Customer Reviews

Your Baby Can Read!

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Wow, I'm disappointed. I really should have known better.
I've been working in the field of early childhood for over a decade. Most of my graduate-level work focused on infant and toddler development. Why wouldn't someone like me know that flashcards and monotonous repetition are unhealthy and boring for toddlers and total unproductive? Because, like most parents I was wooed by the thought of super-babies.
You see I have 2 year old twins and every time I saw those darned infomercials I thought "if they can do it.., well shucks, so can I".
I tried that online demo and my boys just loved it. They picked up on it the very first time they tried it. I was so excited I bought the whole kit for them for Christmas.
Well, what arrived was a boring video that my boys were expected to watch 2x a day (added to a daily regimen of flashcards and a book featuring the same 10 or so words) that went something like this:
TIGER. This is a tiger.
Mouth. Can you touch your mouth?
BABY. Are you a baby?
At one point during the first screening I heard my boys having the following conversation, "Tiger? We just did tiger."
"We have to do it again."
"Oh, man!"
They had that exact conversation each time they watched the DVD. As repetition seemed a theme they wanted to contribute.
We were all bored. And irritated.
The boys wanted nothing to do with the flashcards or their book. They like plots and they're way beyond, "Baby Lauren is waving!" They love the Leapfrog videos and know all of their letters and letter sounds. I'd rather develop their word attack skills with that series than use this sight word approach. Today I mail back "box-o-genius" and look for some of those cool word puzzles.
For those of you who are chronic optimists, I can see how this program MIGHT work with babies ages 9 months to 24 months, but the videos need to have several versions which change the way they present the words. The same pictures, silly costumes children make learning time more like baby torture. How about reading to your child and pointing out the words instead of propping them up in front of the TV? As much as children enjoy reading the same books over and over this is sure to have the same effect with the added bonus of parent-child interaction.

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT buy this for a child over the age of 2 1/2. And, as a former Kindergarten teacher who has taught children to read, don't waste your time buying this for a kindergartener. The Leapfrog videos, games and toys are way better.

I started showing these DVDs to my daughter when she was 7 months. She was reading from flashcards at 1, sounding out words at 18 months and reading books at 2. My 8 month old is watching them now and she really enjoys them. She smiles and waves her arms.

My older child is now 3. One thing that amazes me is that she has better reading skills than 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders I have heard reading. I'm not sure if learning earlier improves reading ability or if there is something about this method.

When children learn phonics at school they go through drills to learn the sounds of each letter. Sounding out letters is slow and definitely not a fun way to learn to read. It could be enough to kill a child's love of reading. A child who watches these DVDs figures out letter sounds on their own. As Titzer's website says, if a child knows bat, cat, house and hippo they can figure out the word hat.

When my daughter comes across new one syllable words she can quickly figure them out. When she comes across a word with multiple syllables she pronounces each syllable. She never has to sound out the individual letters. I think this is why she reads much better than older kids who have learned using the traditional phonics method. She can figure out unfamilar words much more quickly. As a result, she reads more quickly and can focus on the story instead of focusing on the individual words. This makes reading more enjoyable.

Anyway, I'm very impressed with these DVDs and glad that my children won't have to learn to read using the traditional phonics method.

...he has learned how to clap correctly, and he started saying the word cat. (we don't have a cat so I know that's where he's learning it... whenever he sees a neighborhood cat he yells out the word cat and points)

I started showing him the first video twice a day for just over 3 weeks now. The Dr. says that it will take them a while to learn the first words, but I'm trying not to set my sites real high. I do think this will at the very least help my son learn that letters aren't just an ABC song, they relate to everything around us.

I love to watch it with him because it's a really fun video; I even hear my husband humming the catchy music. I can't wait to move on to the next video to see how the system progresses.

