The research happening today with the new brain scan technologies is teaching us a great deal about how the brain develops and learns.
David Sousa's book "How the Brain Learns Mathematics" and John Medina's books "brain rules" and "brain rules for BABY" should be read or at least reviewed BEFORE you waste money on Baby Einstein, My Baby Can Read, or any similar materials.
Your baby has greater needs for you to address during these preschool years than these materials can provide.
1.
We have learned from these research studies that babies are actually born with an innate number sense as well as an innate language sense.
For decades now, parents and extended families have worked very hard with preschool children on language sills and ignored the math skills because we simply didn't realize our babies possessed these skills.
Not only are babies born with an innate number sense that we have been ignoring, we have also discovered that the critical period or prime time for child to be introduced to logic and arithmetic skills is--ages 1 to 4! It is no wonder that our children have so much difficulty with higher level math when we didn't give our children the same kind of foundation and positive start in math that we did with language.
This really must change.
We can not keep ignoring these critical years for math skill development and then watch while are children enter high school and fail first year Algebra at a rate of about 50%.
The long-term damage to our children and to our society is severe.
It is a pattern that can not be allowed to continue.
Every time you even think about investing in Baby Einstein and My Baby Can Read, slap yourself, and then go buy a math-related children's book to set down and read with your child.
Or take a "number field trip" with your child and look for numbers or count things you see, or work with your child on the math skills I've included in my articles about "Ways to Help Your Pre-school Child With Math.
" 2.
At the same time we have research showing us how we can be helping your child develop good skills with mathematics, we are also receiving information about the harm being done by these two programs.
Eric Jensen, probably the best know name in taking brain research, studying it, and then interpreting it for the education of our children has deep concerns about putting babies in front of television and computer screens at such young ages and for extended periods of time.
He actually wishes kids didn't see TV until about the age of 5, but in facing the realities of the world today, says keep them away from TV until 3 years of age.
We are just beginning to see the results of too much TV.
Your child needs you to consider him/her first and if you are going to err, err on the safe side until we know more.
(I probably started introducing my children to Sesame Street and Mr Rogers and about 2 1/2 but I was always with them.
It was never a babysitting tool.
) We are also just beginning to get into our schools, students who were raised with My Baby Can Read, and we are finding that these children are actually encountering many adjustment problems.
Being able to site-read many words is not the same thing as understanding what these words mean or how to use them in different situations.
These children are balking at the different approach to reading and they are not wanting to cooperate within the classroom.
Their lack of understanding that there is much more to reading that just recognizing the words is interfering with their learning.
It is fair to say that My Baby Can Read is slowing down their progress in school.
3.
Parents and the extended family units (siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, neighbors, etc.
) already do an incredible job of having the pre-school child excited and ready to enter school.
You have all taken a role in reinforcing every attempt a child makes at walking and talking and beginning to read and write.
These children are filled to the brim with persistence because it is always reinforced.
You fill your child with so much encouragement and reinforcement that they never doubt their own ability to learn.
They are ready and excited to learn.
What your child needs from you now is to put that same time and enthusiasm and encouragement into mathematics.
Think you can't teach math? Well, you can.
You weren't born knowing how to help your child with language.
But you read articles in magazines.
And, most importantly, you just read to your child.
Do the same thing for math.
Get children's books with a math focus.
Then read, read, and read.
Start concentrating on the numbers that are everywhere around you.
Point them out.
Talk about the numbers you see.
Count everything! Look for number patterns.
Children enjoy palindromes--numbers the same forward and backward, like 171, or 24542.
Look on license plates.
Also look for my three articles on helping your preschooler with math.
The first "Ways to Help You Pre-Schooler With Math, Tip 1.
Tip 2, and Tip 3.
" The other two articles are "More Ways To Help You Pre-Schooler with Math," and "Ever More Ways To Help Your Pre-Schooler With Math.
" The three articles give you 10 techniques for working with math with your pre-schooler.
You already do such an excellent job with your child related to language.
What you child needs form you now more the anything else is to instill this same confidence and foundation in mathematics.
If you do this now, your child will NOT be in that 50% failure group in high school.