Stages infant/toddler go through when learning whole words

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I found this on the Your Baby Can Read Facebook page and think others on here will find these two post by Robert Titzer interesting.

http://www.facebook.com/YourBabyCanRead


Reading Milestones When Using Our Multi-Sensory Approach

Learning to Recognize the First Written Word
Learning to Read the First 50 Words
Recognizing Patterns of the Written Language
Reading Two- and Three-Word Phrases
Learning to Read around 200 Words
Learning Phonics
Reading Sentences
Reading a Book from Cover to Cover
Fast Reading
Independent Reading



The First Milestone: Learning to Recognize the First Written Word

The first word is probably the most difficult to learn whether it is receptive language (understanding), spoken language (talking), or written language (reading). The main idea is to allow your baby to learn the language with the eyes and the ears, instead of only with the ears.

In order to understand spoken language, we try to make the first words easier to differentiate by repeating them hundreds of times, and by slightly over-enunciating the words, since so many words in English sound very similar. The baby will go from using only the sound of the word to eventually being a higher level learner who uses contextual information in a sentence (including syntax and semantic cues) to determine which word was spoken. Some babies develop similar skills while learning the written language. Initially, they may use only the appearance of the written word. However, it is possible for the babies to learn patterns of the written language and to develop other strategies to determine the meanings of the words.

When initially teaching babies spoken words, we generally don’t start with words that sound alike. If we apply the same approach to learning the written language, then we want to make the first words easier to learn by repeating them hundreds of times and by selecting initial written words that are not too similar.

In order to teach your child the first word, I recommend consistently allowing your baby to see the language while hearing the language instead of only hearing the language. Just like it takes a newborn many months of hearing words before learning to understand them, it should take most young infants many months of seeing and hearing words before learning to recognize them. Older babies and preschoolers can often learn their first written words much more quickly.

I recommend starting with a fairly large number of words – at least 20 – so the child can also learn a general pattern of what English words look like while learning the first written word. One key is that the words should be seen with different frequencies. In the first YBCR DVD, some of the words are repeated much more frequently than other words in order to try to help the child learn the first word. These frequently repeated words -- for example: clap, wave, and mouth -- are also shown on our word cards and in books to increase the probably that the child will learn these high frequency words.

In the next post, I will provide numerous ways of helping your babies, toddlers, or preschoolers learn more written words while trying to reach the milestone of reading 50 words. In subsequent posts, I will go over each of the milestones mentioned above.

I look forward to sharing more information with you and hearing your stories about how your children are doing. Together, I hope we can help more families experience the joy of early literacy.

Dr. Bob Titzer




Dear Facebook Fans,

Learning to Read the First 50 Words

I first introduced the milestones for learning written language several years ago. I am hoping that these milestones will help more families experience the joys of early literacy. My intent with these posts is to help parents stay motivated throughout this experience and to offer suggestions to help babies, toddlers, and preschoolers achieve each milestone.

While the first written word is probably the single most difficult word to learn for babies, this milestone of learning to read 50 words may take the longest to achieve. With receptive language, it often takes babies around a year to acquire an understanding of 50 words. It generally takes even longer for the child to say 50 words. However, once a child can understand or say around 50 words, the child will likely learn new words at a much faster rate. This was once referred to as “fast mapping” indicating that the baby could acquire new words very quickly. There are newer theoretical explanations for why infants learn more words in less time, but the important point that I want to emphasize here is that your child may begin learning written words at a faster rate around this milestone. The next several milestones will likely happen in a matter of weeks or even days once your child consistently can read 50 words, so do what you can to help your baby learn these first written words.

Guidelines for Acquiring Early Literacy:

1) Make it multi-sensory. Allow your baby/child to see words at the same time as hearing the words.
2) Point to words from left-to-right as you say them.
3) Ideally, start as soon as your baby has visual tracking (or the ability to follow moving objects with the eyes). If your child is already older start at that age. Briefly, there is research showing that children who are taught to read at age 3 or 4 years, read better years later than children of the same IQ who are taught at age 5 or 6 years. Those taught at age 5 or 6 read better than children of the same IQ who are taught at age 7 or 8 (see studies by Durkin for more info.).
4) Start with large words for infants under 5 months of age and gradually reduce the size as the baby is a few months older. By 12 months of age, the size of the words is not very important as long as the words are big enough for you to see.
5) Isolate the words. While the size of the words isn’t so important for a 14-month-old, removing the “background noise” or distractions is very important. Initially, show one word at a time with minimal auditory or visual distractions in the background.
6) Use parentese when saying the words to infants. Parentese is using a higher pitched voice and slightly elongating the vowel sounds. Initially, over-enunciate to make sure that your baby can differentiate similar sounding words.
7) Use lowercase letters the vast majority of the time, but follow capitalization rules. In English, almost every book (except for many baby books) is printed in lowercase letters and follows capitalization rules. Since you want your child to read at fast speeds in the future under these conditions, the early practice should be mostly with lowercase letters.
Add the meanings of the words most of the time. For babies under 6 months of age, add meanings of the words almost every time by showing the objects, body parts, or actions that demonstrate the meanings immediately after showing and saying the words. Adding the meanings becomes less important over time. For children who understand the meanings of all of the words, you can still show the meanings some of the time. However, you can show and say more words in less time without adding the meanings, so this doesn’t need to be done every time.
9) Vary the fonts, colors, background colors, font size, materials the words are on, order of presentation of the words, time of day, locations where the words are shown, and even the person showing the words. For example, mostly use black on white words or other high contrast color combinations for young babies. Later, vary the color combinations and use numerous combinations with numerous fonts. Mostly use fonts that are frequently used in children’s literature.
10) Make the learning interactive. Ask your child to look at words, point to words say the words, move words, match words and corresponding objects, place objects next to the appropriate words, answer questions by doing actions, jump on words, run to words, find words, etc.
11) Have fun! If you are enjoying yourself, your baby or child is probably going to have more fun too.
12) Make it easy for you. Put stacks of words in different rooms of your home, in the car, in the stroller, and wherever it will make it more convenient for you. Keep a whiteboard or notebook nearby and write down words while you are playing with your baby. The notebook works great because you can review words that you have already printed. When you are tired, put in a YBCR DVD and interact with the video by saying every word as soon as it comes on the screen and by answering the questions in the videos. This will provide a good demonstration for your baby. If you are on the phone, on your laptop, or otherwise busy, put on a YBCR DVD and let your baby watch while you quietly talk on the phone, read, etc. (while you observe your baby). You will have more energy after taking this short break and you will likely make more of your precious time with your baby.
13) Allow family members and friends to show your baby words. Your baby will benefit by having different teachers along with different teaching styles. Even if your friends or family members don’t show the words exactly like you may want, it will be great for you and your child.
14) Vary how you show words. There are studies showing that infants’ learning generalizes more easily if they have many different experiences instead of only the same experience repeated over and over. Most of the time, you will be doing teaching activities and saying the words as you point from left to right, then acting out the meanings. Some of the time, you can play “fast word games” that I will explain in future posts. Occasionally, do recognition or recall activities. Show words on whiteboards, on hand printed word cards, in books (when there are only a few words per page), on TV and computer screens (as long as your baby isn’t too close to the screen it shouldn’t be harmful – the content may be harmful in many cases, but I am talking about showing large words not entertainment-based shows), with individual magnetic letters on your refrigerator, with foam letters in the tub, using sticks in the sand or dirt, and numerous other ways.
15) Make it natural for your baby to see words at the same time as hearing words throughout the day by writing down words that are related to what you and your baby are doing. Get in a habit of writing down key words throughout the day and pointing to words as say them. Do this even if it is only for a few seconds here and there. The main idea is for your baby to acquire the written language naturally in a way that is similar to how your baby acquires the spoken language. To do this, simply add the written language to what you are already doing. If you are not with your baby for most of the day, then do what you can to select someone to care for your baby who will want to help your baby learn and show your baby words, if possible. In a few cases, loaning the daycare provider a YBCR DVD could make a difference.
16) Be creative. Play games with your baby with written (and spoken) words. Make variations of your games and make the games more challenging as your child’s skills improve. Play matching games with words and objects, sorting games with written words, physical games with words, object naming games, Bingo, etc. Add words to simple games or activities that you and your child enjoy. Add written words to the activities that you do frequently.
17) Make sure your child understands the difference between the word and what the word represents. In other words, sometimes you might say, “This is the word ‘arm’ -- this is ‘your arm’ -- and this is ‘my arm’.” while you are pointing to or touching the word, your baby’s arm, and your arm, respectively. Later, you could ask your child, “Where is the word ‘arm”? Where is my arm? Where is your arm?” In addition, you could also use a photo and say something such as, “This is the word ‘elbow’, this is your elbow, this is my elbow, and this is a picture of a child’s elbow.” while pointing to or touching each of these. Ask questions to see if your child can point to the photo of child’s elbow, the word ‘elbow’, and each person’s actual elbow.
18) Understand the difference between recognition and recall activities. It will be easier to answer recognition questions than recall questions, so start with recognition activities. A multiple choice test is a recognition activity. One has to recognize the correct answer and not recall it. An open-ended question would be a recall activity. Recognition questions give your child some options from which to select the answer(s). For example, say “Find the word ‘baby’!” while the word ‘baby’ and one or more other words are placed in front of your child. A recall activity be asking your baby, “What does this say?” while holding up a word. Do recognition activities most of the time until your child consistently selects the correct responses, then gradually transition to some recall activities for those words. When you introduce new words, start with recognition questions again.

