新西兰八年之后回顾我的Your Baby Can Read婴儿识字教育:
在新西兰
很多年不来了,当年我分享过让几个月的娃识字的经历,现在在这里的人应该是不知道的。我这帖子现在也是面对家有婴儿的小娃儿妈的,如只有小学学童的家长路过,请绕行,我不是要跟你们pk的。
娃是四个月时开始看那套东西里的视频的,每天看半小时,看完娃哭闹,我观察她是想再看。可是那么小的娃不能看多,所以每次看完都得抱着哄一阵子。那时候我基本上拿这个视频当baby sitter用,因为那半小时内她是在bumble seat里坐得稳稳当当的,非常安静专注。我们家三语环境,当爹娘的俩人之间语言不通,只能说英语,但是我父母同住,娃听得见汉语。他爹自己打电话不避开孩子,所以也算听见第三个语言吧,但是明显孩子没有注意第三语言。这个视频是英语的,主要是让娃看单词,五个光盘一共50多个词,配着影像。
大概在娃7个月的时候,开始说话了。并不是英语,一开始主要说的汉语,包括再见,父母的名字,还有大便时要求坐盆。发音非常模糊,但是因为孩子多次重复,我们还是能理解的。那时觉得挺有意思的,因为她没有从爸爸妈妈开始。后来我们意识到,她并不知道我们是爸爸妈妈,因为没有听见过。于是我们告诉她,这是爸爸,这是妈妈,这是姥爷,这是姥姥。并且相互之间用这些称呼。大概十个月的时候这些称呼就开始投入使用了。但是我们并没有为此欢欣鼓舞,因为十个月的时候发生了一件比这些重大得多的事件。
那天晚上,我们一家三口在床上围着,看娃玩她的识字卡片。她爸爸拍着视频,打算发给奶奶看。突然,她拿起一张卡片,念了一下。发音还是非常模糊的,但恍惚像是那个卡片上的单词!我和老公正面面相觑,满腹狐疑中,她又把卡片翻过来,念了一下反面的字。这个词是keys,因为有个爆破音,听起来非常明显了。我们狂喜啊!就把其他卡片拿出来给她看,发现基本上都能读出来!这个有视频作纪念。为了娃的隐私我不会放上来,但是是我们养娃的一个里程碑。
之后无悬念了,娃一岁时已经流利中英文说着句子,只是她不能分辨和谁说什么,总是说一次英语,再说一次汉语。另外,舌头还没有发育好呢,发音都是奇怪的。但是连贯丰富,可以很好地跟大人沟通了。一岁出头我们就不再给她看那个视频了,后来发现,她其实认识那卡片上没有的很多其他字,而且每天都认识一些新的字,偷偷地!我们每天只是跟她玩,字都是她自己看见家里的报纸(我家报纸极少)杂志还有出门看见的路标广告学的。似乎只要看到,就能认识,就能猜出读音,一次即可。等到娃两岁多上幼儿园时,基本已经能读整段文章,当然,她的心智还是两岁,因此是不理解内容的。只是,从此开始了各种学习的easy mode.
因为阅读毫无困难,导致她一些奇怪的行为。比如她出门看路边东西都是先看字。反应就比其他小孩快。幼儿园里讲如何洗手的招贴画,她不看画,只看文字。然后记住东西也是文字式和抽象式的。后来我发现,她根本就不是个爱学习的小孩,极其懒惰,从上小学以后的表现看,简直是落后分子。我分析这可能是太早识字的负面影响,因为学习太容易了,斜睨一眼了然于心,无法养成努力专心的好习惯。有一段时间作业也不做,东西乱丢,裤子乱尿,愁死我了。别人认真学习写字,她只想着玩,分分钟都走神,走神习惯了,就不会好好上课了。上了两年学,基本不知道上学应该干啥。老师给的评语也不好,说她不知道在想啥。我问她,她像个傻子一样没有回答。
那几年,我经常想,我让她过早地认识了字,是不是不对。是不是剥夺了孩子努力奋斗的机会?这个问题留给读者大家吧,这真的是个严肃的话题。接下来我要说的,是这个安排的正面作用,在她7岁以后显现出来的。
女孩子7岁就懂一些事了,知道自己要当好孩子,知道最好是比别人做得更好一点,虽然并不知道怎样做,但是有了点争强好胜的意识,就一点点,她的懒散就大有改善。这个时候她在学校的学习开始显出好了。首先是,在别人刚刚学会写句子的时候,她写文章了,而且生动有趣,词藻丰富。老师表扬,进一步刺激了她的上进心。然后因为语言能力的优秀,她原本落后的数学也赶上来了(当爹妈的是彻底放弃了她的数学,以为她不开窍),一个学期内从差的变成领先的。当然,娃的懒惰本性是没法改了,当妈的就懒,娃就更懒。送去读课外班,回来的作业还是要妈妈陪着做,绝不会有自觉性自己去做。但是呢,还是因为语言被早期打通,作业几乎永远是容易的,不会做的时候跟妈妈的沟通也很好,完全不会出现那些微信段子里的堵心情节,她不会的时候就把问题提出来,而且有条理,能说出是哪一点不通,因此妈妈把这一点说清楚,立即解决问题。做作业也母慈子孝,是一个幸福愉快的共享时间,这个我是非常感恩的。我唯一需要不停地push的,就是"做呀,做呀,别吃了,快做哈,好宝宝!“
总的来说,婴儿时期的这一段特殊的学习经历,并没有使孩子成为一个什么天才,或者什么优秀的。但是它大体上使妈妈的工作轻松了很多,这是我回看过去的八年多,最大的体会。省去了很多很多的母女纠纷争吵,因为孩子的沟通能力好,理解快。很多时候,孩子并不是不乖,或者刻意捣蛋,TA是不明白。如果跟大人沟通好了,孩子大部分时间还是愿意配合大人的。我从来不需要打孩子,不需要吼孩子,永远轻声慢语,宠溺孩子。这个可能也不是对孩子很好,但是对母亲来说,确实是舒服的,easy的。
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很好的文字
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总的来说,我觉得你孩子是个不走寻常路的天才……一般孩子难以效仿。
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我读Your baby can read的家长指南时,还同时去网上搜了用过的人的review。当然都是些洋人了,华人我估计像我这样的非“双华”混血家庭才会考虑这个,一般都会觉得英文以后学算了。反正那些洋人描述的自己家孩子,都是在学校学业极其优秀,上天才班的。我家孩子并没有被认为是天才呀。尤其是有个妈妈说,我家祖上几代还有我所有亲戚从来没有人上过大学,可是我儿子现在读到高中了,学业非常优秀,将来读大学就奔着奖学金去了。。。。。
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唉,光是让4个月宝宝看视频这一条就很让人纠结。
你的这个your baby can read是杜曼的书吗?他的东西争议好大。我也很想让宝宝早点识字,不是为了跟谁比较,只是希望他能尽早知道阅读的乐趣,但是各种反对的声音太多,不敢尝试,因为宝宝的童年只有一次……
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-styl ... y-teaching-products
Child development experts have warned against the Your Baby Can Read! education program of video, flashcards and pop-up books.
