There is a big difference between teaching a child to read, and getting them interested in books. If you read lots to your child and involve them in language as much as possible they will pick up some reading skills themselves. This is not teaching them to read.

The idea behind waiting until 7 is not to stop them from reading, but not to make it formal until then. As you say, learning through play, not through structured teaching.

Some children can read a bit before they reach school, some can't. Makes no difference in the grand scheme. A love of books does.

As a teacher I personally would not use this kind of programme. It is good for children to be exposed to language through looking at books with their parents but using methods like this contradicts the way that childen are taught in school. In the counties where they have the highest educational standards such as Scandinavian countries, reading is not taught until the age of seven because there is loads of evidence to suggest that a child's brain is developmentally best able to cope with it at that age. I am an English teacher so of course I am passionate about reading and writing but I won't be doing any of it with mine before they start school as it won't be helpful to them if I start teaching them using differnet methods from the ones theor school uses.

We're planning on doing our own too. Printing photos of animals for example after we have been to the zoo, then putting the name underneath.
That way she gets out and about, sees how the real animal looks rather than a cartoon version and at some stage she will remember the animal and see the word underneath therefore creating meaning.
I don't know anything about the OP's brand but I would say learning can be done very young as long as it's fun.

but thats not reading, its word association?

I dont think these programmes really teach kids to read they teach them to put words with pictures.

We play with flash cards which have the animals words on but i doubt it would help River ead any earlier

Just read my last post and realised it comes over as a bit judgemental, as a teacher I think it's great that parents are taking an interest in their children's education, it is so important. I just don't think this is the best way to go about it. I think it is best to keep formal learning until later.

^^ WSS. I am a trained English as a Second Language teacher (which is different than English Literature etc) and I don't see the need for it at all. I don't think it's harmful but I don't think it's necessary. I suppose it's no different than any other toy/game but I wouldn't expect anything from it.

I should mention though, as others have implied, that fostering a love of education is really the way to go. Some children have zero interest in books, some have very fond memories of books. That's really the way to go, IMO. Explicit language learning is not the path for babies and children (that's for adults really). Learning to love what they are doing and being immersed in an education-friendly environment is how they start to improve over time.

Children who come from homes where education is not encouraged or praised tend to do worse than those who do. Simple enough and straight forward. If this program is how you choose to do it, then by all means.

I totally agree with Aliss.

I used to think this was a good idea before I looked into it more. It doesn't actually teach a child to read in the traditional sense, they are moreso recognising a word and knowing what it is so it won't help them with learning to read anything new which hasn't been covered in the DVDs. It also teaches them in a far different way to how they will be taught to read at school. I have a few major problems with the system:

1. Toddlers and babies do not need to know how to read, it seems to me that it is a boasting point for parents. Children and toddlers need to learn through play and I wouldn't take time away from Aisling's play in order for her to do something like this. Better that she be out in the garden learning about plants and stones etc.

2. I have spoken to a number of primary school teachers who have said that children who use these systems are often the ones who struggle the most with learning how to read properly when they get to school. They are used to be able to read their books because they have a few select words learned by rote and get very very frustrated when it doesn't come as easily at school. Teachers have seen this leading to behavioural problems and children who very quickly lose a love of learning.

3. I think it's far more important to encourage children to enjoy books and have a passion for learning new things in a much more general sense than teaching them to read or to count or to tell time when they're so young. All of these things will come in time.

My overall opinion is that this will not give kids a head start, does not encourage a love of learning, may in fact hold them back and takes time away from learning as babies and toddlers should - through play - so what's the point? They'll be in education for years and years to come, lets let them be kids for now.

I do Doman reading with my children, which is similar to YBCR in that it is based on right brain learning. A year ago I wrote this brief review of the book "How to Teach Your Baby to Read":
Each session takes about 15-30 seconds and I do it after every meal time. Both children really enjoy it and the older one often asks to do more.

Critics of methods that teach whole-word reading argue that it merely teaches children to memorise and that they later have problems using phonics to decode new words. However, research has shown that if babies are taught many words at an early age then they can actually intuit phonics patterns and decode novel words without ever being taught how to do so. Proper phonics teaching often isn’t necessary until much later on when they learn how to write. There was a study where the children were shown the letters of the alphabet for the first time (they had only learnt whole words previously) and were able to name the sounds each letter made. They were then able to decode the sounds making up new words that they had never learnt. Whilst whole word reading needs to be combined with phonics learning for an older child, this may be unnecessary for a much younger child.

I'm a home educator who believes in the value of play and delaying formal learning until the age of seven, but I don't think that right brain reading programs are incompatible with this. I do think that the power of the human brain is extremely underestimated in today's society and that right brain learning is very much neglected in favour of left brain education.

Regarding YBCR itself, whilst I'm not a fan of TV for babies and toddlers at all, I think if it is used for short periods with parental interaction throughout rather than baby being left in front of the TV, then I don't see how it can possibly cause any harm.