Relationship admin  

Glenn Doman’s Truth – Babies Can Read

In truth, Glenn Doman upset the academic world back in the 70s since he broke with the paradigms that established and predetermined that learning was promoted by “the one who is taught, and not the one who learns.” It is important to note that he innovated by showing that the baby, once assisted by the mother, could have access to knowledge much earlier than had been accepted in the past. Some preconceived notions, such as the following, have been broken to enable early reading and literacy and we will discuss here how this was achieved, by parents, for the good of their babies.

Preconceived notion #1 – Parents should not stimulate their babies.

or How have you broken with this?

When the child arrives at school, he has already gone through a whole world of experiences, of being exposed to the technological and informational society (visual pollution). Parents are teaching their babies to talk, to look, to walk, and to listen. The brain learns what it sees, hears, smells, and feels. With each passing day, the baby builds knowledge of the culture in which he is immersed.

Today’s society provides stimuli through the colors and size of advertisements, through television and the desire to sell products for profit. Families have access to the media, and almost all homes have a computer, television, telephone, among other products that communicate without asking who the communication is directed to, whether or not they are authorized to do so. In this context, babies are stimulated. It is the role of the parents to manage what can be shown to them. If parents do not care what stimuli the baby may be exposed to, then society goes beyond the privacy of the home, determining what must be learned. Therefore, it is the initial responsibility of the parents to solve the problem. It is not up to the State, nor to the institutions with teaching powers, to decide who and what stimulates the brain.

Preconceived notion #2 – Parents should not force their babies, robbing them of their childhood while teaching them like teachers

or How have you broken with this?

Teaching babies to read is not and has never been a reason to “lose” childhood. Reading time consists of quality moments of joy, play and enjoyment between parents and babies. The baby learns by affection, and therefore by wanting to play the game of reading. Stealing a childhood is, for example, leaving children in front of the television without activities that develop their imagination, that is, without giving them the opportunity to participate in creative games.

Preconceived notion #3 – It is not the parents who teach, but the schools

or How have you broken with this?

Schools can no longer teach our children. There are difficulties in bringing knowledge, innovations and information from the community into the classroom at the same rate as it happens outside the school system. It is about updating the amount of information that is given in real life, in real time.

In addition, work identifying gifted/disposition-specific children shows that stimuli in the home environment promote giftedness in ‘gifted’. Children already come to school with talents and dispositions developed in environments enriched by inhabiting by parents. Teaching at home shows that it is possible to develop teaching outside of school. After all, there are many parents in different countries with more time and better preparation than many of the teachers in both public and private school systems. With such a realization and in the desire to provide them with the best opportunities as soon as possible, parents can teach their babies to read.

Preconceived notion #4 – The child should learn only when he is ready. Every precious stimulus is harmful.

or How have you broken with this?

Once again, a preconceived idea underestimated the baby’s capabilities. Why only those who show talent in music or sports can be stimulated early? When is it, then, that the child is ready? What possible point of reference in terms of social levels, countries, communities? Who determines when to teach? Only the curiosity of the child. Parents need to be aware of when; the moments. But much more than that, they have to try and see how easy it is to teach a baby to read.

Once preconceived notions are overcome, we begin to witness that the baby can and does much more than our small capacity to understand the human brain, as well as what it will be able to do in the future. After all, do we believe in evolution or not?

Glen Doman was a visionary. We pay our respects to you. If I have witnessed the miracle of reading as a baby through the development of my own children, I believe that all babies born in the last century – and will be born in this one – can do the same.

Here is the baby revolution! In the search for peace and solutions to world problems, and in favor of all men and women, may this be the end of the era of Jurassic illiteracy.

After exposing these four key preconceived notions, and the discussion above, we can state that:

1 – The baby can learn at home with the parents;

2 – The baby learns without understanding the reading rules because he learns while playing; and the brain is open to learning the word because it already knows the concept;

3 – The words are shown and the brain learns through the construction of mental schemes, structures that will be used throughout their lives;

4 – In this process there is no training, because it is not possible to “train” a baby. It is he/she who learns.

5 – The baby understands and identifies what he sees. His knowledge of his world is relative to his knowledge of the world he built. He is not ours!;

6 – A baby, when reading a word, identifies and recognizes it;

7 – Parents should stimulate their babies before the community without responsibility does;

8 – In this process, they are not stealing the baby’s childhood; instead, they are guaranteeing that it is preserved through play, in the development of creativity and enjoyment in a teaching-learning relationship;

9 – Yes, parents teach. They can teach. It is the primary duty. Having a child is not simply feeding, housing and caring. It is helping to build a healthy knowledge of the world. For the future. The schools come to help us socialize the child and promote the updating of all the necessary contents for life in society; and

10 – Let’s not underestimate the ability of babies to build knowledge of the world, in their own way and as soon as they can.

Translation by: Inessa Leao Figueiredo, MS.

Leave A Comment