The Battle Over Your Baby Can Read

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"Your Baby Can Read" is a highly promoted program for teaching your child to read as early as in the first few months from birth. It has come under scrutiny in recent months because of the ambitious claims it makes, its cost, and the methods used (including video) to accelerate the development of the child in mastering this ability. There are many aspects of this debate that are merely echoes of other ongoing disputes about child education, and the role of traditional techniques to teach your children to read. Your Baby Can Read is simply the latest front in that ongoing battle.

One of the biggest great debates in early child education is the role of phonics or a reading system that incorporates it as one of the main methods of learning. Your Baby Can Read is in large measure based on a phonics system of memorizing letters and associations, similar to how the technique was taught in schools up until the mid-20th century. The main difference is the creator of the Your Baby Can Read system, Dr. Robert Titzer, introduces it to infants well in advance of the normally expected point in child development when teaching reading is thought to be appropriate.

Child development experts have favored a more "whole language" approach to learning to read that tries to avoid memorization based approaches. Many of them have criticized Your Baby Can Read by saying it is only teaching infants how to memorize, not naturally understand the language. The experts have also criticized Titzer for promoting the program commercially to reach the mass market, instead of relying on prevailing academic opinion, or using the school system as the means of introducing the method to the public. In other words, the establishment appears to resent the way the program did an end around them to get its system to the mass public.

More controversy ensues about the wisdom of whether a child under two should be watching TV, in order to receive the visual images that help them learn word ssociations under the system. Your Baby Can Read relies on flash cards and DVDs at the heart of its training materials, without regard for the views of many early child development authorities that it is inappropriate for toddlers younger than two years old to be watching a video screen as the basis for learning to read. These experts do not make clear whether or not they would support the program if it did not rely on video.

So it appears that the dispute over the effectiveness of Your Baby Can Read [http://makingbabyfood.net/uncategorized/you-baby-can-read-review-should-you-buy-your-baby-can-read] largely hinges on one's prior position on the different approaches to reading, and what weight is placed on existing authority or current standards of practice when it comes to teaching your child. People who are mainly influenced by, or have high regard for education establishment concepts are likely to discount the manner or the methods employed by Dr. Titzer. Meanwhile, thousands of parents who have tried the system and value seeing its positive results firsthand, are likely to support it regardless of what certain industry gatekeeper experts say.
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