Thanks again for all of your very generous and kind comments. I genuinely appreciate all of you and your efforts in helping your babies learn. Together, we will eventually change the way many people view this important topic.

Thanks and good luck helping your children move along the path to the next milestone.

Dr. Bob Titzer

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Recognizing Patterns of the Written Language Part 3

Dear Facebook Fans,

If your child has achieved the second milestone, there is a chance that the third milestone may have been learned, but not necessarily noticed. You may need to behave like an infant researcher to test whether or not your baby or child has learned any initial patterns of the written language. First, I will describe why this milestone is important, then I will detail how you can check to see if your child has already learned more than what you may have realized.

When learning the spoken language, many researchers used to believe that babies learned individual words first, then the general patterns of the language later. However, it is now clear that infants learn some patterns of the spoken language in the first year of life simultaneously with learning their first words. In other words, the baby is learning some syntax and grammar at the same time as learning initial individual words. Some scientists report that infants are better language learners than adults. This may be because of their abilities to learn patterns of languages. For example, infants who are learning English and another language can learn these patterns in English just as well as babies who are only learning English. The number of new synapses related to language development appears to peak around 11 months of age and that could help explain why infants may learn patterns naturally whereas adults may need to learn the patterns through rules and explanations (as well as a lot of effort).

Many researchers have pointed out how difficult it is to learn a spoken language simply by listening. One of the many difficulties in learning a language is figuring out where words begin and end since people typically don’t space their words out while speaking. Instead, one word often flows into the next in natural speech. Listen to an unfamiliar second language and imagine that you don’t even know there are individual words and imagine that you don’t know anything about grammar. You can see how complicated learning the spoken language could be for infants without this information. The babies who are learning written and spoken language are obviously getting extra sensory information which should help them figure out where words begin and end, for instance. It could also help them distinguish words that sound very similar because they would have visual information that other babies don’t have. In studies of babies who consistently used YBCR for at least 7 months, their receptive language, expressive language, overall language, and overall cognitive scores were significantly higher than a control group matched for socio-economic factors. The extra sensory information YBCR babies had by being allowed to see the language while hearing it might have made it easier for them to learn language skills in general. I say this for many reasons and I will give two of them here. First, there is so much evidence that learning through more than one sensory system helps infants learn more. Second, there are studies showing that learning one aspect of language often helps other aspects of language. The previous statement about babies learning language skills at a higher when they see and hear language simultaneously is a hypothesis that is supported, but not yet proved, with science. (Please see the posts on Nov. 5th for more information on the YBCR studies.)

My hypothesis – along with similar hypotheses of other scientists – is that infants are capable of learning the written language naturally in a way that is very similar to how babies learn the spoken language. If this is true, one would expect that infants would begin to figure out some patterns of the written language at the same time they are still learning individual words since this happens with spoken language. My daughters demonstrated they had learned some of these written language patterns by 12 months of age. I have tested many other babies at various ages and sometimes they show signs of having learned the patterns and sometimes they don’t. I believe it depends on many factors: the age at which the child began consistently seeing and hearing written language, how many words the child knows, which words the child knows, which words the child has seen and heard, the overall number of words seen and heard, what types of tests are used, the child’s mood at the moment of the test, the individual child, and many others. I intentionally included a wide variety of words in the YBCR program that made the initial learning sufficiently complex to make it possible for the babies to acquire these patterns. If, for example, the child only sees and hears three letter words in a consonant/vowel/consonant pattern such as ‘cat’, ‘red’, and ‘tap’, it would be nearly impossible to learn more complicated written language patterns.

I learned serendipitously that my older daughter was figuring out more than the individual words that I was teaching her when I accidentally held a word upside-down and she turned her head upside down to look at it. You may have had a similar experience already. If so, this is evidence that your baby/child has learned some general pattern of how words generally look. Please tell your stories here.

I developed tests to check if my younger daughter had learned these types of patterns.

Here are two ways of checking:

Test 1:

When you do this first test, it would be better if you show your child at least two or three words that are in the normal, upright orientations first, then show a word that is upside-down. Select a word that clearly looks unusual for an English word when it’s upside-down (for example, ‘bellybutton’, ‘kicking’, or ‘gorilla’). Many letters in English look like letters even when they are upside-down, so please don’t choose a word where the letters have vertical symmetry or where it still looks like a string of letters from our alphabet. Please don’t give your baby/child verbal or nonverbal cues that the word is upside-down. Just hold up the word like you would normally and observe your child’s response, then please write a few sentences and let us know what happened.

Test 2:

Hold up two “words” in front of your baby/child (for example, “ot” and “jumper”).
Please tell your child “First, look at both words. One of these words says ‘jumper’ and one word says ‘ot’.”
Next, say “Which word says ‘jumper’?” OR “Which word do you think says ‘jumper’?”
“Which word says ‘ot’?” OR “Which word do you think says ‘ot’?”
Babies may answer by looking, pointing, or reaching for a word, so try to keep the words an equal distance from your child.

Now, hold up two more “words” in front of your baby/child (for example, “newspaper” and “zat”). Please tell your child “First, look at both words.”
“Which word looks like it says ‘newspaper’?” OR “Which word do you think says ‘newspaper’?”
“Which word looks like it says ‘zat’? OR “Which word do you think says ‘zat’?”

Please do not do the first test frequently. It will be far better for your baby or child if most of your time is spent showing and saying words in an upright position. If your child shows no signs of having learned written patterns on the above tests, you may want to teach your child another 20 words, or so, before checking again.

