A huge waste of money and it puts the babies in a position they shouldn't be placed in - performance. I have heard that to use these you have to put them in a room without anything else that would interest them and the lighting may have to be adjusted to keep their attention on the screen--WHAT?!! How sad. What is the point? I guess you could use the "learning" the child achieves and impress people, but why?
I actually agree with you. I did teach my kids their letters by around age 14 mos., they could identify both upper and lower case letters, and their sounds. I didn't use a reading program, and I simply taught them through the use of alphabet books like Dr. Seuss's ABC and ABADABA Alphabet. This was part of our story time. Of course they had lots of free play time, and yes they played with alphabet blocks, and even alphabet puzzles. I wouldn't feel comfortable propping a baby in front of a reading video, or using flash cards, particularly if the child wasn't having fun. I do agree with the poster who said that letters and words were part of her child's environment. That certainly has been the case with my children, and they don't even live in an urban environment. They did however see words in their books, and when we were out shopping they identified letters in signs, and then began to sound out the words they were seeing, even labels on toys! It seemed to be a very natural learning progression. I wasn't even trying to teach reading. As far as TV viewing goes. I think there is very little TV of educational value anyway. My older kids, now ages 16 and 13, don't even watch TV. We watch DVDs sparingly, but we just don't watch a lot of TV. I think my strongest objection to the Teach Your Baby to Read program, and others of that type, is that they teach reading as sight words. What is the point? Children need to learn how to decode words so that they can make sense of new words they come across. Reading is much more complicated than that. That's why I called it a party trick. In the long term it doesn't contribute to literacy, it just results in a child who can parrot back words at an earlier age than their peers.
I think it's extremely unhealthy, to say the least. I'm 100% against it, all the way. Babies have more important things to worry about than reading. Why can't we just let kids be kids? Really! The only reason people are buying those for their kids, imo, is for bragging rights. There can eb nothing good from having them sit in front of the tv everyday watching DVD's. Yuck.
Not to be pedantic or anything, but I have to point out that babies are constantly being asked to "perform". Wave bye-bye! Say hi! Blow kisses! Smile! Show Grandma how you can walk! Which one is the red block? Can you give me the RED block? Can you say COOKIE? Say cookie, and I'll give you a cookie! Where's the fishy? Point to the fishy! Clap! Clap your hands! Sing with me! Being a baby is all about performing for adults. They love it, and they'll do practically anything if it gets them smiles and praise. The sheer glee babies exhibit when they're performing is something I adore about them. And I miss it now that my kids are all teenaged and way too cool to show off for the parentals.