The product retails for up to $300 online. If parents follow the instructions, their baby will have watched more than 200 hours of Your Baby Can Read on DVD by the age of nine months.
The product has received publicity on current affairs and morning television shows, and Australian model Miranda Kerr has spoken on radio saying the product gave her toddler son a large vocabulary.
In the United States, national watchdog the Federal Trade Commission is pursuing the product creator, Robert Titzer, in court for making "deceptive expert endorsements", which he contests.
In August last year, product manufacturer Your Baby Can and its former chief executive. Hugh Penton Jr, made a US$185 million settlement with the commission over false and deceptive advertising charges. The company has since gone out of business.
Australian mother Donna Carthy said she was "absolutely over the moon" after using the program every day for up to 90 minutes with her son Emmanuel, ever since he was three months old.
Emmanuel, now 15 months, loves to sit in his high chair to watch the DVDs and can now read words such as "elephant" and "car", she said.
"I just really want to give him a head start in life," Carthy said. "That's what every parent wants."
Your Baby Can Read is also used in some Australian childcare centres, such as First Steps Child Care centre in Whittington, Geelong, where centre director Michelle Roncon said flashcards and flip books were still used but the use of DVDs had stopped.
"We had a portable DVD and TV in the babies' room but that whole 'screen time' aspect does take away from the personalised education," she said.
Bridie Raban, an honorary professor of early childhood development at the University of Melbourne, said time spent doing the program would be better used talking, singing, playing or telling stories to children.
Research has linked infant screen time to sleep disturbances and delayed language acquisition, as well as problems in later childhood such as poor school performance and childhood obesity.
"You can train babies, like you can train a dog, to respond to certain words, but why would you want to do that?" she said. "Reading is not about memory. It's an intellectual process, it's about understanding, and these kinds of programs are not based on the principles of early learning."
A statement from Dr Titzer said that more than a million families around the world, particularly in Asia, had used the program.
He said recent studies on TV use and children showed content made a big difference, and his DVDs were interactive and taught babies something of lasting value.
"There are long-term studies in every area of language acquisition showing the earlier the child is taught the language skill, the better the child does later in that area."
Dr Eva Dobozy, a senior lecturer in early childhood at Curtin University, said young children learnt more valuable skills through play, and such programs could turn children off learning, leading to behavioural problems at school.