It would be great if you could make a short video of your “test” the very first time you do it, then post the video here. It would also be helpful if you would state the number of written words your baby/child consistently reads and your child’s age.

It can be a very exciting time when you notice that your child has learned a pattern of the written language that you did not even attempt to specifically teach. This would help show that the babies have not only memorized the words, but they have started learning the patterns of the written language. It also would provide additional evidence that babies or toddlers can learn the written language in a way that is similar to how they learn the spoken language.

I am looking forward to hearing your comments about these patterns or watching your videos. Thanks so much for your interest in this extremely important topic.

Dr. Bob Titzer




Learning to Read Two- and Three-Word Phrases (Part 4 in a Series)

Dear Facebook Fans,

When babies learn to talk, they say their first individual words on average around 12 months of age. It generally takes another six months before the baby can say two or three words together. When young babies learn the written language, a similar pattern should be expected in that it is likely that babies will take many months after reading their first words before they are reading many two- or three-word phrases.

Even when young children can read many individual words, they are often overwhelmed when reading a large number of words in a sentence. It is helpful to provide a transition from reading individual words to reading long sentences and eventually books by having interim steps along the way, such as reading two- and three-word phrases. Initially, it is easier when you combine words with which the child is familiar for these phrases.

In the DVDs we have two-word couplets included in the first DVD so that your child will learn this concept and learn to read words from left-to-right. We include “arms up” and “arms down” as well as the word “arm.” We also include “look up” and “look down.” This should help their learning be more generalizable and help them learn to read new multiple-word phrases.

Write down some two- and three-word phrases as you are playing with your child. Many babies and toddlers enjoy playing matching games with words and objects. If you have cups that are red, blue, and yellow, you could write down: “red,” “blue,” “yellow,” and “cup” along with “red cup,” “blue cup,” and “yellow cup.” First, review the words a few times by saying the words as you point to them. For the color words, have many objects that are those colors. More specifically, say “red” as you point under the word from left-to-right, then quickly point out and talk about the red objects. Do the same for blue” and “yellow.” Next, play matching games where you ask your baby to place the words “red cup,” “blue cup,” and “yellow cup” by the respective cups. Do this with many different words and the corresponding objects.

Babies who watch our DVDs will see the words “wave” and “hand” making “wave your hand” a good choice for a three-word phrase. You could also use “clap your hands,” “kick your feet,” “touch your nose,” “tap one foot,” “touch one arm,” “wave two hands,” and other combinations of mostly familiar words. Have fun and act out each phrase. Encourage your baby to do the same.

When you are reading books that have many words on the same page, please realize that this is likely too many words for new readers. With these books, read the books for the love or joy of reading instead of using the book to help teach reading.

Find books that have only two or three words per page for babies who can read some words. (I think it is easier for the child to learn the first words when they are isolated.) Initially, point just below each individual word as you are reading them more slowly than usual. Once your child can read at least 50 words, slide your finger under the words as you say them more naturally. Next, teach your baby to point to the words while you are reading to your child. You can also take turns reading the words with your baby to help your child transition from reading individual words to short phrases.

Learning one area of language often helps the learning of other areas of language. Preschoolers will not likely take as long between reading their first words to reading short phrases because they can already talk. In the preschoolers’ cases knowing how to talk in phrases and sentences should help the child put words together more easily when reading. On the other hand, babies who are reading two- or three-word phrases may be able to say the words together earlier than if they did not have the written words to assist them.

Next week, I will be going to work at a baby show in London with one of my daughters. I generally meet many babies who can read on each day at these baby shows. I likely will do informal, fun tests with babies and toddlers to see if they have learned patterns of the written language. I hope you will continue to comment about how your baby responded to last week’s tests or how long it took your child to go from one milestone to the next. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Dr. Bob Titzer

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Dear Facebook Fans,

Learning to Read 200 Words (Part 5 in a Series)

Over the 21+ years that I have been teaching or helping teach babies to read, or the more than 16 years that YBCR has been available, I have communicated with thousands of families where the children learned to read as infants. My writing on these milestones has been influenced by all of these experiences as well as by studies on language acquisition and early reading, but there are no studies specifically on these written language milestones.

The age at which this milestone is met varies greatly based on many factors including the child’s age when written language was introduced, how frequently words were shown, whether or not the guidelines similar to the ones listed in the Feb. 1st post were consistently followed, how much mindless TV was shown to the child as a baby, and many others.

I know from personal experience by teaching and testing babies who have learned to read that it is possible for babies under the age of 12 months to read more than 200 words, but currently this appears to be rare. While there are no studies (that I am aware of) on this milestone, a typical age in the US for reading 200 words would probably be around age 7 or 8 years. Many children who start on YBCR in the early months of life can often read at least 200 words around age two or three. Two weekends ago, I was at a very popular baby show in London. As is usually the case, I met many families where the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers learned to read using YBCR. Included in this group were many babies and toddlers under the age of 36 months who could read more than 200 words. Often, these babies and toddlers have also learned some phonics. (I will write about learning phonics for the next milestone.)

Once your child achieves this milestone of reading 200 words, she or he may be learning new words quickly and may be well on the way to becoming a phonetic reader.

Please note that you do not need to buy YBCR in order to teach your baby to read. I have stated this in TV interviews since the late 1990s as well as in the first Parents’ Guide that I wrote. I hope it is obvious to anyone who knows me very well that informing parents about how they can help their babies and toddlers acquire the written language naturally in the first years of life while their brains have more neuroplasticity is much more important to me than promoting our products. However, as a trained infant researcher and as someone who has more than 20 years of experience teaching babies and toddlers to read, we put a lot of effort into creating products to teach reading to make it easier for the parents and their children. My goal here is to motivate parents who already have the program to use these products as designed – or to make or use similar products – to help their babies and toddlers learn more words.

Here are some ideas to help your child go from reading 50 words to 200 words and beyond:

1) Please use the suggestions from the previous posts about teaching children their first words and their first 50 words. The main difference is that your child may learn the words at a faster pace.

2) Apply the 18 “Guidelines for Acquiring Early Literacy” from the Feb. 1st post.

3) Go to libraries and check out at least 100 books a month. As a full-time student with a full-time teaching job, I went to different libraries on a regular basis and checked out thousands of books over a few years so our family would have a wide variety of books: non-fiction and fiction books on many topics from simple baby books with very few words to graduate books from the Indiana University Geosciences Library. I want to mention that research indicates that reading to a child does not typically teach a child to read once socio-economic factors are controlled because the average 4- or 5-year-old only focuses on words an average of five seconds per book. Babies who use YBCR may look at words more than other children, so reading to the child can help the child learn to read – especially if you follow the next tip.

4) Once your child is reading at least 50 words, you can help your child learn new words from books that don’t have too many words on each page (such as the YBCR lift-the-flap books or the YBCR Mini Sliding Board Books). If there are many words on the same page, enjoy the book without using it to teach reading. Use the following strategies when there are only a few words per page:
A. Point to individual words from left-to-right as you say them a little more slowly than normally.
B. If your child can read most of the words in the sentence, then you can read it at a normal pace and slide your finger from left-to-right under the sentence as you say it.
C. Teach your child to point to the words as you say them.
D. Occasionally, pause and have your child read words some of the words.
E. Eventually, take turns with your child reading words or sentences.

