Glenn Doman’s Truth: Babies Can Read

In truth, Glenn Doman upset the academic world back in the 1970s, as he broke with paradigms that established and predetermined that learning was promoted by “what is taught and not by who learns.” Importantly, it innovated when it demonstrated that the baby, once assisted by the mother, could have access to knowledge much earlier than it had been accepted in the past. Some preconceived notions, such as the following, have been broken to allow for early reading and literacy, and here we will discuss how parents achieved this for the sake of their babies.

Preconceived concept n. # 1: Parents should not stimulate their babies.

o How has this been broken?

When the child arrives at school, he has already gone through a world of experiences, of being exposed to the technological and informational society (visual pollution). Parents are teaching their babies to talk, observe, walk, and listen. The brain learns what it sees, hears, smells, and feels. With each passing day, the baby acquires knowledge about the culture in which he is immersed.

Today’s society provides encouragement through the colors and size of advertisements, through television, and the drive to sell products for the sake of profit. Families have access to the means of communication, and almost all households have a computer, TV and telephones among other products that communicate without asking whoever is the target of the communication whether or not they have authorization to do so. In this context, babies are stimulated. It is the role of parents to manage what can be shown to them. If the parents do not care about the stimuli to which the baby may be exposed, then society goes beyond the intimacy of the home, determining what must be learned. Therefore, it is the initial responsibility of the parents to resolve the problem. It is not up to the State, or the institutions with teaching powers, to decide who and what is stimulating the brain.

Preconceived Notion # 2 – Parents should not force their babies, stealing their childhood while teaching them as if they were teachers.

o How has this been broken?

Teaching babies to read is not and has never been a reason to “lose” childhood. Reading time consists of quality moments of joy, play and enjoyment between parents and baby. The baby learns through affection and, therefore, by wanting to play the game of reading. Stealing a childhood is, for example, leaving children in front of the television without activities that develop the imagination, that is, without giving them the opportunity to participate in creative games.

Preconceived notion n. # 3: it’s not parents who teach, it’s schools

o How has this been broken?

Schools can no longer teach our children. There are difficulties in bringing community knowledge, innovations, and information into the classroom at the same pace that they occur outside of the school system. It is about updating the amount of information that is given in real life, in real time.

Furthermore, the works of identification of gifted / children with specific dispositions show that stimuli in the home environment provide for gifts in ‘gifted’. Children already arrive at school with talents and supplies developed in enriched environments to be inhabited by parents. Teaching at home shows that it is possible to develop teaching outside of school. After all, there are many parents in different countries with more time and better training than many of the teachers in both public and private school systems. With such understanding and with the desire to give them the best opportunities as soon as possible, parents can teach their babies to read.

Preconceived notion n. 4: the child should learn only when he is ready. Any early stimulus is harmful.

o How has this been broken?

Once again, a preconceived notion underestimated the baby’s capabilities. Why can only those who show talent in music or sport be stimulated early? So when is the child ready? What possible reference point in terms of social levels, countries, communities? Who determines when to teach? Just the curiosity of the child. Parents need to watch out for when; the moments. But much more than this, they have to try to see how easy it is to teach a baby to read.

Once the preconceived notion is overcome, we begin to witness that the baby can and does much more than its small capacity to understand the human brain, as well as what it will be able to do in the future. After all, do we believe in evolution or not?

Glen Doman was a visionary. We pay our respects. If I have witnessed the miracle of reading as a baby through the development of my own children, I believe that all babies born in the last century, and who will be born in this, can do the same.

For the baby revolution! In the search for peace and solutions to the problems of the world, and in favor of all humanity, may this be the end of the era of Jurassic illiteracy.

After exposing these four key preconceptions, and the discussion above, we can affirm that:

1 – The baby can learn at home with the parents;

2 – The baby learns without understanding the reading rules because he learns while playing; and the brain is open to learning the word because it already knows the concept;

3 – The words are shown and the brain learns through the construction of mental schemes, structures that will be used throughout its life;

4 – In this process, there is no training, because it is not possible to “train” a baby. It is he / she who learns.

5 – The baby understands and identifies what he sees. His knowledge of the world is relative to the knowledge of the world that he built. It’s not a bear!

6 – A baby, when he reads a word, identifies and recognizes it;

7 – Parents must stimulate their babies before the community without responsibility does it;

8 – In this process, they are not stealing the baby’s childhood; Instead, they are ensuring that the latter is preserved through play, developing creativity, and enjoying a teaching-learning relationship;

9 – Yes, parents do teach. They can teach. It is the primary duty. Having a child is not simply about feeding, sheltering, and caring. It is to help you build a healthy understanding of the world. For the future. Schools come to help us socialize the child and promote the updating of all the necessary content for life in society; Y

10 – Let’s not underestimate the ability of babies to build a knowledge of the world, in their own way and as soon as they can.

Translation by: Inessa Leao Figueiredo, MS.