For me it all started with disbelief: WHY TEACH INFANTS TO READ? Then there an article about various teaching methods, mentioning Glenn Doman’s “Teach Your Baby To Read”. This article claimed that the method relied purely on visual stimulation, dry and boring, that was too limited for a good “all around” development. Now I realize that the author of the article has never read any of the Doman’s books – things mentioned in the article had nothing to do with his method. Back then I decided to search for a better method of teaching my baby, or relying to old fashioned alphabet methods: I learned to read letter by letter, everybody I know learned to read letter by letter, so why bother with some strange flash cards? But! But I requested the book from the library anyway.

And, three months later, the library finally got the book.

And, I decided to read it anyway.

And… I came under its spell.

First and foremost, if somebody would tell me that our flash cards are “dry and boring”, relying on purely visual stimulation, I would probably try to strangle them! The flash card is not shown over the cold and unemotional TV! The flash card with the word is attached to a worm and happy Mommy, who is reading the word, laughing, tickling, and hugging her baby, or even running around the room, pointing to objects. I’ve played hide and seek with cards. We jumped all over them. Both my husband and I personally and embarrassingly impersonated every animal written out, every action. Once we even represented a little herd of about 50 chimpanzees: I’ve got to admit, his half of the herd turned out a lot more animated and well received by our young audience! Finally, the flash card goes together with a giggling baby, who can’t wait to see more! To me – it’s a sense of touch, hearing and seeing. If your baby gets his hands on the card, it is going to be a sense of taste as well (though I did offer a taste of strawberry for our “strawberry” card). You can even spray the card with some perfume, if you want to involve all 5 senses, but to me it is too much. Moreover, you don’t have to show an entire herd of chimpanzees – that was our own crazy deviation of the methodology…

Why infants need reading?
The easiest answer is – why not?
The longer version is really in the book:
“1. Tiny children want to learn to read
2. Tiny children can learn to read
3. Tiny children are learning to read
4. Tiny children should learn to read.”
Glenn Doman & Janet Doman, How To Teach Your Baby to Read, The Gentle Revolution, 2002. Page 9 – from now on shortened as GD.

Glenn and Janet Doman dedicated an entire book to explain, illustrate and prove every one of those principles. I am not going to repeat them here. I am going to add just my own reasoning.

The major motivations for me can be summarized with another citation from the same book: “From conception on, the human brain grows at an explosive rate which is continually on a descending scale. Explosive and descending.” (GD p. 33)

To translate it to “normal” language – at one year old the child learns easier and faster, then at two, at two – twice faster then tree, and “During the years between six and sixty we have less brain growth then we had in a single year (and slowest of the first six years) between the ages of five and six.” (GD, p. 34).

So? To me all these fancy scientific explanations come down to very simple fact: every parent wants their child to be happy! Now! And even more importantly – tomorrow, when they grow up!
In this competitive world, being “happy tomorrow” means being SUCCESSFUL. And success requires “big brains”… Did you every wonder, why for some people learning is so easy, while others have to work so hard for it? I deeply believe, that it is not a natural phenomena – it all comes down to brain development in the early years. Mozart was able to play the piano at two because his family already owned a piano and because his father was not afraid to show him how to use it! No, I am not advocating buying a piano. But I am advocating early exposure to… everything you can get your hands on: kids, like sponges, seek, absorb and learn from every possible experience. And the more they’ll learn, the more their brains will grow. And the more they grow – the smarter our kids will be, the better memory, the better problem solving skills… the MORE SUCCESSFUL and MORE HAPPY!!! Actually I believe happiness is a skill too, but it is outside the scope of this article.

And, most importantly, I don’t believe you have to follow just Doman’s method to achieve something. ANYTHING you do with your kids – aids their development – as long as it is diverse and FUN. I am showing my kid letters and numbers, giving him lots of toys that allow building, drawing, cutting, melting... that allows him to use his imagination and satisfy his exploration thirst. I am actively searching and inventing many fun and educational activities myself (you can find some of them here, and I am anxious to hear things you can do that we can try too1!).

What attracted me in Doman’s method is the ability to expose my baby to a variety of knowledge, to sow the seed of love to learn a variety of subjects very early on. I do remember how much I hated reading as a four year old – struggling with every letter, forgetting the beginning of the sentence, by the time I would get to the end… it was a long and difficult road to get to the love of reading. I recently could see my niece go the same way, fighting and rejecting the reading process as much as she could. I hope that teaching my baby the whole words would help him to skip this difficult part of learning to read with phonics and alphabet. But I keep showing him both – single words and alphabet letters. Just as I keep showing him encyclopedic knowledge bits, fun facts, math cards, dogs on the street, pictures in the book… etc.

So, if you plan to go this route, I urge you to read Glenn Doman’s book. It is going to help your motivation, help you to learn the method and the scientific explanation behind, help you to learn about its positive and negative sides.

And if you are ready to start (regardless weather you read a book or not), just continue to Part 2 of this article for some additional information, materials and resources!