5) Turn off the TV most of the time. Your family will likely read more and communicate with each more. However, sometimes the caregiver is unable to interact with the baby. This is a great time to show your baby words using the YBCR DVDs. Many parents may think that any television is bad for babies because of the media reports that were based on studies that had babies watching soap operas, sporting events, the news, cartoons, or other entertainment-based shows. The television can actually provide a multi-sensory learning opportunity – if the content is chosen carefully -- especially if it used sparingly. Some infant researchers use videos to teach or test babies in their experiments. Additionally, there are studies showing babies can learn from educational DVDs. When a caregiver is busy for five minutes, the 2-year-old still has millions of new synapses forming. Having the baby sit quietly with a toy every time the caregiver is busy for five minutes adds up to a lot of time without much language stimulation in many households. One reason that I made the reading videos for my own babies was because I wanted them to have multi-sensory, interactive language stimulation while I (or any other caregiver) was busy. Since a 3-month-old baby is thought to have more new language synapses every second than a 3-year-old, it makes sense to provide a language-rich environment very early in life. I am trying my best to get this message out to parents, so they make informed decisions about helping their babies and toddlers develop language skills.

6) Keep it fun for your child and for you while doing the reading activities and word games.

7) Play the “Fast Words Game” that is described in the “Baby’s First Teacher” instructions.
Play with individual words and with short phrases. Briefly, this is how it is played:
A. Show your child how to play the game by having two people who read well demonstrate.
B. One person flips through a stack of word cards (some of which may have short phrases) as quickly as you possibly can. It helps to occasionally flip back and forth between two words, such as “clap/waving/clap/waving/clap” so the child sees and hears the same words over and over in a short period of time.
C. The other person says the words or phrases out loud as quickly as possible.
D. Your child should be watching the two better readers having fun and playing the game.
E. Allow your child to play the game using the same words that were just reviewed.
F. Add in new words and help your child when needed.

Once your child can read at least 50 words, then she or he may begin using the Your Child Can Read program (even if your child is still a baby). This series of DVDs is now included in the YBCR Deluxe Kit or it can be purchased separately. Two hundred of the most frequently used words in children’s literature are included in the DVDs. There are more than 1200 words in the series and we focus on phonics and fast reading activities.

9) Babies and toddlers who can already read at least 50 words can benefit from using Closed Captioning on television, if you watch any other programs.

10) Other videos with songs and many words may be used to teach new words once your child has figured out how to learn written language. For example, I used the Lyric Language videos in several languages to help my babies learn to read in other languages. (These are now called Your Baby Can Speak and they are available in German and Spanish.) You may find similar second language videos at the library.

For the next milestone, I will focus on helping your baby/toddler/preschooler learn more phonics. We at the Infant Learning Company sincerely thank you for all of your comments and videos. Please continue to let people know how your child is doing. It is helpful if you include your child’s current age, how long you have been showing your child written language, which milestones have been met, and any details about your experience.

Dr. Bob Titzer

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Dear Facebook Fans,

Learning to Read Phonetically (Part 6 in a Series)

NOTE About No Research Related to This Post: For these written language milestones, there are no studies that have been conducted. For this phonics milestone, I am hypothesizing about the importance of learning phonics and which reading methods are better for teaching phonics. There are no studies comparing different methods for teaching babies to read. As I have stated many times in the past, no one needs to purchase Your Baby Can Read in order to teach their baby or toddler to read. I originally designed the program for my own babies, so they could learn to read while watching videos, riding in the car, or playing.

This post about the phonics milestone covers four main ideas. The first point is that there is a lot of variability in the importance of phonics when learning to read based on which language is being learned, so the “phonics milestone” may not even exist in some languages and, at the other extreme, it will lead to reading at a relatively high level once mastered in languages that follow the alphabetic principle (where there is a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sound). The second main idea is that in phonics-based languages, I believe this is an extremely important milestone and that reaching it earlier is likely much better than reaching this milestone later. Thirdly, I address why I think there is such a divisive debate between supporters of methods that emphasize whole language and supporters of methods that emphasize phonics. More importantly, I think the debate could be moot if we would teach reading at the same time that other language skills are taught. In the last section, I offer some suggestions for parents to help teach their babies, toddlers, or older children phonics using our multi-sensory, interactive approach.

The idea of babies naturally learning their written language at the same time they are learning to say and understand language is much larger than simply teaching babies to read in English. Billions of people on our planet will learn to read in languages that are not phonics-based, so this phonics milestone will vary in importance based on the language that is being learned. Chinese Mandarin, Bengali, Hindi, and Japanese are among the most widely- spoken languages and none of them are phonics-based. Within the alphabetic languages that are phonics-based, there is a wide range in how phonemic they are. Spanish and Vietnamese are consistent phonemically more than most phonetic languages. English is considered to be one of the least phonemic out of widely-spoken phonetic languages.

If the ten most widely-spoken languages were placed on a continuum based on how much they follow the alphabetic principle (of each letter of the alphabet making one distinct sound), English would be near the center between the logographic-based writing systems and the languages that very closely follow the alphabetic principle. Different languages on this continuum would generally use dramatically different approaches when teaching reading from memorizing every symbol at one end to a phonics approach at the other end. It may be partly because of the location of English on this continuum that there are often “reading wars,” or intense disputes, between those who advocate primarily phonics approaches to teach reading and those who advocate primarily a whole-language approaches. Since English has so many exceptions to the phonics rules, a combination of approaches is probably better once the child is age six years or older.

But which approach would seem more optimal for teaching babies and toddlers the written language?

Just like teaching reading in different languages may lead to diverse approaches when teaching reading, teaching reading in English during the first couple of years of life -- compared to age six or later -- may likewise call for a method that matches the baby’s developmental state. It is possible that an approach that may work well later in childhood doesn’t work well earlier or that an approach that works well in infancy may not work so well in later childhood. [Note: There are no studies as of April, 2013 comparing and contrasting various approaches to teaching reading during infancy, so I am hypothesizing based on logic that I will explain.]

I designed the Your Baby Can Read multi-sensory, interactive approach to use both whole language and phonics parts, but the emphasis is on whole language. A phonics-based approach becomes more important as the child gets older in a way that is similar to contrasting the way a baby learns grammar with how an older child would learn grammar. The baby has learned some grammar and syntax with no formal instruction on either in the first year of life. On the other hand, an older child would likely need to learn through the complicated rules of grammar in a way that it similar to learning the rules of phonics.

This is an important milestone that will allow your child to learn a lot more on his or her own. Babies and toddlers often have a lot of free time, so learning phonics early in life could lead to reading many books about many topics and acquiring a lot of knowledge. In addition, there will likely be a lot of incidental learning in numerous situations because the baby or toddler could read signs, notes, packaging, store names, street names, etc. that allowed the baby or toddler to figure out the world with more information than most babies or toddlers generally have.

