'Your Child Can Read'

teachers do not like it because kids learn to read before they can understand what they read, they go to Kindergarten reading but cannot discuss, answer questions, talk about the book which we do in Kindergarten now. and it takes them YEARS to catch up so they cannot move ahead in reading for a long time. Very confusing for a child who thinks he or she can read but then does not do well in school in reading

children learn to read from parents who read books to them, not from dvds. there is no advantage to tinies being forced to recite information that they don't understand. and it's a creativity/fascination killer.
bleugh.
khairete
S.

It's bad. All it does is teach your kid to memorize words as if they were pictures, not how to phonetically sound it out.

Let kids be kids. Even if your child can recognize a word at 9 months, they are not going to be ahead once they hit first or second grade and all the other kids catch up.

It's a scam. A friend of mine bought it. She couldn't believe how much time it had you sit your infant in front of a tv to watch dvds. She did try to get her money back but finally gave up because she kept getting the run-around.

As others have noted, it doesn't teach your child to read the right way. My SIL is a teacher and has horror stories of kids who "learned" through this system, only to have to relearn everything once in school, making them behind their classmates.

I think it's a waste of money. It's not necessary for children to read so early. If it's a fun activity that brings child closer to parents, then have fun. If it isn't fun, puts them in front of the TV or puts pressure on them, then it's also a waste of time and energy. I've taught 4 of my kids to read and they all became fluent between ages 5-8. It's like anything. All kids learn to potty train, walk, crawl etc. at different ages but they all learn eventually. It's the same with reading. I think it's better to read lots of books to your child when they are really young. =) HTH

If you want your child to learn word recognition (not at 9 months) but earlier on, print out a bunch of words and label objects around the house. Also, talk to your child a lot and describe what you are doing as you do it. Finally, of course, read to your child often. From what I have read on the DVD's, they are very time consuming.

I too think it's bad. As Red said, they are just memorizing what the words look like. They need to learn the sounds of the letters first before they start building words.

It's hogwash. They isn't even an educator. You can teach your child to read when they are ready.

don't do it! it works but research shows your kid will lose interest in reading b/c you've taken away the J. of it by turning it into a drill. all kids will read eventually and its better to let the child's LOVE of reading grow which is what will keep them reading long after the dvd craze has died.

In my opinion, it is pointless, and may even be harmful.
Your baby may learn to read, but won't be acedemically advanced because of it. By 2nd or 3rd grade, all the other kids will catch up.
Here is the reason I say it may be harmful. Babys' brains can only focus on learning one type of thing at a time. This is why when baby learns something new, he often regresses in other areas or temporarily forgets how to do something. Your baby has SOOO much he is supposed to learn in those first 2 years, and I think focusing on teaching to read takes away from what he should be focusing on.
One last thought... It seems like the program is not learning how to READ, but teaches to memorize words.

Do you really want your 2 year old to be able to read "Candy" or "XXX" and have to do some explaining? :-) I concur with everyone else - just relax and let them be a kid first. They will get there. I know it's hard not to want to give them a leg up, but it's better to be a great mom than driving them hard. That's what teachers are for!

Do you want your child to read? Would it be better to say, 'my child loves to read'? Read to your child and have your child see you reading. Share stories and make connections to those stories. Taking the time to foster a love for reading is far more important than the mechanics of recognizing the words.

You can go online and read reviews-they are mostly negative. People have a tough time getting a refund, also.

Hi F.,
Check out the Leapfrog videos instead. They're more age appropriate and your child will learn at the level they're supposed to. Start with teaching the names of the letters and they're sounds (Leapfrog Letter Factory is great) and then move into how to put the sounds together. With the "your child can read" by teaching them only what the word is, they will not know the letters and sounds and may be confused when they get into school. :)

I think its a scam too. It does not teach children to read...it teaches them to memorize. It doesnt teach them the alphabet or how to sound out words and what letters make what sounds or even grammar rules. It only trains their brain to memorize. First I think this program was made as a babysitter. How easy is it to set our kids in front of something like that and then justify to ourselves that at least its educational and teaching them to read. But its really not. Its not good for kids to just blankly stare at the TV and can start a very bad habbit.
My friend bought your baby can read for $200 and one day posted a video of what she said was her 9 month old reading. She had three flashcards with mommy, daddy and the childs name written on it. She asked her daughter which one said mommy and she picked it up, she asked which one said daddy. And I had to wonder...how many times did she show her the cards and read the word before her daughter memorized what the words looked like. So I tried it with my daughter...I got some random flashcards and wrote giraffe, dog, and milk on them. I then told my daughter what each one said twice. Then I placed them down and asked which one said giraffe? she picked it up. I asked which one said dog and she picked it up...same with milk. This only proved that it was based on memorizing.
My friends daughter does not really have a large vocabulary at all for her age and watches that video every day. My daughter has never watched the video and has developed an amazing vocabulary of words and its been totally based on a good habit of reading. We sit down and read 3 times a day and she loves to just sit with a word and point at the thing in the book that she knows words too. I would say just read to your child as much as possible. By doing so you are showing your child how much fun reading is and building a healthy habbit. I think eventually the your baby can read will make those kids using it relate reading to sitting in front of a tv for far too long. And then the idea of reading for them wont be to appealing.
When my daugther got to be 18 months I started doing some quiet time where I read and give her a book to read and she loves it.