This video is the simplest system to use. I actually read the directions 4 times because I thought I was missing something. He also LOVES to play with the slide cards. It's so much fun that if he does learn how to read it won't seem right because there's little work involved; AND if he doesn't, oh well, at least it was fun!! I say buy these tapes for the mere fact that it's educational and it will hold his attention (and mine for that matter) and if something more comes of it, it's an added plus. I suggest buying them for a more reasonable price than on the infomercial though.

I've now been using the starter DVD for a month with my daughter and my overall impression is that while this is a fine idea with a sound foundation (learning to read ultimately begins with memorization), the production quality does not jive with the cost-- $200 new.

I have experience with video and audio production, and these are unquestionably the two greatest weaknesses in an otherwise decent product. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say that the author tried to produce the work himself, or found a friend or relative who fancied themselves a "video professional", as I can't imagine a bona fide video production company still being in business if this is the level of work they produce.

I write this not because I'm a video purist or style nazi but because the production quality, in my view, has a noticeable and measurable negative impact on the intended purpose of the product--ie: To train the eyes to see actions and recognize words, to train the ear to listen to the sounds of words and to hear them spoken, and to combine these in a way that creates understanding in the child's mind.

Consider:

1. The video itself looks like it was shot by an amateur; the subjects themselves are lackluster (A partly cloudy day at the zoo? With the neighbors' kids at the park? This is the best they can do?), the lighting often makes the subject difficult to discern, the camera work is shaky and inconsistent, many scenes are far too rushed, and often the action being described is only secondary or incidental. It's much as if the video was shot first and that the addition of words was an afterthought.

2. It's commendable that the director chose to use children's voices in both the spoken and sung portions of the DVD, but didn't it occur to them that having young children speaking words is probably not the clearest way to have them understood? I would have preferred a soft, intelligible, well-enunciated woman's voice--or variety of more mature voices--forming the bulk of the spoken portions. As it stands, many syllables are slurred, rushed, or misspoken ("Hippopotamuses"?? Hippopotami! Good grief.).

3. While I applaud the editor for using the breadth and depth of every video transition available to them in the "amateur video effects bin", these are way too overused and also distract from the action being described--to the point of being downright confounding to the little one trying to decipher all these whizzing shots. On top of this, the production quality is flat, boring, and doesn't feel professional or even very well conceptualized (yes, I absolutely think I could have done it better myself).

4. The children's songs are a nice touch, but suffer from such poor visual execution that I'm led to wonder why they included them at all. And if you want the child to be able to read along, then the lyrics have to be displayed accordingly; as it stands this poor imitation of karaoke is utterly insufficient (no bouncing ball, and the timing is apparently a crap shoot).

Like I said, a fine idea, particularly the sliding card idea, but the DVDs make this not at all worth $200. Not even close. I haven't used any of the competing products out there but I'd guess they're of superior quality.

We got this set of DVDs and flashcards as a gift. Started my son on the starter DVD at 11 months - about every other day. He was very interested in the DVDs but it didn't seem like he was "learning" anything so I stopped showing him the DVDs after a few months. One day when he was around 14 months, he found the flashcard for "hi" in a drawer and brought it to me and said "hi." I was flabbergasted. So we started the DVDs again and he began learning the words in earnest around 16 months. By age 17 months I made more flashcards for him because he had already learned all the ones provided in the kit. He watches the DVDs about every other day or every two days. So far he has only seen the starter and #1.

This is a system of word memorization - the child is basically memorizing the shape of the word. I have noticed that even if my son doesn't recognize a new word, he does make guesses at the word which contain some of the right sounds. So over time, I am assuming he'll make the connections to be able to read phonetically. There are portions of the DVDs that go through phonics.

His success at "reading" through this system has been dependent on the flashcards and parent interaction. When I go through the flashcards, I point out the letters and sounds. I don't think that you can reasonably expect a child to learn from the DVD alone.

