How to Teach Your Baby to Read – Glenn Doman vs BrillKids

Want to teach your baby to read?  Which kit should you get – the original Glenn Doman reading kit or BrillKids Little Reader?

I originally bought the Glenn Doman reading kit, but I have also tried using BrillKids Little Reader.  These are the pros and cons for both programs…

Glenn Doman reading program

Pros:

• Face to face – parent and child are face to face when you use the flashcards.  It is said that babies learning to form words need to see lip movements.
• Font size – bigger than what you will be able to show on a computer screen.

Cons:

• Fiddly – handling the cards can be cumbersome, especially when your baby grows older and starts to get more mobile.
• Need to arrange the cards in readiness for the next session.
• No pictures – words for objects that a baby has never seen before will be meaningless, unless you are using the kit on an older child.

BrillKids Little Reader

Pros:

• Full year program pre-loaded.  No lesson planning required before hand – unless you specifically want to teach your child something unique.  You can run each lesson with the click of a button – no further preparation required.
• Flashcards are shown at random each time, so no shuffling required.
• Program records where you are up to so you know what you have taught even if you take a break from the program.
• Flashcards can be shown with pictures or just the words only.
• A variety of pictures are shown to illustrate each word.  For instance, there are three different pictures of dogs to show what a “dog” is.
• You can view video clips and listen to sound clips to provide a multi-sensorial approach to learning.  For instance, your child can listen to a dog barking for the word “dog”.
• Easily customised – you can add your own pictures to make the flashcards unique to your child.  For instance, you can take pictures of family members to illustrate words like “aunt”, “brother”, “father”, etc.
• You can add content to the program to expand your child’s reading vocabulary, introduce unique words that interest your child that aren’t included in the curriculum.
• It incorporates a phonics program so your child gets the best of both worlds – whole word and phonics.
• The deluxe program costs US$399 (basic program is US$149) which is cheaper than the RM1700++ I paid for the Doman reading kit.  If you purchase the Doman reading kit from Gentle Revolution, it costs US$92.95 (before shipping).  I don’t know how much shipping charges are but I’ll wager it costs an arm and a leg because the kits are very heavy.

Cons:

• Run on the computer so no face-to-face element.  However, the new deluxe kits come with hard copy flashcards as well to address this issue.

And now for a limited time only (until October 14, 2010), you can get Little Reader at 10% off.  Coupon code: BKAFF36716.