I was thinking about making up flash cards for my wee girl (one and half years old next month) like my parents did for my sisters and I.
First off, I reckoned it was better to start sooner, babies being like sponges mentally. Secondly, and more importantly, what pronounciation is best if I’m making up cards with the alphabet on them. Is it better to rhyme off the letters as they would be pronounced as part of a word (ah, buh, chuh etc, apologies for the crap phonetics) or as they traditionally are repeated (ah, bee, cee, dee etc) Cites welcome.
This sounds like you want to try “hothousing” which as I understand it is now regarded as worse than useless. You might want to check out this column on the subject that I asked before my son was born.
Also, if you haven’t already, don’t waste your money on that Baby Einstein crap.
Thanks for the link, seems we just need to pretty much keep on doing what we’re doing, reading to our little one. Handy that she seems keen on books, I’ve now learned off by heart “Each Peach, Pear Plum”
A time-honored way (which has been shown to be strongly beneficial) of introducing children to the concept of the alphabet is simply to read to them out of books they find interesting. As they sit on your lap and look at the pictures, they become curious about those marks on the page, and the rest tends to follow.
When the time is right, you might also consider signing — exactly as kids do who have hearing problems—start maybe around 8-10 months.
My daughter has been doing this with her twins for awhile now (they’re currently 19 months) and it really helps them communicate. Like their Daddy was when he was a baby, the twins are slow talkers, but they sign very well.
Recently one of them went to his mom and signed for “diaper.” Mom figured a wet diaper but when she investigated it turns out the diaper had become unattached.
When the kids want more of something, they don’t utter squeals, or whimper, or whatever; they sign for “more.” I could list any number of signings, but I won’t. Experience them yourselves— you and your spouse, Pushkin.
There are two DVDs you might want to investigate.
Scroll down to see the Two-Fer.
There’s a third, called, “Baby Babble” is also worth investigating. Not as good as the other two, perhaps, but certainly infinitely better than the Baby Einstein horse manure mentioned earlier.
We have friends who are both deaf. They can only sign. They have triplets who are less than 4 years old. The three of them have already learned sign language, English and Spanish. When they were visiting here, they signed for their parents, spoke Spanish to our friends and spoke English to me. Simply wonderful I think!
Dunno how true it really is, but I once heard a linguist say that there is no demonstrated limit to the number of “cradle” languages a child can master. Apparently there are cases of babies learning a dozen or more.
While I don’t think flashcards will do a whole lot of good, I don’t think they’re necessarily bad, either. *Anything *you enjoy doing that gets you interacting with your baby is better than the folks who just stick 'em in front of the tv all afternoon and walk away.
Lately, I’ve been taking my 2 year old on weed walks - we walk around the neighborhood looking for medicinal plants. Do I really think she’s going to absorb all this and be a plant prodigy? No, not really. But it gets us out of the house, it keeps me talking, it gives us a focus and a plan, and it helps me review my plant I.D. And, I have to admit, it is gratifying when she points and says, “Mama! Pan-tan fo’ ouch!” (Plantain for ouch - plantain leaf is good for skin abrasions, stings and sunburn.)
But I like her alphabet song even more than mine. Hers goes, “A B E E DoupleP…”!
My kids are in the midst of elementary school now, and there seems to be one thing that distinguishes the best readers from the rest of the pack: Their families place a high value on reading, have read to the kids since they were babies, and make time for reading every day, if possible.
So, in my experience, time with babies would be much better spent with the kid in your lap looking at a cool picture book. She’ll learn the alphabet when she needs it.
Of course there are lots, of cool alphabet books out there, as well.
