Dr. Titzer’s Response to the Baby Einstein Articles

Why is it that so many people are taking an all or none view on baby DVDs? The content varies so dramatically among the various baby DVDs that this approach is not a logical approach. If one looks at the variety of different baby videos, it is easy to see that most are passive, entertainment-based DVDs designed to occupy the baby in a fun way while the parent is busy.

I have been an infant researcher and educator for more than 15 years now and I would not suggest showing these types of videos to babies and toddlers. I believe that in order for a DVD to be helpful for babies and toddlers, all of the following conditions must be met:

1) The DVDs must be interactive — not passive.

2) The DVDs must be multi-sensory. In other words, what the babies see and hear should go together logically. In addition, babies and toddlers should be encouraged to say words and do physical actions related to what they are seeing and hearing. This multi-sensory approach is very important because infants and toddlers have tens of thousands of new synapses forming every second. Many of these new connections go from the visual cortex to the auditory cortex and to and from the somatosensory cortex, if the babies do some action. Many of the baby DVDs actually show infants visual images while playing sounds (usually classical music) that do not go with those images. This means that the new synapses would not go together in a logical way.

3) The DVDs must teach the children something of lasting value. If you watch many of the baby videos, you will see that there is very little content of any value to the baby besides an entertainment value.

4) The DVDs should be designed to teach babies language skills. The videos mentioned in the recent study have very little spoken or written language. There are only a few dozen spoken words in most of those videos compared to hundreds or even thousands of words in some other baby videos.

While I was studying infant development at Indiana University, my first daughter was only a baby. I did not like any of the video options that were available at that time, because they were too passive and did not teach enough language skills, so I designed a video that would teach her receptive, spoken, and written language while she was at the babysitter’s house. The Your Baby Can Read! videos are designed to be interactive, multi-sensory, educational, and language-rich — all of these factors would be more likely to increase a child’s vocabulary.

In the recent study that was released, it stated that babies learned fewer words watching Brainy Baby and Baby Einstein videos, the study was actually a telephone survey for both the TV viewing time and the number of words that the child knew. I am not surprised that babies who only watched entertainment videos would score lower on verbal scores. These videos have very few spoken words, so watching them would give the children fewer opportunities to learn words compared to children who were watching videos with more language or who were doing other learning activities besides watching TV. It is also important to realize that this study could not have shown a causal relationship due to the way it was conducted. It does not show that watching those videos caused their vocabularies to be lower.

A considerable amount of research shows that infants and toddlers have a natural window of opportunity for learning language. While most of the other baby videos have little language in them, our Your Baby Can Read! DVDs are actually designed to teach the babies and toddlers written, spoken, and receptive language.

• Studies show the earlier the child is taught to read, the better the child reads.

• Studies show that the earlier the child is taught to read the more likely the child actually wants to read.

• The gap between the early readers and the later readers tends to increase over time, showing the long-term effects of early reading.

• Lower IQ children tend to benefit the most from learning to read early.

• We have many thousands of parents who have written us notes telling us how well their babies and toddlers are reading after watching our videos.

• My daughter, Aleka, who was the first person to watch our DVDs, is now 16 years old. She has already graduated from high school with 50 college credits from her AP classes. She still loves to read and reads at an extremely high level. Her little sister, Keelin, is on the same path.

Baby DVDs can be used as a great learning tool — especially if the parents watch the DVDs with their babies and interact with their babies appropriately.

Dr. Bob Titzer

Dr. Titzer’s Trip to Detroit and Canada

Dear Parents,

I just returned from a quick trip to Toronto and Detroit. In Toronto, I appeared on two TV shows, Breakfast TV and Rogers TV. More than 200 people attended my Early Learning Workshop. The talk was moved from the Baby Land store to a larger location which then filled to capacity. I was already invited to return there and they want to find a larger venue. Elina, the owner of Baby Land, used our DVDs to teach her baby to read. She is so interested in spreading the word to other families about our products that she has TVs showing “Your Baby Can Read!” throughout her store.

One of my former students from Indiana University, Stefan Terpack, set up a talk for me at the Clarenceville High School Auditorium near Detroit. The audience was primarily school administrators and teachers as well as many preschool teachers. The interest level was high there for trying to help families in the school district to be proactive about education. On a personal level, it was exciting for me to see a former student using our program. It was nice to spend time with Stefan and his wife and baby. Their cute 16-month-old baby can read more than 100 words!

