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641 of 662 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Don't get your hopes up, December 6, 2008
This review is from: Your Baby Can Read: Early Language Development System (DVD)
I purchased the monster set directly from the TV infomercial at over $200.00. I got all the DVD's along with the pull-out flash cards and the flip-up flap books and the parent's guide. I read the parents guide fully and have been using the whole set for about a month and a half now. This is how things have progressed:
1. Read the parent's guide. Felt it was too long and could have explained how to use the program in one page. Really thought the doctor's plan of no other TV for the months the child was using his program was unrealistic...especially for families with other kids. He recommends creating a captive audience by placing the child in a playpen without any other toys or even holding the child and dimming the lights to keep their eyes on the TV. This should have tipped me off how much fun this would be for my son.
2. Popped in the first DVD and let my 20 month old son watch it over and over for about two weeks. He was interested for the first week. After that he was bored. We tried the pull-out cards a few times and he just mangled them. He was completely uninterested in the flap book.
3. My husband stepped up the program and moved our son on to the second DVD even though it hadn't been the full month recommended yet on the first DVD. Our son seemed to like this DVD better and we have been playing that for him once a day for three weeks. He's now rolling around on the floor inside his playpen(how we make him the captive audience recommended)and now seems equally bored with this DVD, too. He still mangles the cards, although he can "read" two or three words. He hasn't "read" this same two or three words in other books, however. He is still uninterested in the flap books.
4. Today, I played the last DVD for him. The Review. That's exactly what it was, a compilation of the other DVD's. He watched because he had nothing else to do being cooped up in his playpen without any toys (again, as per recommendation) and proceeded to roll around with boredom.
Honestly, I'm embarrassed to say I thought he'd learn to read from this program. It mainly just shows a handful of odd words and throws in some nursery rhymes for good filler. Absolutely no ABC's and their sounds on this anywhere. It definitely WILL NOT teach your child to read from the average child's book...just maybe the provided flap books and flash cards. Those are the ONLY words this set will teach. As other reviewers have said, whole language(learning a word by repeatedly showing the whole word and saying what it is)is what this program uses. Maybe 30-50 words at the most might be learned. Definitely not enough to pick up "Goodnight Moon" and read it.
My son is now 22 months old and knows all his ABC's and their sounds. He knows his numbers from 1-10 and eight colors and six different shapes. He learned his ABC's from playing with his Leapfrog Telephonics game and watching the Leapfrog DVD's titled Letter Factory and Talking Words Factory. Outstanding toy and DVD's! He learned his numbers, colors and shapes just through typical kid's toys and books.
Bottom line: Dr. Titzer has his fans and he seems a nice guy, but his program is wholly incomplete and sorely lacking in the "interest factor" kids need to keep their attention. I'm packing this set up and selling it on eBay. Hopefully I can recoup some cash and purchase more Leapfrog items.
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216 of 223 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It works but it's kind of boring, November 20, 2006
This review is from: Your Baby Can Read: Early Language Development System (DVD)
We are now on Volume 2, the third DVD that my daughter has watched from this set. The Starter Video is the first, then Volume 1. She has all but lost interest at this point. I can't say that I blame her. It's kind of boring and a little bit too long. However, I don't have any better ideas. It's reading. So I think that, for teaching reading, they have done a good job.
The video will show a word, say it twice, with an arrow going from left to right to indicate that you should read from left to right. Then they show a short a video of that word: "Eyes. Eyes." (Switch to video of a small child) "Marco, close your eyes!"
At first my daughter watched it just like any other kid's show. Now, (after three months) she knows they will say the word twice, and she looks down while they are saying the words, and then looks up when they show the fun video part. So I have added flash cards that I show to her at other times. I made sure to write the words in lower case letters so that they will look like the words she sees on the video. I just do a few at a time, since her attention span isn't very long, and I don't want to make reading a chore for her. I also write the words on her magna doodle (separate from watching the video) in an attempt to make it more interesting.
She knows how to read many words from the DVD by sight, and is the talk of the town, but of course she cannot sound words out. The theory behind "Your Baby Can Read" is that your baby will eventually figure out how to sound out words if she learns enough words. She confuses similar words pretty often, like yes and eyes. She also forgets a lot of the words if I don't review them with her for a couple of days.
I do let her watch this video by herself (sort of a no-no), and it worked at first. But now, even when I'm sitting with her, I can't get her to pay attention for long. I think that perhaps, if I had always made it a point to sit with her while the DVD was playing, and hadn't let her watch cartoons, which are way more interesting, then maybe she would still think it was the best thing ever. I don't think that's realistic, though.
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135 of 144 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Horrible, January 8, 2009
This review is from: Your Baby Can Read: Early Language Development System (DVD)
To sum it all up in two sentences....Only buy from this company if you want to waste about $250. THIS IS A HORRIBLE COMPANY, WITH A HORRIBLE PRODUCT, WITH HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. I wouldn't recommend this product. My daughter is 1 & I started her on Your Baby can in November. I did everything that I was supposed to do but she never really got interested in the videos. In my opinion the videos don't have enough action to keep her interested. Then they lure you in for "a 30 free trial" that is so hard to get out of. I ordered the product November 26 & called to cancel December 10. When I talked to customer service I was told that if I keep the product they would cancel 1 payment & if I still wasn't satisfied then to call before Jan. 26 & I could send it back. Well I gave the product a little more time & received the same results. So I called customer service Jan. 8 to cancel again. The CSR that I talked to was very rude. She "point-blank" told me that since I was beyond my 30 day trial that I couldn't send the product back. I informed her of the conversation I had with the pervious CSR & she basically told me that I was lying. I asked the CSR, why would I make up a story like that & try to send the product back if I wasn't informed to do so? When I asked to speak to her supervisor she let out an exasperated breath (Like I was getting on her nerves) & put me on hold. After 10 min of holding a supervisor answered the phone & when I told her about the rudeness of the CSR, the supervisor said, & I quote, "Well, I've really never had any problems with her before she is a really nice girl, but we will go back & review the tape because we record every call." At that time I asked her if they tape all the calls, then why is it that she couldn't go back & find the tape of the original call I made in Dec.? The supervisor told me that she couldn't go back & review that tape & that I must have been misinformed about sending the product back but there is nothing that they could do at that time. I asked to speak to the supervisor's supervisor & she wouldn't let me speak to him. To sum it all up in two sentences....Only buy from this company if you want to waste about $250. THIS IS A HORRIBLE COMPANY, WITH A HORRIBLE PRODUCT, WITH HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.
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