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Hi Sowmya Kannan – you can definitely do linking memory in your native language as well. Linking memory doesn’t have to go as fast as the flashcards as you are supposed to tell the story as the pictures are shown.
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Follow your son’s lead. Shichida says that sometimes children will only say the words without the story and that’s okay, too. The story is supposed to help with the recall but some children don’t need it. You can try just doing the latest 30 cards but after a while, try running the whole sequence from the beginning and see if your child can still remember the entire sequence. Make it like a game. So you don’t have to repeat from the beginning every single time but just from time to time, say after every 100 cards covered.
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Hi Buvaneshwari Vinoth Kumar – you can run the phonics program alongside your reading program. Learning whole words will help children start reading faster. Phonics takes longer but it will help children with pronunciation of unfamiliar words and spelling later on so it is beneficial to start it sooner rather than later.
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We include phonics into the supplementary activities – https://rightbrainchild.com/rbe-supplementary-activities-and-materials/
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If you haven’t already, you can also read this post: https://rightbrainchild.com/2020/11/25/early-reading-sight-words-vs-phonics
I loved the brillkids programs because they are easy to use and the whole process of the lessons don’t take much longer than 5 minutes each session. It gave us a lot of time to move on to other things without me having to prepare and keep track of what lessons we had covered and what cards need to be shown next. The music program especially provides a rounded approach to music appreciation and also the development of the musical ear. The combination of short video clips and the teaching of solfege can provide a good foundation for further musical development when your child is older and ready to pick up a music instrument.
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From Riya Dev:
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one more suggestion pls, would you recommend Brillkids math and/or music along with reader ?
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In Doman’s instructions, Math and Reading programs can begin as early as 3 months, but the Bits program is intended to begin only from 8 months onwards. As your child is 32 months, you can run all three programs together.
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Regarding whole words or phonics, the BrillKids program is an excellent one (my second child went through it and became a very proficient reader at an early age – his preschool teacher initially thought he was a gifted child). Although the whole word program (i.e. Doman’s reading program) is sufficient for teaching reading, the reason why I like to incorporate phonics is for two reasons – pronunciation of unfamiliar words and spelling. The English language is a funny language where the same letter can have different sounds – think of the letter “c” with its hard sounds like a “k” for words like “cat” and “coal” and a soft sound like an “s” for words like “circle” and “city”. Then we have words beginning with “ph” which sounds like the words beginning with the letter “f”.
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What has been pointed out to me before is that some of the children who learned to read via the Doman method were not so good at spelling. I do not know if this is because they didn’t learn phonics or if they merely only learned to read and there was no further support provided for learning to spell or if there are some other underlying reasons, but I believe that learning phonics could help fill this gap.
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Regarding pronunciation, my older son learned to read using the whole word method alone. Since he became a proficient reader early on, I made the mistake of leaving him to read alone (as I was often occupied with the caring of his younger brother). I only noticed later that he had some trouble with the pronunciation of words that he read in books when he used those words in conversation. Even though he understood the words (what they meant and how to use them correctly in context), he would often pronounce them funny. I had to go back and help him correct that. Again, I believe this is something that phonics can help to address. Although, if I had continued to read together with him (even after he could read), I am also convinced this would not have been an issue.
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Sorry for the long-winded answer. The short answers are – yes, run all three Doman programs together and yes, use the BrillKids reading program.
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Hi Nidhi Nidhi – Your child at this age might be experimenting to understand more about the world around her. What happens if I choose the wrong option? How does Mama react? Mama holds the cards, I also want to hold. As your child grows older, they want to start interacting more with the environment around them, which means they may not always do what you want them to.
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What else can you do besides taking a break from the activities? You can try continuing with them and when she chooses the wrong answer, smile and tell her which is the right one. Try not to react negatively and just keep going. Persevere in this manner for a few weeks and observe if there is a change. Sometimes, when your child sees that there is no reaction to her deliberate behaviour, she will stop it.
