Reading and maths

[Chris1]

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.

[DomanMom]

That's interesting that you say that the GD team themselves said the ability to perceive quantity and do instant arithmetic would be lost past age three. My son three-and-a-half, began at age 30 months, and still can pick out a number in a large pile and does instant arithmetic in his head. I can't imagine why the GD team would say that, especially because they still publish books about it and teach it at their International School.

The GD math perplexes my as I can't understand the extremely high failure rate, considering it came so easily to us. I wish I knew all the answers to this mysterious puzzle, but I do know for one thing is that it has worked for us and we do practice math every day, which may have to do with his retaining his knowledge. It is perhaps that the brain synapses die from lack of use in kids who were taught but didn't continue with the program, although like I said it still perplexes me and I wish I had the answers.

[Chris1]

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.

[DomanMom]

Chris,

In all the shock about your statements about the Doman math program, your wonderful testimony about your success with the reading program was somewhat overlooked.

I just wanted to say congratulations on your success with your three children in teaching them how to read. You must be a very dedicated parent to have achieved such splendid results, especially reading independently and intuiting phonics before their third birthdays. Karma to you!    It's amazing how much little children can learn, thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. You experience will certainly be an encouragement to many parents who are setting out on the journey of teaching their babies to read.    Thanks again and welcome to the forums! 

[Chris1]

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.

[DomanMom]

Hello everyone! For a follow-up phone conversation that I had with the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, please see this new topic:

http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/phone-conversation-with-the-iahp/

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