Teach babies to read?

One of the most influential pedagogues of school renovation is Maria Montessori, the first woman who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Italy. She was interested in children with learning difficulties, those who were then called ‘retarded’. When working with them she realized that there were so many things that could be done to improve their learning. From an early age she taught them through the senses, sight, touch, hearing. Her results were impressive to such an extent that some of the ‘retarded’ children began to perform like normal children. As a result, Dr. Montessori came to the conclusion that healthy children were not even given a small percentage of what their potential could develop. Montessori’s schools were implemented throughout Europe quickly. With her methodology, children normally learn to read words at four years of age.

Sixty years later, another doctor, Glenn Doman, treated children with brain injuries. In the 60s he founded an institute for the Achievement of Human Potential which produced magnificent results of improvement and recovery through a treatment program. For Glenn Doman children had an extraordinary curiosity and ability to learn. The soon as they begin walking they touch everything they have around them, they put everything in their mouths, they break or they push objects, they fall over, put their fingers in the socket ... Their curiosity is hard because we have to watch them all the time to prevent them from getting hurt… However if we value this great curiosity and naturally encourage it at the right times, they will benefit from it.

So, what is the Doman method? It is a method of learning to read designed to be used by parents who apply it naturally, fun, as a game. The methodology involves the use of cards that are shown to the child several times a day, in short periods of time and in series of 10 stimuli. This is how to boost learning by stimulating and optimising the curiosity and desire to learn from babies. It is based on the idea of intelligence bits, which are units of information that the child can understand and assimilate. Based on this idea, the baby can learn to relate the letters without needing to know the alphabet, because he understands the concept itself and associates it with the word. It is essential that the activity be lived as a fun and communicative game. In his book, How to teach your baby to read, Glenn Doman explains all the steps and how the parents themselves can develop and create the material. We can agree more or less with Glenn Doman, but it is definitely a book we must read.

Bibliographic references

Doman, G. (2013). How to teach your baby to read. Santiago Chile: Edaf.