To help your baby reach this phonics goal:
1)   Teach your baby numerous individual words. Use many of the ideas in the Feb. 1st post. Remember, not only is it theoretically possible that babies could learn the written language in a way that is similar to how babies learn the spoken language – there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of babies who learned phonics without being told. For example, please read many of the posts on this website, YouTube, or other infant reading websites where parents talk about their babies learning phonics. In addition, there are also books written on early literacy describing babies who learned to read without being taught phonics. However, there needs to be more research on this topic. The main point here is that teaching your baby or toddler to read many words could help your baby learn phonics because the child will have more individual words memorized which should also increase the chances that the child will learn some phonics.
2)   Write out rhyming words frequently – say the first few, then ask your baby or toddler to say the others. For example, write out “hat”, “cat”, “sat”, and “bat”, then ask your child to say “mat” and “pat”.
3)   Focus on two types of phonics learning with babies and toddlers: implicit/analytical phonics and embedded phonics.
A.   Implicit or analytical phonics – This type of phonics involves the child analyzing whole words to detect patterns in spelling or the sounds. To use analytical phonics teach do activities similar to #3 above and #8 below where you show your child many words that start or end with the same letter(s), or that rhyme and are spelled the same in the middle. Write out ‘bat’, ‘bubble’, ‘bear’, ‘bottle’, ‘baby’, and ‘book’, then ask your child to read ‘bib’ and ‘box’. Note: ‘bib’ is in the YBCR program, but ‘box’ is not. Do the same with words that end with ‘ing’ by writing out ‘smiling’, ‘going’, ‘sharing’, ‘ring’, ‘bring’, ‘jumping’, and ‘wing’, then see if your child recognizes ‘stopping’ or ‘ding’ Neither of these words (‘stopping’ or ‘ding’) is a YBCR word. You could also write out ‘seen’ and ‘green’, then see if your child can read ‘teen’. Note: This example illustrates why learning to read and spell in English using phonics can be complicated because if you select the word ‘been’ it is pronounced with a short ‘e’ sound instead of a long ‘e’ sound and if you write out words that rhyme with ‘seen’ and ‘green’, many are spelled with an ‘ea’ in the middle (e.g., ‘clean’, ‘mean’, or ‘bean’).

B.   Embedded phonics means teaching the letter-sound relationships when you are reading with your child and you notice that she/he needs help with a particular part of phonics. In other words, if you are reading a book with your child and the word ‘bed’ is not pronounced properly, then teach the ‘b’ sound, the ‘e’ sound and the ‘d’ sound in the word ‘bed.’ You could primarily use analytical phonics while doing the teaching, but you only do it as it is needed based on your child’s abilities and needs. This one-on-one teaching is great because your main focus is on enjoying the books with your child, but you teach phonics as is needed.

C.   As your child is age 3 or older, you may need to introduce some explicit phonics where you write and sound out all of phonemes. I could write a lot about why I would NOT focus on explicit phonics with babies and toddlers, but the basic reasons are:
1) it may slow the speed of initial reading (instead of immediately recognizing the word and understanding what it means, the child sounds out individual letter sounds), [I will talk more about this on the “fast reading” milestone.]
2) it doesn’t work for about half of the words in children’s literature,
3) it is likely not as interesting because the sounds of the phonemes are the focus instead of the meaning of the word and developing a love of reading is one of the most important goals here,
4) it is abstract,
5) it is complicated, and finally,
6) it is not necessary for many babies and toddlers.

4) Use Your Child Can Read. The DVDs are designed to teach phonics by using primarily analytical phonics as well as by teaching more than a thousand new words. We have many phonics sections in the DVDs. Ideally, parents would frequently watch the DVDs with their children, then do some of the same activities that are in the DVDs.

5)   Use the Your Child Can Read Sliding Phonics Cards that have two sliding tabs. The cards are designed to use analytical phonics. We now have them on sale separately in case you have the YCCR DVDs, but not these cards. The child can form words from rhyming words, then match a photo that goes with the words. The background images on the cards match those in the DVDs making the cards very colorful with an interesting look. We now offer the Sliding Phonics Cards to be purchased separately at www.YourBabyCanRead.com since there are many people who have the DVDs, but not the cards.

6)   Write out nonsense words and read them with your child. Encourage your child to make up a word, then you can write it out. Have this gradually lead to you writing two nonsense words and see if you child can point to the correct one. For example, you could write out “nana nana” and “goo” and see if your baby or toddler knows which one says “nana nana.” These nonsense word games can be lots of fun and help the child learn phonics. Try to do some familiar phonics activities and some where your child may need help.

7)   Look for books at the library that have many rhyming words in them. “Hop on Pop” and other Dr. Seuss books are good examples of this type of book. Read and point to the words as described in detail in earlier posts.

   Use whiteboards, chalkboards, sidewalks, laptops, sand, and many other surfaces to write words that start with the same letter(s), end with the same letters, or have the same letters or sounds in the middle.

9)   Make up phonics games to play while riding in the car, on walks, or around the house. Please make it fun for you and your child.

I will write more on this topic in the future. The next written language milestone is Reading Sentences.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please continue to let us know how your babies, toddlers, and preschoolers are doing with these milestones and how they are doing in general.

Dr. Bob Titzer

[kiwimum]

Learning to Read Sentences (Part 7 in a Series)
By Dr. Bob Titzer

Dear Facebook Friends,

When babies learn the written form of language at about the same time as the spoken form of language, it makes sense that some of the written language milestones may be similar to some spoken language milestones. For example, when talking, babies usually say individual words, then two or three words together before saying complete sentences that are relatively long. Currently, babies generally say their first words around 12 months of age in the US and about six months later the same child may be saying two- and three-word phrases. After about six months of saying phrases, babies often can speak in complete sentences. The milestone ages vary greatly from author to author, so these are necessarily accurate guides even with spoken language being so studied. Every child progresses at a different rate based on many factors. Having a language-rich environment is very important for developing language skills and I believe the environment is richer with more sensory information – including allowing the baby to see the language instead of only hearing it.

Please try the following activities to help your child read longer sentences.
1) Find books with no more than 4 or 5 words on most pages and read them with your child. Still check out many other types of books from the library, but these books will help your child transition from reading two- and three-word phrases to longer sentences.

2) With books that have more words per page, try covering up most of the page with a blank sheet of paper so only one or two lines of print are shown at once.

3) Take turns reading sentences with your child. You may want to start off reading most of the longer sentences.

4) Help your child with reading some of the words or phrases in the sentences before you read the sentences. For example, you could write out some of the more challenging words on a whiteboard individually and allow your child to sound the word out phonetically – helping your child when needed. In addition, write out some phrases from some of the pages of books that have the most words. You may see whether or not your child can read the words when they are more isolated and whether having too many words on the page is the problem.

5) Gradually transition from alternating reading words or phrases with your child to reading longer sentences or pages or groups of pages (and eventually books) with your child.

6) Read a wide variety of types of text where your child is highly motivated to read sentences. In addition to reading books, it could be reading signs, posters, sentences on websites, phone apps, birthday cards, etc.

7) Put on the closed captioning if you are watching other DVDs with your child. Try turning off the volume to make the experience more like reading a moving picture book.
 The Your Child Can Read DVDs have many sentences in them and they are designed to help children transition from reading short phrases to sentences and books.

9) Write out sentences frequently on whiteboards, paper, on your computer, etc. and read the sentences together.

10) Ask your child to say a sentence and you can write it out or type it in a large font size as quickly as you can. You could take turns in this activity where you write out what your child says, then you make up a sentence and write it out. You could even play a game where you write a short sentence and see if your child can make up a sentence with more words. Your child could add to your sentence like we do in the Your Child Can Read DVDs. For example,
“Michael is reading.”
“Michael is reading a book.”
“Michael is reading a book about dinosaurs.”
“Michael is reading a big book about dinosaurs.”
“Michael is reading a big book about several types of dinosaurs.”
“Michael enjoys reading thick books about many types of dinosaurs as well as about primates, birds, and other animals.”
It can be fun if an older sibling or a parent also plays this game.

11) Act out sentences. Write out a sentence that your child may find interesting, then demonstrate what you wrote. For example, write out, “I am going to hide a toy under the pillow on your bed.” then show it to your child, read it, then act it out. You could vary how you read the sentences using the earlier suggestions. With all of these activities, try to find the right balance where the game is challenging, but not too difficult.

