How to Teach Your Baby to Read (The Gentle Revolution Series) Paperback – February 28, 2006

I started our son at age two and our daughter at age 18 months to read, so talking and reading grew together. Using an old set of Dick and Jane books, they finished the first grade series by age three and could read I Can Read books largely independently after that. The Doman method is the old see-and-say whole-word method, but I added phonics with our lessons for decoding skills. Two sets of plastic magnetic letters (from Toys R Us and a school-supply store) on the refrigerator door were used to find all of a specific letter, match capitals and lower case, build words, and create short sentences. Many words don't "sound out," and were taught as sight words through drill with flash cards, as in the book. Index cards were used to write words in manuscript for flash cards to drill words already introduced. The huge word cards recommended in the book were not needed for my "older" children.I did not read the Dick and Jane books (available online at Walmart) to the children, as they were teaching tools, but Dr. Seuss or other level one easy-to-read books would work. First the words in a story were introduced with the plastic letters and drilled with the flash cards until known, which took a week at first, then only a few days later. I asked the kids questions about what was in the picture and what was happening, then ran my finger under the words as the child read the story aloud. Of course I read picture books to the kids, also discussing the pictures and running my finger under the words. We read one or two stories and stopped reading at the height of the interest, which caused the kids to want to come back for more.I wanted to try Glenn Doman's idea to teach little kids to read, as I witnessed a dyslexic young man, who could not read, be rehabilitated at Doman's Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potentai outside Philadelphia when all else had failed. At IAHP a two year old with half her brain removed learned to read simply by observing an adult run a finger under the words while reading aloud, begging the question, "What's the matter with normal children?" Thus the movement for early learning began. It is not only possible to teach pre-schoolers to read, but it is the ideal time to teach anything. We miss the easiest time for a child to learn if we wait until first grade.I strongly recommend reading this book and courageously launch a life-enhancing adventure for the children and parents or grandparents. Add your own phonics.Rose Bayly

I learned to read using this method in 1977. My two younger siblings learned in the early '80s. Lo these many years later, I'm a junior-high and high-school English teacher, and in August, I found myself working with a special-needs student who read on an early kindergarten level. Glenn Doman to the rescue: I ordered the book, reviewed the program, made some minor adjustments so I could implement it in a junior-high setting, and three months later, my student's vocabulary has jumped from maybe 50 words to nearly 400, and he routinely reads Dr. Seuss books and other children's classics to younger students during the story-hour programs his junior-high literature class hosts. I loaned the book to our special-ed teacher, who read it, bought in, and passed it along to the parent of a kindergartener whose mom flagged me down the other day to tell me her little girl LOVES reading and had learned 20 words in a couple of weeks. God bless Glenn Doman, and God bless his daughter for carrying on his work. Y'all changed my life when I was a toddler, and 42 years later, you're still changing lives.

Way back in 1981, my 30 month old daughter was barely speaking a word. Her younger brother was actually speaking in sentences. Her hearing was fine and she was almost obsessed with the circular Laurie puzzles as she had excellent fine motor skills. In retrospect, I think she may have had an early or mild form of autism. I was fortunate enough to meet Marva Collins and cornered her in a restroom and pleaded for help with my daughter. She told me about this book. I kept pleading "What else?" She annoyingly told me "Just get the book." and walked away. I think my edition was from 1979 and cost $1.95 new. Within a few days, it was as if something turned on in my daughter's brain and something turned off. A week later, she was clearly reading word cards and communicating with us. If you believe in miracles, this would definitely be one. She entered kindergarten, reading at about 2nd to 3rd grade level, took Suzuki lessons, graduated from high school, college, and graduate school with honors. I used this method with all six of my children and am now passing it on to my grandchildren, including my daughter's newborn. I recommend it to all my patients with young children. THIS BOOK IS A MUST for every parent and child. I wish I could give it 10 stars!

Thus far the book is very intriguing and the principals are easy to understand and execute. We especially like that the book explains how to create the necessary tools at home, without pressuring you into buying costly accompaniment products. As our son is only 3.5 months old and I have not finished reading the entire book, we cannot confirm yet whether the system is 100% effective, but we will update to 5 stars when he begins to read. I will state that we have made the large flash-cards and have already started using them from 3 months.Our son is already mimicking several words (yes, we have video to prove this). He can say "spider", "i love you", "triangle"; and "square". Although he is not repeating the words just based on the flash cards (he is copying our voices) we do feel that the association will become effective with repeat exposure throughout the first year.