There has been a lot of debate recently about parents who begin to educate their babies at such an early age.
While they are hoping to set their children up to succeed in our ever-competitive world, some argue that over-stressing babies by teaching them to read and do math actually has an adverse effect on them later in life.
This article looks further into the issue...
A quick look on YouTube and you can find quite a few videos of toddlers clumsily putting letters together and reading out a few words.
Teaching from a very young age, a baby in fact, seems to be a growing trend among parents who are concerned about giving their children the best possible start in their lives.
A product currently being sold in Australia, 'Your Baby Can Read' is evidence of this new fad even though the company that originally produced the product has been taken to court over making 'Deceptive expert endorsements'.
The product is also being used in certain childcare centres across the country and involves using flash cards and showing videos to babies to help them get a head start in learning to read.
''You can train babies, like you can train a dog, to respond to certain words, but why would you want to do that? Reading is not about memory.
It's an intellectual process, it's about understanding, and these kinds of programs are not based on the principles of early learning," says Bridie Raban, honorary professor of early childhood development at the University of Melbourne.
According to Bridie, time spent on such products would be better spent on communicating, talking, singing and socialising with children.
Although the child may learn to 'read' at an early age, their reading would not be linked with understanding and it risks pressuring the child when the natural way for them to learn is through play and socialisation.
Exposing young children to television screens has also been shown to be counter-productive in some experiments with it being linked to sleep disturbances, delayed language acquisition, poor school performance and obesity.
The question is how natural a teaching method is teaching to read for children? Children have their own natural means and methods to learn and this is mostly through play and curiosity.
Would forcing a child to sit uncomfortably and attempt to focus their minds on a boring page be beneficial when their minds naturally move about and they concentrate on many things in a short period, learning through their natural curiosity and excitement? Such educational programmes are still a hot topic for debate, but perhaps the best way to educate babies and children is via engaging play and socialisation and not over-pressuring and stressing them into situations they are uncomfortable in.
While they are hoping to set their children up to succeed in our ever-competitive world, some argue that over-stressing babies by teaching them to read and do math actually has an adverse effect on them later in life.
This article looks further into the issue...
A quick look on YouTube and you can find quite a few videos of toddlers clumsily putting letters together and reading out a few words.
Teaching from a very young age, a baby in fact, seems to be a growing trend among parents who are concerned about giving their children the best possible start in their lives.
A product currently being sold in Australia, 'Your Baby Can Read' is evidence of this new fad even though the company that originally produced the product has been taken to court over making 'Deceptive expert endorsements'.
The product is also being used in certain childcare centres across the country and involves using flash cards and showing videos to babies to help them get a head start in learning to read.
''You can train babies, like you can train a dog, to respond to certain words, but why would you want to do that? Reading is not about memory.
It's an intellectual process, it's about understanding, and these kinds of programs are not based on the principles of early learning," says Bridie Raban, honorary professor of early childhood development at the University of Melbourne.
According to Bridie, time spent on such products would be better spent on communicating, talking, singing and socialising with children.
Although the child may learn to 'read' at an early age, their reading would not be linked with understanding and it risks pressuring the child when the natural way for them to learn is through play and socialisation.
Exposing young children to television screens has also been shown to be counter-productive in some experiments with it being linked to sleep disturbances, delayed language acquisition, poor school performance and obesity.
The question is how natural a teaching method is teaching to read for children? Children have their own natural means and methods to learn and this is mostly through play and curiosity.
Would forcing a child to sit uncomfortably and attempt to focus their minds on a boring page be beneficial when their minds naturally move about and they concentrate on many things in a short period, learning through their natural curiosity and excitement? Such educational programmes are still a hot topic for debate, but perhaps the best way to educate babies and children is via engaging play and socialisation and not over-pressuring and stressing them into situations they are uncomfortable in.
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