12) Narrate what is happening from your child’s perspective and write it out. For example, write and say sentences simultaneously similar to the ones below. Also, make it interactive part of the time by asking questions.

“Sachia is playing with blocks.”
“Sachia has two red blocks connected.”
“Sachia has five yellow blocks and three blue blocks.”
“Will Sachia connect another block to her two red blocks?”
“Look at the airplane in the sky.”
“Do you see the airplane in the sky?”
“Daddy is holding a big green block and two little blocks.”

My hypothesis is that learning the written language at the same time as learning the spoken language is a better way of learning language skills than learning the spoken language first, then re-connecting that information to the written language later. By hearing and seeing the language together – along with the meanings of the words -- it may help the baby learn to understand words, say words, read words, and even put words together into sentences compared to only learning languages by hearing them. There are no studies directly addressing this specific issue, however, learning one area of language can help the learning of other areas of language. Because of this, some preschoolers may be able to do this “reading sentences” milestone before the phonics milestone because they can speak in sentences with ease. Therefore, once the preschooler learns to read the individual words in a sentence, the child may not have any new difficulties by having more words on the page. Many babies and toddlers, however, may have difficulty reading longer sentences or pages of mostly words (instead of mostly pictures) even when they can read all of the words on the page individually. Hopefully, some of the above activities will help.

The next milestone is reading books from cover to cover. Thanks for taking the time to read this and please share ideas and update us on how your child is progressing through these reading milestones.

Reading Milestones using a Multi-Sensory

[Rivka]

Kiwimum, that is a very interesting list of stages, and it is very similar to the way it was with us. And Mom2tiger, I completely agree with you that the debate regarding whole words versus phonics is just irrelevant. I have a theory that when children get exposed to whole words as infants (through YBCR, Brillkids, or other methods), they almost always figure out phonics on their own (in some cases in more than one language), so no need for special phonics program, just reading with some corrections when needed.

I just wanted to comment on the fact that there is a big difference between reading level and comprehension/interest level. One is helped by the other (i.e.if you don't have to focus on the mechanics of reading, you can comprehend a lot more, and a lot faster), but still there is such a thing as a lack of context for a young child who reads books well above his grade level. Our 3 year old son can read at a 3rd-4th grade level, but he still prefers books with some pictures in them along with a lot of text, and is not really consistently interested in 3rd/4th grade type material (except science type books, because they tend to have engaging illustrations and a lot of 'real life' things we can talk about). This is why scholastic has a reading level scale, but also an interest scale.

Rivka at acceleratededucation.blogspot.com or http://tinyurl.com/giftedboy

[Korrale4kq]

Rivka, my son is  the same. I have been benchmarking his reading fluency, accuracy and comprehension. Last night he easily was reading at a 3rd grade level, 110 WPM with 96% accuracy, and he answered a myriad of comprehension questions and outlined the passages that he had read......
However.... He would not read many books on a list for that reading level as they are mostly chapter books. A few of the easier ones we might buddy read. But frankly he prefers to hover around a 1st grade reading level with high quality picture books. He likes to read those independently. And that is just fine with me.
I do infrequently have him do some challenge reading, above his reding level. But at 3 I think he is doing just fine and he will get better with practice and age.

[Rivka]

Absolutely! At  3yo, there is still a bit of time to master the classics, LOL. We are so just so blessed with our children.

Rivka

[kiwimum]

Reading a Book from Cover to Cover (part eight)

It is a special time for you and your child when your child first reads a book from cover to cover. As your child is near this milestone, I want to offer a few ways of helping your child to not only reach it, but to also read at a higher level. The goal while reading, from my perspective, is not simply to decode and comprehend. The goal is primarily to enjoy reading, to be capable of reading at fast speeds and to be able to comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate what is being read.

By asking the right types of questions, these higher level thinking skills can be nurtured early in life. With babies, toddlers, or preschoolers who are reading books from cover to cover, parents can ask their young children questions about the books they have read to help build these higher level skills. (I have left out writing and talking from the goal above, but I recommend that you also engage your child in writing and speaking.)

Go to Libraries:

Before writing more about this milestone, I want to reiterate the importance of going to the library – sometimes with your child and sometimes without your child based on your schedule. Please check out hundreds of books a month. I am not exaggerating – please try it and let us know the changes that happen in your home and with your children.

Many libraries limit the number of books that patrons may check out. It may be necessary to go to two or three libraries in order to check out this number of books. I suggest having different bookcases for different libraries. As a full-time student who was working full-time, it had to have been a priority or I would not have done it so consistently for so long. As I sometimes mention in my talks – do the best you can and in no way am I trying to make any parent feel guilty. I believe there are more distractions now than there were 20 years ago and I think it is more difficult to turn off the television and much more difficult to ignore electronic distractions that happen while you are reading with your child. Having hundreds of library books in your home will make it much easier for your child to develop a love or reading, reading and vocabulary skills, thinking skills, as well as acquiring knowledge on many topics.

While it may initially sound like work, you may find that your home transforms into more of a fun learning and play center simply by having hundreds of new books each month. In our home, we were more likely to have the television off and read and do activities related to the books for hours because of all of the interesting books that we found. Many parents write to us about how much they enjoy this bonding time with their children when reading and discussing books on numerous topics.

Select Fiction and Nonfiction Books to Help Your Child Develop a Love of Learning:

Use books that your child has already memorized as an advantage:
• Ask your child to point to each word as he or she says them.
• Ask your child to find specific words on a page.
• Write down words from the book on paper or elsewhere.
Write down four of the most frequently used words from the book and see if your child can find them on word cards, on a whiteboard, or some other out-of-context location. If your child gets these correct, then write down more words and play a similar word game to see if she can read the words. If your child needs help learning more of the words in the book, add the words from the book onto word cards and help your child learn the words. Once you are convinced that your child has not only memorized the story, but also the written words in the story, then it is safe to say that your child is reading the book.

Find some books that are below your child’s current level of reading:
Reading a simple baby book that your child has not seen much is a great accomplishment. You could review some of the words that are in the book prior to your child reading it. Baby books are great for many babies, toddlers, and preschoolers because usually there aren’t too many words on the same page. Some babies and toddlers – even when they can phonetically read every single word individually – don’t like too many words on one page. I explained this in more detail in the “Reading Two- And Three-Word Phrases Milestone.”
Another advantage of your child reading these books is your child can begin reading independently. You can help your child gradually transition from reading books with a small number of words to books with more words.
You may be able to teach your baby or toddler to read these books silently by describing “silent reading” and modeling how to do it. I remember using words such as “look at the words without saying them” with my babies to describe silent reading.

Find books that match your child’s current level of reading:
• Introduce or review the most frequently used words in that book prior to reading it.
You can use the book you are reading for this or you can write the words down elsewhere. If you use the actual book, you may want to have a blank piece of paper to cover up the pictures and some of the other text. You could point to one word and ask what it says or you can point and say some of the words you think your child may have trouble reading.
• Read these books with your child and help as much as is needed.
Some pages may have too many words or too many unfamiliar words – help as much as is needed. Remember, one of the keys is that your child enjoy reading the books, so try to move at a fast pace and use the books to learn new words. Either your child is reading the words and you could point to the words or you can be reading the words and make sure that your child is looking at the words as you say them.

Find books that are just higher than your child’s current reading level:
There are many advantages to reading books with your child that are written at a higher level than your child’s current level. Many of these advantages have to do with learning new vocabulary, thinking skills, and a love of stories. If there are difficult sections of the book, your child’s task could be to point to the words while you are reading them. This would keep your child engaged on the print which is obviously critical for learning to read. You can get in the habit of letting your child read the last word of each sentence in these situations. Gradually, transition from you reading most of the book to your child reading most of the book.