Dr. Titzer

Winner of the YBCR Best Video!

Sophie From CA Can Read!
This is a video clip of Sophie reading words at 17 months. When Sophie was 16 months old, we found a Your Baby Can Read! (YBCR) video at the library and checked it out. I remember hearing about the series when I was pregnant but laughed at the thought that babies could actually read. The amazing thing is, babies sure can read!!!

Sophie immediately loved YBCR. Her face would light up as soon as the music from the video started. She seems to like the children and the singing in the series. But at the same time, she’s learning written words. It was fun to watch her respond to questions asked in the video, for example, “Can you touch your nose?” and attempt to motion, “Eentsy Weentsy Spider.”

I think it’s great that she can interact while watching television. The video was due after we renewed once already, so we bought the whole series for her that included the sliding flash cards. Within a month she was reading 10+ words and shocking all our friends and family. Her grandmas and grandpas think Sophie’s the smartest thing in the world. My sister told me that I should contact one of the television network news stations to let them know that Sophie can read. Then I told my sister that babies even younger than Sophie can also read and to check out www.yourbabycan.com. We don’t realize what our little ones are capable of and how much they love learning at this age. Sophie loves it when we sit with her and give her a “quiz” with the sliding flash cards. We’re so proud of her and can tell that she is proud of herself too.

Now when we’re waiting for our food at restaurants we spend the time with either a magna-doodle or the crayons and the paper place mat they give to us and write out words for Sophie to read while we wait. She has a blast and others around us tell us that we better save our money because little Sophie is heading to Harvard. We’re just glad she loves reading and learning this early on and believe she’s got a great head start.

When I took Sophie to her 18-month check-up, her pediatrician nearly fell out of her seat when she found out Sophie could read. Her doctor started writing words for her that I had not practiced with her on flash cards but Sophie was able to recognize them and read them to my amazement. After we posted the above video clip on our personal blog, tons of our friends called or emailed to ask questions about YBCR and now have all pretty much bought the series themselves. I can’t stop telling new moms about this great program. Sophie is now 20 months old and will now point out words in books that we read to her and say, “dog, cat, eyes, giraffe, gorilla, book, and etc.” Soon she’ll be reading the books to us!!!

Thanks YBCR!

Dave, Alice and Sophie

Jasmin From Singapore Can Read!

My daughter’s name is Jasmin Long. Currently, she’s 17.5 months old. The video was taken when she was 10 months old.I started showing her Your Baby Can Read! Starter DVD at 4 months. But I only let her watch the DVD twice a week. I know the recommended watching schedule is like twice a day, but I was trying to limit the time she spent watching TV because at 4 months, still very young! Initially, she wasn’t really keen, always distracted by her surroundings. She was only interested in the music/songs, whereby she would immediately stop whatever she was doing to watch the song/’music video’.

To encourage her interest, I would sit beside her and watch with her, and read out the words to her, and do the actions as well। I would also sing along to the songs, do the actions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Your Baby Can Read DVD was essential in kick-starting Jasmin’s learning process and right now at 17.5 months, she can understand about 80% of the content in the Review DVD, and she has an avid interest in looking at books and words, even though she can’t understand the words. She would hold my own storybooks or even newspaper up, in an action, like she knows what she’s reading, and even turn the pages! Like an adult!

Since then, I’ve purchased countless DVDs for Jasmin, because only when she is watching something that she is interested in, I can have a ten or fifteen minute break to do my own stuff. I’m a stay at home mom, looking after her full-time by myself. Out of all the DVDs she has, I must say, Your Baby Can Read DVDs come up tops in terms of educational content and learning aid.

Carlie’s Story

I have a MAD passion for teaching babies to read. When I taught my daughter Sarah (now 27), I was utterly amazed that she could actually read at about 9 months. Sarah, for some reason, was more advanced than her daughter Carlie and, at 15 months, Sarah could pick out any of a hundred words for you that we had in a box. Carlie’s not at that stage yet. When Sarah first started to speak a lot, at about 16 months, she read the words for us, saying them for the first time as she read them. Sarah had read well over 100 books by age 5. At age 7 she placed 3rd in a spelling bee. The winner was 12. When tested for her spelling level in a private school at 8 years old, she shocked the teachers by not misspelling any of the words on the test, so she did not take spelling after that. As I said, Sarah now attends UCLA School of Law. She finished her undergraduate work at UCLA with close to a 3.8 GPA.

