Early Learning

"You will harm the child you're trying to teach"

The arguments of Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff in the book Einstein Never Used Flash Cards, and BrillBaby's response

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff: Pushing children can backfire and create children who dread learning.

BrillBaby: Who said anything about pushing? It is a common misconception that baby education and early learning involve forcing children to endure lessons against their will. In fact, educators such as Glenn Doman and Makoto Shichida repeatedly emphasize that teaching should only take place in a joyous, loving manner. Lessons should only be given when the child is receptive and should be stopped before the child loses interest. Parents who teach in this way often report that their child looks forward to lessons and even seeks to prolong them.

Most of us have experienced some form of coercion or dread related to going to school, doing homework and/or sitting examinations. But unlike the grown-ups terrified of "creating children who dread learning," young children themselves carry none of this emotional baggage. Indeed, very young children do not distinguish between learning and playing, as nothing is more fun for a baby than discovering something new.

We would encourage you as a parent to give your child some exposure to reading and math from a young age (provided you are comfortable with doing so). If your child is bored, you can always stop the lessons. But just because you dreaded reading or math in school doesn't mean your baby will. In fact, it could be because reading or math was introduced to you too late that you found it so difficult to learn. When learning is a struggle, we become decreasingly motivated, eventually developing a negative association with the subject in question.

Not only is it fun for babies to learn reading or math, they also find it easy – far easier than school-age children. Everything comes naturally to a baby. Likewise, if you wanted to teach your five- or six-year-old a new language, it would be more difficult for her to learn than if you had introduced it from birth. When a child starts school with a foundation of knowledge in reading and math, those subjects feel like second nature – just like her native language.

Sticking to the Doman/Shichida principle of joyous, loving teaching that follows the child's lead, the danger of "creating children who dread learning" disappears. One of the most charming things about young children is their absolute candor – their emotions are transparent. A baby who is enjoying her lesson will smile or grin and lean forwards with wide-open eyes. A baby who is not enjoying herself will grimace, twist her head to look away, fuss or cry.

The only way for parents to turn their child's natural love of learning into a dread of learning would be to conduct lessons improperly – by forcing, testing, going too slowly or assuming a negative attitude. Don't put pressure on yourself to achieve certain goals – your child will be able to sense it. It's also important that you give the sort of lessons you feel enthusiastic about yourself.

KH-P + RMG: What [the] concept of emotional intelligence means for children and parents is that the enjoyment of their relationship is fundamental to giving children the very best start in life. Simply taking the time to enjoy their children – to play with them and discuss what's going on their world – is the best thing parents can do for their children's minds and emotional development to guarantee future success.

BB: We couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, many critics of baby education are completely unaware of the fun parents and children have while learning reading, math, or anything else they care to explore. Lessons are a wonderful time for bonding between parents and children. And as every child psychologist knows, it is such loving interactions between parents and children that form the basis of children's emergent social skills and emotional intelligence.

We believe it is easier for children to learn reading and math before they start school than it is to start learning these subjects from the age of five or six. Children with a foundation of basic knowledge in these core subjects have higher self-esteem when they begin school. They find learning easier, which means they have more time for socializing. If anything, a child's emotional intelligence will only be aided by having been taught as a baby.

KH-P + RMG: To use flash cards with infants… is like putting a videocassette on fast-forward instead of play. To put children on fast-forward is to risk turning them off to their natural desire to learn, and instead increases their risk of becoming anxious, depressed and unhappy.

BB: Firstly, it should be mentioned that using flash cards is just one method of teaching babies – there are many other methods besides.

The authors believe that teaching a baby with flash cards will destroy her desire to learn. Plenty of parents would disagree. But in any case, we must ensure as parents that we do not risk making our child anxious, depressed or unhappy. How do we do this? By only giving lessons when our child is receptive – and stopping them immediately should he lose interest.

Some children love lessons with flash cards; others become distracted. Every child is different, so it pays to try out different teaching methods and see which your child prefers. Children may also prefer different methods at different times. For example, Felicity, who can be seen on the Baby Reading Videos page reading at the ages of 12 months, 28 months and 29 months, enjoyed flash cards as a young baby, but became easily distracted as she gained mobility. It was then that she began preferring the multi-sensory method of reading instruction, which her parents duly switched to.

In terms of putting a child on "fast-forward," the authors might be alluding to the fact that the flashing is done in a rapid fashion. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, rapid flashing enables information to be apprehended by the right hemisphere of the child's brain. This means that there is no conscious effort involved in remembering – just as there isn't when children learn their native language. Secondly, because children learn so quickly, the flashing must be rapid in order to retain their interest. So far from encouraging anxiety, depression and unhappiness, the flash card method is designed to ensure that the learning process is both effortless and stimulating.

Something else that the authors might by implying with the word "fast-forward" is that by using flash cards you will force a child to develop faster than she would like to. This should never be the goal of baby education or early learning. Instead, we recommend always following the child's lead – continuing with lessons that interest the child and discontinuing any that she finds boring. The wonderful thing about teaching babies is that there is no curriculum, no right or wrong way, and nothing that they "need" to learn. If only the same could be said for school!

KH-P + RMG: Too much pressure to display empty knowledge and show off what she knows can even cause a child to feel depressed because so much rides on getting it right… Remember what it feels like to take a test? Would "anxious" be the best adjective? Yet we are doing more and more testing.

BB: We wonder if the authors have read or viewed any of the information or teaching materials put out by Glenn Doman, the world's foremost pioneer in teaching babies with flash cards. Ironically, Doman is probably the educator who most frequently reminds parents not to test their child's knowledge.

Unlike at school, where certain skills have to be learnt within certain timeframes, babies don't need to learn anything in particular – and parents should not have any expectations regarding knowledge acquisition. There is certainly a danger that some parents will introduce testing and so exert pressure on their children. We strongly advocate against this approach, as do all the experts.

At the same time, it's quite nice that some parents have managed to record their children's feats of intelligence, as it means we have the evidence to prove that babies can read and do math (in the Doman sense of "perceiving" quantity without counting).

In this regard, it is important to distinguish between testing and gently encouraging a child to display his knowledge. Otherwise, if asking a child to display any sort of knowledge is bad, where do we draw the line? Wouldn’t asking “How old are you?” or “Where’s Mommy?” also be testing?

We can reinforce what our children know without exerting pressure on them by asking normal questions such as those above, or playing games that reveal knowledge learned. So, for example, if you wanted to see how much your child can read, you might get out a book and ask, “Shall I read it for you, or do you want to read it yourself?” Or, you might follow Robert Titzer’s example, and get out a bunch of toy animals for your child to match up with their written names.

Or, if you wanted to see how well your child can perceive quantity, you might do something along the lines of one mom on YouTube who plays "the candy game" with her son – rewarding him for choosing the card with the correct number of dots by placing a candy underneath it.

At BrillBaby, we feel that it's okay to ask your baby what some words or numbers are – provided you approach the asking in the right away. If, when you ask your baby to demonstrate her knowledge, she doesn't want to, then leave it be. She will show you what she has learned in her own time.