Your Baby Can Read Company Going Out Of Business (<-- the link to the Huff Post Article)
"A complaint against the company was filed with the Federal Trade Commission in April 2011 by the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which has led a series of campaigns against what critics call the "genius baby" industry. The advocacy group said Your Baby Can Read's claims of teaching infants to read were false and deceptive, and asked the FTC to halt the ads."(Huff Post)
To me astonishment the company is going out of business. I say astonishment because of course the commercials make this product look too good to be true, however, they also elicit a sense of curiosity What if it does work? For me though, even the "what if," would not encourage me to the purchasing window, I need a personal, product review.
So far, I have two cousins who purchased and used it with their children. The toddler boy is very articulate, eager to learn, and recognizes letters. The toddler girl's mother says her daughter used it extensively and is doing good because of it. Her only epitaph is it doesn't teach infants syllables.
My take is so, what if it teaches the infants memorization techniques? Isn't that how we learn at first anyway? We hear our abc's over and over agian till we memorize them. We recognize letter groupings as words because we see them constantly. Then we build upon that as we discover phonics and syllables etc.
Furthermore, the advocacy group involved says that this daily 30 minute program would encourage the over indulgence of television watching. Really? I say parents regulate tv viewing for their children. Another perspective is that we live in a electronic world, where we interact with a screen 80 percent of our day (opinion). If our children are not taught how to use the technology of their day, they will fall behind.
What do you think?
