So I finally bit the bullet and decided to buy the Glenn Doman flash card kits for reading, math and something else called “Bits of Intelligence”. Yes, it was a hefty investment but I reckon it is a small price to pay if it can help instill a lifelong love for learning in my children. Since they are going to have to spend the rest of their lives learning, it makes sense to start them off correctly.
At two months, Gareth is still unable to focus sufficiently to begin the proper program. The kits contain black and white “visual stimulation cards” which are designed to help babies focus. From the reading kit, there is a series of some thirty visual stimulation cards of black and white images such as a fish, a square, a star, etc. One card is shown to your baby ten times a day and a new card is introduced each day.
The math kit comes with twenty black and white dot cards. The dots are larger than the dots on the red dot cards. These are intended to stimulate your baby’s vision. Similar to the black and white images from the reading kit, you are supposed to show your infant one black and white dot card a day – ten times.
By the time your child reaches three months, you can begin the reading and math programs.
Reading Program – Part 1
Begin with five words from three categories. For instance, the categories might be “parts of the body”, “fruits and vegetables”, and “family members”. So in total, you would have fifteen words. Flash the cards to your baby once through and that is considered one session. You must allow at least 15 minutes to lapse before flashing the cards again. In one day, you should have three sessions.
By the end of the fifth day, retire one card from each category and replace it with a new word from each respective category. From the fifth day onwards, continue to retire one word from each category and adding a new word until you have finished introducing all the new words. Before flashing the cards, always make sure you shuffle them to change the order of the cards to prevent your child memorising the cards by their order.
Math Program – Part 1
Begin with the first five dot cards – numbers 1 to 5 on day one. Flash them once, three times a day. On the second day, introduce another five dot cards – numbers 6 to 10. By the fifth day, retire two numbers and add another two numbers. Continue until you have introduced numbers 1 to 100. Again, it is important to shuffle the cards each time before flashing the cards to your baby.
In between sessions, play with your baby, read to him and engage in other activities. Currently, I’ve interspersed the sessions with physical exercises for Gareth and reading storybooks for Gavin.
With Gavin starting the program so late, I find that I can only get through one session with him a day. Since it is important to follow your child’s lead and not force the lessons, I’ve decided that in this case, less is more. If all we can do each day is only one session, then at least that’s better than none. Whether that will be enough for him to pick up, we’ll see. At the end of the day, I want Gavin to find learning fun – not a chore.
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Hi Shen Li, I stumbled upon your blog while researching for early childhood education. Thanks for generously sharing your experiences! I’m keen to start the Glenn Doman reading and maths program for my 12-mth old son. Where can I buy these materials and how much do they cost?
Hi Su – I bought mine from Glenn Doman Baby:
http://www.glenndomanbaby.com.my/home.html
They are located in Heritage Village near The Mines. You don’t have to visit them there, you can just contact them and ask to purchase their products. They can deliver to your door.
Alternatively, I’ve also seen the products at “Blue Dot Baby” in Bangsar Village 1. Prices are quite steep though. The reading kit was about RM1700 and the math kit about RM1k.
Hi Shen-Li,
Regarding Doman’s reading program, can I show my baby picture card instead of word card?
Cheng Boon – yes you can. However, according to Doman, they should be shown separately. I.e. show the word card first. Then show the picture card after. Do not show a flash card with both word and picture on it because the picture draws the attention of the child away from the word.
For very young children, I think pictures are essential because a lot of words might have no meaning to them if they have never encountered them before and do not know what they mean.
Thanks Shen-Li.
HI
I am a bit confused about teaching reading by this method. Can someone help me out please?
When starting to read books, every book should be checked for new words, those should be made into cards and “flashed” before starting with the book. Since, in my understanding, babies learn from cards to read whole words – if I taught my baby words “eating” and “sleeping” (for example) would words “eats”, “ate”, “eaten” “sleeps” , “slept” etc. be separate words and need to be taught separately? What about other languages where there’s a lot of conjugations and word changes with gender, time and lots of other things? (like French and Russian for example) Or is it expected that babies/toddlers will figure those out by themselves?
Also – can I teach Mandarin via Flash cards if I don’t speak Mandarin (I am scared that my pronunciation attempts will be very bad and baby will remember those, rendering all of it useless, rather then the correct version), if so – any tips please.
Thanks a lot!
Hi Katja,
I have found that it is actually not necessary to put everything onto flash cards. If you have already completed the Doman program, you can just continue reading the books to your child. Your child intuits the rules – e.g. eat, eats, eating, eaten; sleep, sleeps, sleeping, slept. The more exposure to written words you give your child, the faster your child will learn. If your child is repeating back to you and reads incorrectly, or uses the incorrect word, just gently correct and move on.
My other languages experiences have not been good. I use Little Chinese for teaching another language because I don’t know how to pronounce. I think if you cannot speak the language yourself, it is important to get a native speaker to teach it or at least use a recording that you can copy rather than you trying to figure out how to pronounce the words and pronouncing them incorrectly. Your child will learn what you teach – pronunciation and all.
Hope that helps.
Hi Shen Li,
may i know is there any Glenn Doman Programm carried out in any center or kindergarten in Malaysia??
Hi Khailing,
Yes there is. It is called The Curious Academy. We wrote about it here:
http://figur8.net/baby/2012/10/14/pre-school-glenn-doman-the-curious-academy/