We started Carlie on word cards at 4 1/2 months and she could recognize the word GRANDPA on my shirt at that age. Testing babies is delicate because they don’t like the pressure and they don’t think it’s a big deal to prove they can read, so it’s hard to tell what they can do in the first few months of teaching. By 9 months or so Carlie would consistently pick out the right word when asked to choose from two words. We started her on the Your Baby Can Read DVDs at 11 months and she could not get enough of them. It has added probably 100 new words to her reading vocabulary. Now, at 15 months, she’s seen probably 200 or more words and she knows 10 dog breeds, 15 bird species, 15 musical instruments, MANY animals and we are working on her alphabet and U.S. presidents. The more she learns the more basic knowledge she has to build on.

I have always been amazed that parents do NOT use this. It is ridiculously easy and the kids just love it.

Thanks YBCR!

The Your Baby Can Read! program has been the best starter reading program our home schooling. It is easily adjusted to fit our children’s varying learning styles. Best of all no one feels left out of “school time”, even our four month-old is included. Everyone thinks our children have advanced abilities for their age…I am quick to set them straight and share that reading at their age is available for everyone!! Dr. Bob’s program has given our family a wonderful start with schooling, thanks Y.B.C.R.!!”

Erin

Emily Can Read!

We started using the program when she was three months old. She has always enjoyed watching the DVDs and at about eight months, we realized she could actually read some words. We printed up some flash cards of the words on each DVD & began showing them to her as well. At first she could only communicate that she new the word by touching a body part, but as she grew older she began to say the words.

The best thing about the program, is that Emily now loves to read. She always asks for us to read to her & loves pointing out & saying words that she recognizes in books. She is now learning new words that are not in the program, just by reading books with us.

We are so pleased that Emily loves to read, it will enable her to enjoy her future education.

Cheers

Richard, Rebecca & Emily

Great items just for baby

by: Julie Janovsky
East Valley Tribune

Tribune Spoiling babies is big business. We’re reminded of that daily at the Tribune as we attempt to sort out what’s hot and what’s not for East Valley parents looking for the latest trends for their tykes.

Designed as an early language development system for children ages 3 months to 5 years, the “Your Baby Can Read” program teaches through interactive multisensory techniques. The DVD set includes word cards, songs, poems and word games designed to broaden a child’s learning experience. Selling for $79.95, it’s available at www.yourbabycan.com; (877) 881-7323.

School program tackles early reading problems

(February 15, 2007) — Cassie Collins knew her son, Cameron, would struggle with reading in school. He was diagnosed with phonological awareness disorder, which affects a child’s ability to develop easily understood speech by age 4 and alters his aptitude to read and spell.

“Cameron didn’t have any confidence in himself because he knew he wasn’t good at reading,” said Collins of Churchville. “Even though we explained that every child has problems with different things, it didn’t make him feel any better.”

Then he entered the Jumpstart program, a new initiative started this fall by the Churchville-Chili Central School District to intercede with early reading intervention.

…There are no such things as a lost cause,” she said. “Especially if you grab them while they’re young, even if they are behind, we can take care of them. But if we don’t know what is wrong, then we can’t figure it out.”

Click here to read the article.

Hearing spoken language at an early age “promotes the development of speech..”

Newborns tend to enjoy looking at pictures of the human face, according to Drs. Stephen Herb and Sara Willoughby-Herb, PhDs, in their book Using Children’s Books in Preschool Settings. At this age, parents can “choose a few books that baby likes and reread them regularly.”

In addition, young infants “can really see vivid colors” and may like books that reflect that preference, says Sherry Wong, director of product strategy at the Talaris Research Institute in Seattle. The institute communicates research on early childhood development to parents.
Developmentally, hearing spoken language at an early age “promotes the development of speech centers in the brain,” allowing a baby to discriminate among and recognize different sounds, says Dr. Bob Stevens, PhD, associate professor of educational psychology at Penn State University. This “phonemic awareness” can help kids better understand a wide range of vocabulary words as they grow older.

Click here to read the entire article here: