If intelligence is the ability to learn, then babies are born geniuses!

Since reading is one of the most important skills a child will ever learn, why not start as early as possible? So here I am once again on another journey this time determined to teach my 5 month old how to read. While I’ll be teaching him how to read and daddy most likely will teach the math section (mommy doesn’t quite cover that all too well!) I’ll be also teaching my unborn child still in the womb a few months from now. I’ll blog about that step by step when the time is there.

When it comes to this topic there’s a lot of information out there, I’ll post something new as soon as I have started our first session of flashcards with tips etc. The infant flashcards we’ve been practising on you tube were a great success and I truly belief this enhanced his sight and hearing.

Long term Memory

Upon until your child is about three and a half years of age their perception of the world comes mostly through their dominant “right side of the brain” (long-term memory). This is the first part of the brain to develop, the left side of the brain fully develops after year three and a half. With consistent practice and repetition, you can teach your baby to effortlessly recognize words and perform instant math calculations before kindergarten age.

The right side of the brain is responsible for visual and spatial processing and the ability to “see” problems in multiple dimensions. Without the left brain (short-term memory) filtering all the information coming in our child’s right brain would go on overload within no time.

Stimulating your child can improve his/her attention span, curiosity and memory. Stimulating the senses will enable your beautiful child reach development milestones faster. Babies are born with a few reflexes one of those is the walking reflex, so knowing that this reflex disappears after 3 months when not triggered we decided to continuously stimulate his walking reflex with as result very strong legs, he always wants to stand up for long periods of time and step from very early on. Repetition and fun is the way to go with anything new you learn your child or your child teaches themselves.

“Use it or Lose it”

Nothing is more disastrous your  child’s brain development than a lack of stimulation. Likewise, an excessive amount of appropriate stimulation will produce better-than-average neural circuitry. If your child becomes overstimulated he/she will let you know. At nap time he/she might have an extra long nap 🙂

When does it start?

From the moment of conception the neurons (nerve cells) of the brain multiply faster than any other cells in your baby’s body. The rapid pace of your baby’s brain development continues into early childhood: at birth, the brain weighs 25 percent of its adult weight; by age one, 50 percent; by age two, 75 percent; and by age three, 90 percent.

The younger the brain, the more malleable it is – that’s why young children are like sponges. Use this to your advantage. Your baby’s brain builds itself by forming connections in response to the stimulation it receives. The fetus begins responding to sound during month five in the womb, when her sense of hearing becomes fully developed, you can start with early learning when your child is still in the womb. (more about that the next post)

I already started reading to my little boy but he wasn’t that much interested to be fair, the touchy feely books do a little something but now what I  have in mind for him. So mommy went online and did some research here’s what I found: “Inconsistent and explicit text pointing [when reading to a child] disturbs the attention of a child, it interrupts the cadence of the language, and it ends up making reading more confusing for a child – and a lot less fun…”

Ah, see now this makes a lot of sense so what can I do to change this? The answer again very simple: ” In order to understand language through your ear, there are three requirements: it has to be loud, clear and repeated… Make the words large, clear and repeated – and children learn very easily”. (Study suggests that the sooner a child is exposed to the written word, the better. It also recommends that you teach your child phonics as soon as he/she is able to deliberately vocalize letter sounds. By doing so, you can ensure that your child is a practised phonetic reader long before she enters first grade. Children who rely on whole-word reading alone tend to experience problems with the technique from around third grade. There is no reason why any child of this age should be without knowledge of phonics).

First things first downloading flashcards or making them myself see here a link: http://www.brillbaby.com/free-download/flash-card-printouts.php your baby needs phonics as well as  whole words stimulation.

What’s the best method of using the Flash Method?

Show  flashcards to your baby no longer then 1 second each. Pictures/words/numbers on the flashcards should be large and clear. Show each set of flashcards 3 times per day for about 10 days. Follow your child’s lead in the number of times you show each set, stop showing any category where your child stops showing interest in. You can show the card, read out the word, make a sound that comes with the word and or show a live footage of e.g. an elephant making that noise to combine all together.

It’s really all about Love and Repetition  🙂