First Steps in Teaching Your Baby to Read

By now you have read Glen Doman's book How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence. If you are like me, now you are in absolute awe of your baby's intelligence and you are all fired up to get going on this adventure and teach your child to read! But, you are also a bit overwhelmed and you aren't quite sure how to put this program into place.

The absolute beauty of this program is that once you are set up, it is easy and quick to integrate it into your daily routines. It really is. If you show your child 5 sets of 5 words (total of 25 words) 3x per day, that is a total of 75 words which will take approximately 75 seconds, yes, only 75 seconds! Can you think of a better way to spend a minute and a half with your child?

Another amazing thing is that it is absolutely flexible and can be adjusted to your life (which is peppered with colds, teething, tantrums, vacations, etc.). Let's face it, some days it just isn't gonna happen, and not only is that okay - you should never do your program when you both aren't ready and willing. It is okay to put your cards away for a day, week, or even a month. When things have settled down, you just pick them up again and start right where you left off. You don't even have to start at square one - your baby's amazing mind retains all of what you taught. It isn't like when you give your treadmill a break for a few months (thank heavens!).

So, here is a little starter list for you to help get you organized.

• Start making some cards. If you don't want to make all your cards, you can purchase the premade kit from the Gentle Revolution Press. The kit is only about $50 and I am sure is about what you would spend on materials making them yourself (but would save you all the time of making them, which I think is the most daunting part of this program). If you are making them, spend the extra time to make a lot of them before you get started. That way you won't get behind and feel as overwhelmed when you get going with all this.
  
• To start teaching your child, you will need 15 words to start with. Pick words that are related to self (eye, nose, chin etc.) and names like Mommy, Daddy, pets, relatives, favorite objects etc. You want them to be words that are the most familiar and enjoyable around him. You don't want to start him out on words like "onomatopoeia" or "Aecidiaceae." Those will come soon enough.
  
• Separate the cards into 3 sets of 5 words. On the backs of the cards in pencil, write the date that you started showing each word. This will come in handy later when you start "retiring" words.
  
• Practice a few times flipping through the cards as fast as you can. You don't want to spend more than a couple of seconds per card. Remember - we don't want to bore the child.

DAY 1

1. Okay! Now you are ready. Pick a time of day when your child is rested, fed, and happy. Pick a location in the house with few distractions (i.e. no TV, radio, physical distractions, etc.). I have been using mealtime and bath time for reading sessions. My kids are secured to their seats so they can't run off and there are fewer distractions. This has worked pretty well for us.
2. Take your first pack of 5 cards and read them to your child with an enthusiastic voice, flipping through the cards as fast as you can. Example: take the word Mommy. Simply hold the card up just out of reach and say "this says Mommy," and go through the rest of the cards in like manner, staying on each card no more than 1 second
   
3. THAT'S IT! Congratulations! You have now completed the first big step toward opening the magical door to reading for your child!
4. Repeat this first set of 5 cards 3x the first day, each session being at least 1/2 hour apart. This should only take you 15 seconds!
   

You will have a total of 3 reading sessions on the 1st day -
reading 1 set of 5 cards 3x

DAY 2

1. Repeat the first set of words (set of 5 words) 3x.
   
2. Add a second set of 5 words. Show the second set 3x throughout the day, each set shown at least 1/2 hour apart. This should only take you only 30 seconds to complete 6 reading sessions.
   

You should have a total of 6 reading sessions on the second day,
2 sets of 5 words, each shown 3x.

DAY 3

1. Add a third set of five words.
   
2. You are now teaching your child 3 sets of 5 words 3x per day for a total of 9 reading sessions, each no longer than 5-10 seconds. This should take you less than 1 minute! Isn't this amazing and SO much easier and more FUN than the way we were taught to read as children? I love it!

DAYS 4-7

What do you do from here?

Continue showing these same 3 sets of 5 words for a total of about 7 days. Then we will begin adding more words and taking some away. Congratulations for making the effort in teaching your child to read! I can't think of a greater gift you could give and it will benefit them throughout their entire lives!