Give Your Baby a Gift that Lasts a Lifetime

Jennifer — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:47:54 +0000

When children are young, their parents marvel over all their milestones. They make note of the date when their baby first smiles, starts to crawl, walks and says their first word. You would think all of those things would happen before the youngster learns to read, but not necessarily.

Aleka Titzer of San Diego, Calif., recognized more than 30 written words by the time she was 9-months-old; Jacob Ujhazy of Aliquippa, Penn., was reading baby books on his own at 12 months of age; and Wisdom Black of Tujunga, Calif., was amazing everyone around her when she started reading around 15-months of age. No they’re not baby geniuses. What these children, and thousands of others like them have in common, is that their parents took the time to teach them how to read at an early age using a strategy developed by Bob Titzer, Ph.D., a researcher on infant learning.

“The best time to learn any aspect of language is during the infant and toddler years when there is a natural window of opportunity for learning language,” says Dr. Titzer, who explains that when a child is between the ages of 3 months and 5 years, he or she experiences tens of thousands of synapses, or connections in the brain, which “makes them capable not only of learning to understand and speak our language at a high level, but to learn the written word naturally and easily as well.”

Dr. Titzer proved this to be true in the early 1990s with the help of his then infant daughter Aleka, who is now 16-years-old and a sophomore in college. Aleka was born around the same time her father was studying the latest theories of brain development in infants.

Knowing that infants learn through many different sensory systems at the same time, when Aleka was 3 months and 8 days old, her father started showing her flash cards with simple words on them, as well as videotape of babies engaging in the action on the card and a voice in the background that would say what they were doing. “This allowed her to make connections between the visual, auditory, and sensory areas of the brain, he explains. “Eventually we reached the point where I would hold up the word ‘clap,’ and Alexa would clap. ‘Arms Up’ and she’d point her hands towards the sky. She loved seeing how excited her mother and I got when she read the cards to us.”

Just a few years after successfully teaching Aleka how to read, Dr. Titzer started sharing the method he used to teach her with other parents through the “Your Baby Can Read! Early Language Development System,” a program that teaches children whole language and phonics using a combination of sound, sight and interaction. The core program is made up of 5 interactive DVDs, 5 starter double-side sliding word and picture cards, 1 wipe-clean word card and 1 non-toxic erasable pen.

To learn more about the program, log on to www.yourbabycanread.com or call (888) READ-888. “As a parent, you want the best for your child. Teaching them to read at an early age will open all kinds of doors in the future,” says Dr. Titzer.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Your Baby: The Ultimate Learning Machine

Jennifer — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:42:48 +0000

(ARA) – You may find the Internet inspiring or be awed by the advent of computers that think for themselves. But when it comes to sheer power of absorption, no man-made information-gathering system can compete with nature’s ultimate learning machine: the human baby.

A growing body of research by experts around the world is teaching adults that, virtually from birth, babies are far more voracious learners than scientists once thought. Recent research reveals:

* Newborns may actually learn while asleep. Researchers at the University of Turku in Finland exposed 45 babies to specific vowel sounds while awake. EEG tests before and after showed the newborns didn’t recognize the sounds after hearing them repeated while awake. However, when the same sounds were played throughout the babies’ sleep hours, brainwave tests showed the infants were able to recognize the new sounds the next day.

* Infants as young as 10 months are capable of learning new words if the words are associated with a person or object of particular interest to them, according to a study by University of Delaware and Temple University researchers.

* Historically, child development experts believed babies didn’t really start learning language until they were between 8 or 10 months old. A Johns Hopkins study indicates they probably begin learning language as young as 6 months old, when they first make the connection between their parents and the sounds “ma-ma” and “da-da.”

* TV-based, interactive video games can help babies as young as 9 months to develop and refine motor skills, learn sign language and form elementary words. VTech’s V.Smile Baby Infant Development System combines parent and child interaction with a motor skill enhancing portable console and engaging interactive video.

“Talking, singing and reading with children, as well as playing together with educational toys and interactive learning products are great ways for parents to get involved,” says Dr. Lise Eliot, a leading authority on early child development and author of the acclaimed book, “What’s Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life.” “V.Smile Baby extends the classic baby activity panel to a TV learning environment that is very effective for teaching early concepts, such as shapes, colors and animals, in an interactive way,” says Eliot.

While interactive learning systems and engaging activities might be easy for new parents to adopt, experts also encourage parents to take notice of baby sign language, an emerging trend in early child development.

According to Drs. Susan Goodwyn and Linda Acredolo, co-authors of the best-selling guide to signing with babies, “Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk,” baby signing boasts emotional and intellectual development through simple, easy-to-do gestures and can actually help babies communicate basic needs and interests before verbal speaking skills are mastered.

Through incorporating baby sign language, products like V.Smile Baby give parents an innovative way to help their children begin to learn language skills earlier in life,” says Dr. Acredolo.

To learn more about the Baby Signs Program, visit www.babysigns.com. For more information about V.Smile Baby, log on to www.vtechkids.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Pregnancy, maternity, birth, and baby information » Babies Learning

Give Your Baby a Gift that Lasts a Lifetime

Your Baby: The Ultimate Learning Machine