Your Baby Can't Read

On July 16, 2012 I watched a segment of the Today Showcalled "Your Baby Can't Read," in which reporter Jeff Rossen confronts the creator of the "Your Baby Can Read" products, Dr Robert Titzer, with expert opinions that his claims are false.[1]

I've raised two children and have a third on the way. I know from my limited exposure to child language acquisition (as part of linguistics, teaching, and watching my own children grow) that babies can't read and are simply not wired that early to do what it seems to adult ears they are doing.

(We do the same thing when we layer human context over animal behavior. Eg, what looks like a response to language must be comprehension: "I asked my dog if she wanted to go outside and she ran to the door, so she must understand English.")

We all badly want to believe some things some times, and we'll appeal to ritual, fortune tellers, or mainstream optimists like Dr Wayne Dyer or Dr Norman Vincent Peale.

You know what you know. Trust your instincts. Wanting something to be so doesn't make it so. But that won't stop you or me from wanting, sometimes so painfully we would rather cease to exist than live without what we most desire.

Most contentment is really acceptance, and most acceptance is resignation painted with a smile. None of that is easy. It's hard work.

Wingdings and silk.[2]

 

[1]
This is Dr Titzer. His company has since gone out of business.

What is the one most important thing you can do to make your baby into a reader? Talk to them from day one and read to them early and often, beyond the time they can read to themselves. I have heard this repeatedly from reputable sources.

The TV won't work, whether it's PBS or snake oil like "Your Baby Can Read." We have to do the talking.

[2]
To devise proverbs requires painful thinking. (Sirach 13:26b)

 

Started: 2012-07-16