SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) – The home videos of infants as young as six months learning to read has caught the attention of many parents.
There are tons of tools to help babies, but which ones really work? ABC 4 News focused on the set of “Your Baby Can Read” DVD’s.
The DVD’s promote an early learning approach in which infants learn basic words by watching videos and looking at flashcards.
Jenica Love showed the educational videos to her daughter Sienna six months after birth.
“We showed her the videos pretty much everyday at least,” Love said.
Love said she didn’t see the harm in trying to show her daughter the videos. Sienna, nearly 2 years old, has gradually moved on from watching the clips to recognizing pictures and words on flashcards, but is not reading.
Lacey Jones, a mother of a 16-month-old, said she takes a more traditional route and does not show her daughter the videos.
“I don’t want to push her,” Jones said.
Instead, Jones reads daily to her daughter before bedtime and recites the alphabet.
With different approaches to the education, we questioned if children exposed to television teaching turn out smarter.
Clinical psychologist Frances Thompson explained there may not be a difference. Thompson works at Early Life Child Psychology & Education Center in South Jordan, Utah.
“The child is going to seemingly read the word, but what the child is doing is memorizing the shapes of the word and not actually reading,” Thompson said.
The “Your Baby Can Read” franchise was slapped with a federal lawsuit by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood in 2011. The franchise is accused of false and deceptive marketing.
The creator of the program, Dr. Robert Titzer, stands by his program, despite the backlash.
Experts said boosting your baby’s brain is the product of a variety of teaching methods.
“There are so many other things that go into a child's cognitive development such as biological predisposition, to genetics, intelligence and academics,” Thompson added.