• Take turns reading sentences or pages and help your child as much as is needed.
• Point to words from left-to-right as they are spoken when there are not too many words per page.
• Cover up a line or two with a sheet of paper, so your child only sees some of the words.
I think a really good method is for one person to point to the words, while the other person reads them. Try taking turns doing this. In other words, your child can point to words while you are reading them, then you can point to words when your child is reading, then switch roles. It is very important that your child is focused on the words while you are reading them in order to learn new words. The average 4- or 5-year-old only focuses on words for 5 seconds per book when the parent is reading to a child, so this is not the typical way that reading is done. It is, however, a fantastic way of teaching reading once your child has a base of a hundred words or more.

Find books that are significantly higher than your child’s current reading level:
Find the balance between ‘challenging’ and ‘too difficult’ when it comes to using these books to help teach reading skills. Some books will be read for the love or joy of stories without teaching reading. If the book is too difficult, then read it but don’t use the book for teaching the reading of individual words. Please use these books to help your child’s vocabulary and to encourage higher level thinking skills. By checking out hundreds of books from the library every month, there will be many books that keep your child’s interest that will be ideal for this. You want this to be a very enjoyable experience, so interact in a joyous, but also curious, manner. Read these books with your child and ask many questions, and based on your child’s answers probe deeper and ask additional questions.

Model These Behaviors:

• Read fluently – use inflection properly for questions and statements, pause at periods, etc.
• Use character voices and be animated when appropriate.
• Talk about the main ideas in the book or the moral of the story.
• Pay attention to punctuation and point it out to your child when needed.
• Read books silently. This will be important in order to excel at “fast reading” -- the next milestone.
• Read in another language. This can help with learning advanced phonics skills as well as learning many other thinking and language skills.
• Summarize stories.
• Evaluate what you liked and didn’t like about the books.
• Compare and contrast books.
• Talk about the main ideas or the moral of the story.

Ask Questions:

• Ask questions to see if your child understands what was read.
If your child doesn’t understand the meanings of many of the words in a book, you can either describe them while you are reading the book or you could look up the meanings of some of the words before or after reading the book. Later, you may want to reread the book, if your child enjoyed it.
• Gradually make your questions more and more challenging. Wait for your child to answer. If your baby or toddler can’t verbalize much, then ask “yes” or “no” questions or multiple-choice types of questions.
• Ask your child to guess (or predict) what might happen next.
• Ask your child how the book is similar or different from other books.
• Ask your child how they would like stories to end before you are finished reading stories.
• Ask your child to summarize the book.
• Ask your child what he or she liked or disliked about the book.

Make your own books:
Make a list of words that your child can read. For many of you at this point, it could be many of the 166 words that are on the word cards plus some other words. Write a story using words primarily from this list. You can write a story by yourself to model how to do it or you can write a story together. You may want to write the stories on a whiteboard, on paper, using a laptop, or with something else. Once you are happy with your story, you can quickly turn it into a book either using folded paper, a photo album, or construction paper, etc. I remember making many simple books by using inexpensive photo albums I found at a closeout store. I printed the words for the book with a printer since my handwriting is not neat. I added photos or drawings to the book. You can print short phrases to go above or below the photos or you could put words on one page and the photo on the next. You could also make the book a lift-the-flap book by putting a flap over each image similar to the YBCR books. You or your child could even draw pictures for your books. Please don’t put too many words on the same page for your child to read the book if you want your child to read it independently.

You could make several books about your baby. For example, “Joshua Plays!” could show photos of the baby playing with blocks, toy cars, playing with words, playing with a favorite toy, playing a game matching words with objects, playing at the park, etc. Near each photo, you could write a very short phrase such as: “Joshua is playing!” “Joshua is playing with blocks.” “Now, Joshua is playing with a toy car.” You could also write stories about a typical day: “Joshua is sleeping.” “Joshua wakes up.” “Joshua is eating breakfast.” “Joshua is reading words.” and so on.

Encourage your child to write books:
This not only can motivate your child to read the books, but you can begin nurturing your child’s writing abilities. Your child may say the story aloud and you can write down the words as your child says them. You can read it back together and allow your child to revise it before making it more permanent.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and please continue to share your stories about your babies, toddlers, and preschoolers acquiring these reading milestones. Currently in the US, only a small percentage of children read at advanced levels. The studies are consistent that learning to read earlier has long-term advantages compared to learning to read later, so please know that by starting early you have already taken a really important step to help your children read at more advanced levels.

The next milestone is “Fast Reading.” It is a very important ability that is not typically addressed in traditional approaches to learning to read.

Dr. Bob Titzer

[queriquita]

@Korrale4kq:
Did I read your post correctly?  Did you teach both boys to read fluently by 3, however, within two years (kindergarten age), they had 'lost' it all (my interpretation: it went dormant), and so they 'started' all over again in school, but then zoomed ahead of the others? ... or were they 'equal' to the others?  and if they 'lost' their reading skills, do you think this was because they had such little exposure to the written language??

great thread, btw.  thanks to all who've contributed.

I taught both boys to read by 3. The jock type did better with whole words. It was easier for him to quickly lean the words and haphazardly plough through reading.  The academic type did better with phonics instruction, as it required more metal patience and suited the child that Liked to see how things work. They had both learnt all their phonics sounds by 18 months. But it took until they were three to read. I stopped being their nanny when they were a little over three and they went into a traditional daycare. Nearly all their reding ability had been lot completely.
They started Kindergarten last year. The academic-type phonics reader flew up the reading levels within a few weeks. The jock-type whole word reader lagged behind for a few weeks. But by the third month of school both boys were as adept at reading and neck and neck at the same level. And graduated K at the same reading level. Academic(phonics) reader has better decoding skills of unfamiliar words. Jock(whole word) has better comprehension. They both were exposed to a balanced approach in Kindergarten and the differences in reading are minimal.
Academic type is a much more patient, slower reader that will read in his free time, and tackle challenging texts.
Jock-type I just wants to get the resding over and done with for the most part. He is a faster reader and retains the information better. He is also a bit of a ham. He likes to hold the book up and read to you as a teacher would read to the class.

Now... Even though the twins are identical, as their DNA claims, they re very very different in personality. And this is reflected in how the leant to read, and how they read. In fact it applies to all their school work.

[Korrale4kq]

They were emergent readers. They could read level one easy books.
Books that said the same type of sentences over and over with a lot of sight words.
I like blue cars. I like blue balloon. I like blue fruit.
That kind of reading.

Then for 2 years they went into a traditional daycare that did a little light academics. They would bring home a letter of the week worksheet. When I saw them at this point they could not read the simple books that they once read easily. But when they did go into K they flew up the reading ranks. They were at a second grade reading level by the end of K. They are now in 2nd grade and they can pretty much tackle anything they want to read, if they choose to do so. But they don't read a lot. Mostly just the required school work reading, and maybe a few minutes before bed. Sometimes this is like pulling teeth though. They have a preference to non fiction and they read it well, with comprehension. They like to sit in the same room reading a book and tell each other random facts from the book that they are reading.
They have yet to read a chapter, or even chapter type book (think Frog and Toad).

As to your questions... Maybe they didn't lose the ability, maybe it just became dormant for 2 years. I have no way to tell. It is quite possible that they would have learnt to read just as easily without any instruction also. Was it worth it to teach them? Definitely. We had many fun times snuggling up reading many books over the years. If they had kept reading between 3 and 5 would they be better readers now, would they love books more? Maybe, maybe not.

