05:12:40 PM »

that'a so encouraging. Thanks for sharing. Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting anywhere with my 2 year old, so it's good to hear a story like yours. I'll definately keep it up. I'd also be interested in hearing what some of your favorite "first books" are for when they're just beginning.


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Re: How I taught my toddler to read

« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2009, 05:32:40 PM »

great tips!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience!!Congratulations.


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anjie

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Childhood is a journey, not a race.

Re: How I taught my toddler to read

« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2009, 05:44:46 PM »

Hi
Your post has been very heartwarming!!! I am trying to teach my kid to read..and your experiences has added a new dimension to the whole idea. I started late with the reading and whenever i take a book to read, he will snatch it in between and have a look at it and close it, saying reading is over!!!

Well, I often wonder howI can get him sit through one book? He has followed the pointing of fingers from left to right and at times takes a book and pretends to read,says words which are not comprehensible. Also he is a late talker, but has been catching up off late. Can you make any suggestions how to go with his reading? Which books I should choose?

Thanks in advance
anjie


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SigningTime

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Re: How I taught my toddler to read

« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2009, 06:56:37 PM »

That is awesome. Children are amazing. I want to share Elizabeth Barretts story with you. She was reading at 17 months.

Today Show highlights Toddler who can read-Signing Time helps
http://www.signingtime.com/blog/2008/11/today-show-highlights-toddler-who-can-read-signing-time-helped/

NBC Today Show highlights signing star Elizabeth Barrett
http://www.signingtime.com/blog/2009/04/nbc-today-show-highlights-signing-star-elizabeth-barrett/


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nhockaday

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I'm Gabriel's mommy!

Re: How I taught my toddler to read

« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2009, 08:33:55 PM »

Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope to hear more from you.


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staceycanada

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We are enjoying the BK Math, reading and music.

Re: How I taught my toddler to read

« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2009, 08:37:07 PM »

Thank you for sharing your experience. THat was an awesome write up as we are using alot of the same methods. With signing time thrown in too.


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DanaBabes

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Re: How I taught my toddler to read

« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2009, 09:04:10 PM »

Wow, thats amazing. I really need to read up on all of this. I'm new here and had NO idea that you could teach preverbal children to read. Makes you wonder if its too late by the time they start school. (sorry if thats been answered elsewhere, like I said Im new here so please fogive me)
Dana


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Jeimy64

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Re: How I taught my toddler to read

« Reply #8 on: May 01, 2009, 09:14:59 PM »

Thank you all for your responses so far... this is great! I'm so happy to finally be able to share.

Surprisingly, we didn't read much to her before 8 or 9 months -- she didn't seem to be paying attention, so I didn't bother. However, since she was about 9 months old, she has shown a great affinity and love for books. We started with board books (her own), and then around 15 months, I started checking out regular picture books from the library. We've done both "learn to read" style simple books designed for teaching kindergarteners as well as picture books designed for small children. I try everything -- it's FREE! We're lucky here in California because I can have any book in the whole region delivered to our neighborhood branch for free -- up to 50 books at a time. I look for books based on suggested reading lists, and I follow her/my favorite authors and topics.

I've been using Library thing to keep a record of our favorite books -- This link has everything I've given a "thumbs up" to -- from our board books to our recent favorites.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/mayalanda

If you look in the "comments" section, you can see the age that we first read the book -- but all the books have a wide-age appeal, and we have checked out many of the books more than once. (Actually, she still enjoys many of her board books).

I really like Librarything: I show her the page with the covers and she tells me which books she wants me to request from the library.

If you look at my library, you'll see that there are a lot of books about bunnies, cats, dogs, and insects. I don't read anything with a licensed characters (no Elmo, Dora, Spongebob, etc), and I make sure that the books are appropriate for her at her developmental and intellectual level (No World War 2 documentaries,etc.)

If I had a child that wasn't much into books, I'd look for things based on his interests... but not push it too hard... just a little bit each day... and try to keep the word knowlege going through games, etc. My experience is that if you try to get a 2 year-old do something, he only wants to do the opposite.


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KUAngie

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Re: How I taught my toddler to read

« Reply #9 on: May 01, 2009, 09:29:40 PM »

Thanks for sharing. My 4yo loves starfall. I have a 15mo old- I'll have to try it with him too. Thanks for the book list- we love books, and can request them online through our library too. I love doing that.

Angie