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From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Early reading programs
Message-ID: <612@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Nov-83 11:45:06 EST
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.612
Posted: Thu Nov 17 11:45:06 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Nov-83 01:50:02 EST
References: cbosgd.583, <329@sytek.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Lines: 29

I think some of you are probably getting the wrong idea about these
"flash cards".  When we say "flash cards", most of you probably are
thinking of rote drill, with lots of testing. ("What does this say?
Good!  What does this say?  No, try again.")  This isn't what we're
doing.  Doman points out that babies love to learn and absorb information,
but they hate to be tested.  So we just convey information, over and
over (but for short periods of time) and assume they absorb it.  There
is a little testing to make sure they aren't totally lost, but it's
kept to a minimum.

Sample math lesson: we have 100 cards (11x11 inch) each with n large
3/4 inch red dots (n from 1 to 100, one number per card).  A lesson
might use 10 cards, e.g. we're on 1-10 now.  Show baby 1 card long
enough to say "this is one" (about a second), then go to the next
card "this is two", ..., "this is ten".  Then play with baby for two
minutes, doing things you both really enjoy.  Lesson is over.  This
is repeated 3 times per day, and after a week you increase the bounds
(day 6 is 2..11, day 7 is 3..12, etc.)  After a couple of weeks you
hold up two cards (say 5 and 8) and say "Show me eight".  Baby points
out the proper card.  No speech involved - a one year old can't speak
very well.  Eventually, the book claims, we will be able to say "How
much is 37 plus 26 divided by 21" and baby will select the proper card.

There is no question that, by overemphasizing early reading and math
skills, it would be possible to turn the child into a bore and deprive
him of the fun part of being a child.  We're not about to do this -
these lessons take up less than a half hour per day (spread thorughout
the day) and the rest of the time is spent having fun and doing normal
child kinds of things.