My husband calls this a "parlor trick" and in a way, that is a true. But it is exciting to see our son reading and even more enjoyable to see him develop a keen interest in learning. He points to the cards now because he wants to go through them with me.

i ordered this about one month ago and my daughter has been watching it for the past month. So far she has learned where her mouth, eyes, toes and arms are, arms up and down ... which i'm super excited about is whenever i ask her and she shows me where they are. I cant believe this actually works so far and btw my daughter just turned 1 and she's really starting to communicate more with her words now. I can say my daughter is a very active child, she's always moving around but when its time for the video she sits so still and anticipates. I think this video is pretty great so far but she did get a little bored towards the end of the month of watching the first video. She would walk away and look at the screen and repeat, i wasnt sure why she did that but as we started the second video last friday, again she was glued to the screen and didnt move an inch. She especially loves it when i get physical along with the video, like when the video says crawl, i get down on the floor and crawl, she cracks up. SO we'll see how far along she progresses at the end of the second video. There are 5 videos total. Also, i love the sliding word cards.. Its a card with a word on it and when you slide the card open, there's a picture of something that goes along with the word. Thats a must have for me.

I have been showing these dvds to my now 17 month old daughter for 4 weeks now, and she absolutely loves them. We're on to the 2nd dvd, started yesterday, and today for the 1st time she made a noise like a dog when she saw the word dog written down. I know it's working and am really excited to see how it develops. Wish I'd known about this system for my other kids.

My son has been watching this series of DVD's since he was 4 months old. He is now 2 1/2 and can read over 500 words. We stopped counting at 500! He can read any word we put in front of him. He knows his ABC's and can count to 100. He is also rapidly learning Spanish and German. I KNOW that it is because of these DVD's that he is so far advanced for his age. He often reads words that we didn't even know that he knew. These DVD's teach the pattern of reading and learning. I know that all children would benefit greatly from watching these DVD's. I recommend these DVD's to all parents! They are worth every penny!

This product will teach a child to MEMORIZE WHOLE WORD SHAPES, not individual phonetic letters and sounds. The ability to "read" will depend on how many words the child has MEMORIZED. This will not teach a child to spell or to sound a word out which is the most effective way to teach a child to read. If a child knows the alphabet SOUND he/she can spell out and read ANY word. As an Occupational Therapist I'm not surprized that so many children today cannot properly spell or read. Programs like this is the cause. There are MANY MANY FREE WEBSITES online (like Starfall) that will lay the PROPER GROUNDWORK FOR READING and SPELLING.

I am a Pediatric Physical Therapist of 17 years. I have 3 children of my own (age 13, 11, 7). DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!! All the therapists I work with (Occupational Therapists and Speech & Language Pathologists agree with me) We are all early intervention specialists - we only work with children age 0-3. The BEST thing you can do for your child to help him/her to read is to read to/with him/her - but the MOST IMPORTANT thing is to love them & let them PLAY - Let them work toward all their developmental milestones - rolling, crawling, pulling up to stand, cruising, walking, using their hands to feed themselves and explore - let them walk barefoot - let them feel different textures. THAT IS HOW THE BRAIN DEVELOPS naturally - They need to experience the world around them to develop their brains. THere is a reason we don't learn to read sooner. The brain just is not ready nor is it necessary for an infant to read. - Developmental milestones are all indicators of brain development. There is no reason to start stressing your baby to read before the brain is ready. If you notice a problem with language, behavior, or movement take them to your pediatrician and start early intervention services. AND use your resources to learn more about infant development & pediatric neurology. BABIES HAVE TO MOVE to develop their brains. Just sitting in front of note cards and in front of a DVD will not help them in the long run. Yes, he/she may learn some words and may even learn to read but it will be at the detriment of other skills he/she needs to develop to be successful in school and LIFE in the long run.
GOOD LUCK to everyone with your families. We all do the best we can for those that we love! (FYI, all my children learned to read fluently by age 4-5. My 13 & 11 year olds both get straight A's at a college prep high school- however, I am NOT a "grade fanatic". My 2nd grader is reading at a 4th grade level and has 4-5th grade math skills. None of my kids have behavioral issues).