[kiwimum]

Fast reading #9

By Dr. Bob Titzer

When a child’s natural speed for reading is fast, the child will have more time for other things in life. The benefits of reading at a very fast pace are enormous and potentially life-changing. Obviously, if your child reads at a faster pace, he will have more time to play or socialize while reading the same amount of material.

Your child’s speed of reading is very important and every decision related to this multi-sensory, interactive approach considered the child’s speed. The goal is for your child’s “natural” or default speed to be very fast. For example, the first baby to use Your Baby Can Read! (my daughter, Aleka) read all of the stories in her first grade literature book in under 20 minutes as I drove her home on the first day of school. When she was older, she could read many Harry Potter books in the same day. This allowed her to have extra time in her childhood that could be used for playing, relaxing, socializing, learning new hobbies, etc. because her natural speed is extremely fast. [Disclaimer: My daughters’ reading abilities are exceptional. This does not mean that your baby will end up reading at the same levels as them or other babies and toddlers in the videos/testimonials posted by parents on this website or any other website. The typical results of using Your Baby Can Read (YBCR) are that babies and toddlers who consistently use YBCR for at least 6 months learn to read some words and they learn vocabulary skills from using the program.]

 I do not expect every baby to learn to read as quickly as my daughters. I would love to be able to be able to read at those speeds, but I can’t. Because I have been reading for so many decades it is probably more difficult for me to improve my reading speed at this point than it would be for a child who has just started reading books silently. It is still possible to improve your reading speed later in life, but it will likely require effort and focus over a long period of time.

My hypothesis is that it is easier to change a child’s speed of reading before she has been reading for several years at a slower “default” or “normal” speed.  This means that parents need to be aware that there are positive and negative consequences when slowing down your child’s reading speed when she appears to skip over a word when reading aloud.

Reading quickly often leads to better reading comprehension while reading slowly is often linked to poor comprehension1. In addition, speed can increase with training in the early years2. It is possible to learn to read at fast speeds in the in the first several years of life according to a case study I did in the early 1990s3. While this is not evidence that reading quickly is likely when learning during infancy, at least we know that it is possible. Additional case studies indicate other children who learn to read during infancy also have been reported to read at fast speeds4. 

I think it is important to know not only what is typical, but what is possible. The average adult reads at around 200-350 words per minute5,6,7,8 while reading silently. The speed depends in part on the difficulty of the text for the reader as well as how the text is presented (e.g., number of words or characters per line, number of lines per page, on a computer screen, whether the words are presented in way that requires faster reading, etc.). A speed of 300 words per minute would be a good estimate of the average adult’s speed while reading for pleasure. Some research indicates that there are people who read at 2000 words per minute with complete comprehension9. Of course there are reports of people reading much faster than that.

 I mention these extremely fast speeds because I think many parents have a tendency to slow their children down too much without thinking about the future consequences this could have on speed. Your concern may be that your child skipped a word. While you don’t want your child to lose any comprehension while reading aloud, there are times when infants, toddlers, and preschoolers may read faster than they can talk and this can lead to occasionally skipping a word while reading aloud. 

These activities helped my babies and many others develop natural, faster speeds while reading silently:

Once your child is reading complete books silently, encourage your child to read a little faster.

Get two copies of some books your child can read. Race your toddler to see who can read faster – you or your child. Explain that you are only going to look at the words (not the pictures) while playing this game. My daughters loved this game. Please make sure that it is always fun. The objective is to only look at the words and not the pictures. I would tell my babies that I was going to look at the words as fast as I could and that I would look at the pictures later. Find books that have about the right number of words per page for your child to enjoy this game.

Some children enjoy getting timed while reading a favorite book. You can log the times and encourage your child to develop a very fast, natural speed. Encourage your child in a joyful manner to go a little faster.

Continue playing the “fast words game” (included in the Deluxe Kit) with the word cards. The game is primarily for older babies, toddlers, and preschoolers who can read words, but it can also be used to teach new words. This is an important game to develop your child’s focus and speed of reading.

Show your child how to play by having one parent hold up word cards for the other parent (or any other experienced reader) to read. One parent should flip through about five cards (ten words because you will use the front and back) as quickly as possible while the other parent reads the words aloud. Once your child sees you in action, she or he will want to join in. Initially, only use words that you think your child is familiar with and remember to always have fun! Later, you can add more than five cards.

For added variety, you should go through the words forward and backward and flip some cards around to show the words on the back, so your child doesn’t memorize the order of the words. For example, if you use the double-sided cards in the YBCR Deluxe Kit you might use: hi/arms, clap/clapping, nose/mouth, wave/waving, dog/cats. Your order might be something such as:

hi, clap, nose, wave, dog, hi, clap, hi, clap, clapping, clap, clapping, nose, mouth, nose, wave, nose, wave, dog, cats, hi, cats, hi, arms, clapping, nose, wave, nose, mouth, nose, mouth, clapping, clap, mouth, nose, wave, waving, wave, waving, cats, etc.

Since you are going at an extremely fast pace, the above 40 words could take less than one minute. Have fun!

Evidence shows that fast readers pick up more information per fixation on text5 than average or slower readers, so I believe this information should be incorporated into approaches that are concerned about a child’s speed while reading. We do this primarily in the songs and poems in Your Baby Can Read!. Your CHILD Can Read! provides many opportunities to get longer sequences of text in one fixation at a fast pace.

Another way of allowing your child to learn to pick up more information per fixation is to play a game similar to the “fast words game” (in #4 above) except instead of using individual words use phrases or sentences such as “clap your hands” or “The toy train is red and black.” Flip through the cards and only show them to the experienced reader for a second or so while your child is watching. Right after the card is turned face down where the readers can’t see them, then the experienced reader should say the sentences. Adjust the speed so that you are showing them just barely long enough for the experienced reader to have time to read them, then stay at least that speed for your child. If your child gets them correct, try to either go a little faster or write slightly longer phrases or sentences.

I wrote a simple program that showed words for a fraction of a second as the words went across the screen from left-to-right and from top-to-bottom. We do this in Your CHILD Can Read!, especially in the last three DVDs.

Each step while learning to read with this multi-sensory interactive approach has considered speed. For example, I don’t suggest teaching the names of the letters of the alphabet to babies and toddlers who don’t know how to read is in part to avoid slowing down the child reading words. If your child is taught the names of the letters before reading at an automatic or fast pace, he may think about the names of some of the letters in the words for a short time instead of instantly and automatically thinking about what the words say.

The same is true with focusing on the sounds of the letters – if your child is saying the individual sounds instead of saying the words instantly your child may also be developing a pattern of reading slowly that could influence your child’s later reading speed. There aren’t studies comparing reading speeds of babies who used the YBCR approach with other children, so this is my hypothesis that is based on the information in this article as well as in the Scientific Rationale for Using Your Baby Can Read.

Read for enjoyment. Some evidence shows that reading extensively improves reading speed10. One factor to consider as it relates to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers is to find books where there are at least a few lines of print per page in order to gain important experiences that could transfer to reading books with only text. If the books only have one line of print per page they can be great for many other reasons, but they won’t give your child the experience of quickly going from left to right, then immediately going to the next line.

Please let us know if your child is reading at a fast, average, or slow pace after starting early in life. We love to hear from the parents who are teaching their young children and we especially love hearing from older children who learned to read during infancy.

Dr. Bob Titzer

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