When How To Teach Your Baby To Read by Glenn Doman was published in 1963, it introduced the bold concept that tiny children can not only learn to read, but in fact love to do so.
Reading, by definition, is the ability to recognize and understand written language, an ability that thousands of mothers have given their babies by using this book. To their surprise, they have simultaneously taught their babies to understand spoken language more quickly and easily.
It barely needs to be mentioned that babies learn English (or whatever their native tongue) by constant immersion in the speaking environment of that language. In time, words and phrases become familiar and are understood if they have been repeated often enough and loudly enough in meaningful situations.
Daily conversation is a haphazard method of teaching language, but it does work eventually through sheer repetition. A baby's vocabulary grows simply through exposure to his language.
Mothers who teach their babies to read, however, greatly improve upon the random and disorganized way in which language is acquired. Reading words must be presented loudly and clearly to insure that they arrive in the brain for storage. The message is reinforced when it goes simultaneously down two pathways–the visual and the auditory pathways.
When Mother carries out an organized reading program, reading words are presented two or three times on the same day for four or five days consecutively, therefore language is no longer random and left to chance. And because the brain is such a highly organized organ, this orderly approach allows language to be learned with great speed and efficiency.
As the reading program expands from words to phrases to sentences and to books, the baby's vocabulary likewise expands in both quantity and sophistication.
When familiar messages and daily routines are written and presented in large print, they reinforce the spoken words. Homemade books illustrated with colorful drawings or photographs of actual experiences further clarify and strengthen language.
Mothers regularly report that their children's spoken vocabulary has developed in direct relationship to their reading program. Teaching couplets encourages the tiny child to use couplets in expressing himself. Later, this same phenomenon occurs with phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.
Once a baby has enjoyed many words, phrases, sentences, and books about his environment, Mother can enrich his vocabulary by teaching descriptive terms and adding more exotic information.
Whereas Mother's own creative imagination provided ideas for words and books about daily life, some basic reference books can help her to reach the next level in developing her child's vocabulary. A thesaurus is an excellent source for this purpose.
By looking up a specific word in a thesaurus, one will find a list of several words that have the same meaning but are less commonly used in everyday speech. With this new information, an old homemade book can be revitalized by replacing the ordinary "Tony eats breakfast" with "Tony consumes breakfast" or "Tony ingests breakfast." Or, an entirely new book can be created for the specific purpose of using extraordinary language. In this way, a child's vocabulary expands, as does Mom's and Dad's!
Ideally, every baby should have two reading programs, beginning at a very young age. One is created exclusively for him, using large print and a limited number of words on a page to promote independent reading. The other, just as valuable in developing both spoken and written language, is to read to him from the world's enormous library of adventure, drama, poetry, and prose.
Poetry is particularly good to read to a child, as the language has been chosen especially for its beauty. There are many fine collections of poetry. Some are by individual poets, such as A Child's Garden of Verse by Robert Louis Stevenson. Others are collected anthologies of many poets, such as those edited by Louis Untermeyer. In addition, beautifully illustrated versions of Shakespeare's sonnets are eloquent treasures of the English language that a child will be sure to enjoy for many years.
By regularly reading classical literature to a child, using selections beyond his own reading ability, a parent will stimulate his enjoyment, imagination, and understanding of the vast and beautiful language of his culture, both written and spoken.
When choosing what to read to a child, it's a good idea to use guidelines such as reading several works by an individual author, several selections of a certain type of genre (fiction, poetry, short stories), classics written in a specific period of history, or literature from a specific part of the world.
Hearing such sophisticated selections will enhance a child's independent reading while developing his language. Parents will discover that teaching a child to read and reading to a child is the most dynamic language program possible.
by Susan Aisen, Director
The Institute for the Achievement of Intellectual Excellence