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As for wanting to hold the cards, you can try giving her something else to hold. Try giving her an option, for example, you can say “I cannot let you have the cards, but you can have this (e.g. blocks) or this (e.g. a teddy bear). Which one would you like to hold?” See if this helps.
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I have always had posters up around the room for reinforcement. There is nothing said in RBE about having them or not having them so I see no harm in leaving them up. If I didn’t have posters, I would have stickers of cute things for decoration so why not make it educational?
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If they like it, they will look at it. If it doesn’t interest your child, they will just ignore it – in which case, nothing is lost.
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This is just my opinion. Am happy to hear the thoughts of others here, too.
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Hi Lavish Kashyap – For dot cards, I would use A4 size art cards (230-310gsm weight – heavier cards are sturdier and easier to flash). For the dots, I suggest using the 1cm diameter stickers as 1-inch dots are too large and you will not be able to fit up to 100 dots on the card.
Hi Mas – in the Shichida 65 day program, you do not need to show the physical numbers. The introduction of numbers begins from Day 55. You can see the set up for the flashcards from Day 1 to Day 58 here – https://rightbrainchild.com/flashcards-for-shichida-math/
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Hi Shruti – Try taking a break for a couple of weeks first – so no math for say two weeks. Just focus on other activities. When you come back to it, try using cards with images of her favourite things. Is there a toy or character she fancies? My son was crazy over Thomas the Tank Engine, that’s why I chose that. I didn’t have a problem with my second son but if I had, I would have used the face of Mickey Mouse for him because that was his favourite character. Since we need to work hard to get back your daughter’s interest, rather than rely on random pictures, you should choose something she really loves so it will help her overcome the aversion to Maths.
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Can I also check with you… if you are using numbers with physical objects – like in the kitchen with the potatoes and the popsicles – does she express interest during these times? If there is more interest with physical objects, you can try using physical counters (like bear counters – https://amzn.to/3BXEuTR or something else that’s fun, like animals or dinosaurs or unicorns – there are lots of different types available now) to teach her. You can drop a quantity of bears onto the floor and just tell her how many there are – don’t quiz her. So say you drop three bears, say “three”; then drop ten bears and say “ten”. Just do a few then quickly put them away and move on to something else. You will need to prepare ahead so you can do it quickly.
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From Shruti Mittal:
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A very big thank u to take out time to answer my query…I get every bit that you have mentioned here.
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Yes she has always been avoiding red dot cards.
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So started with brillkids.. i used to customise it with different background color, different icons. Sometimes she just watches them and sometimes she doesn’t see even a single slide/card.
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forgot to mention..she initially liked tweedlewink math spots session.. now she avoids looking at that too.
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I want to make every effort to get her interest back..
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If u have more ideas to suggest or few sample images to show that would really help me a lot to try out. I would be more than happy to implement them.
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Hi Shruti Mittal – may I ask if this has always been the case since your daughter was little or has this only started recently? I ask because 27 months is close to the 3-year-old mark where the dot program can lose its effectiveness. It does vary from child to child. My firstborn did not like dots but I tried to start it when he was nearly 3. My second child loved the dot program and BrillKids Little Math (he enjoyed it more than Little Reader).
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The problem with Dots is that some children find it boring and lose interest in the program because they don’t want to see red dots. Some mums get creative and used other images, like ladybugs, flowers, cars, or any other image that your child might fancy. They also set them up in fancy patterns instead. For my firstborn, I was able to get back his interest when I used Thomas the tank engine trains instead of red dots.
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One of the issues about “problem-solving” is that children dislike being tested. Doman strictly tells us not to test the child but to play games. My problem with games is that our emotions come into play. When the child is not doing what we want them to do, we get anxious and frustrated. Young children are adept at reading your emotions because this is the only form of communication they have. These emotions can make them anxious and frustrated, too, and then they don’t want to do the activity anymore. It is so easy to lose your child’s attention and so hard to bring it back after it’s lost. When I can’t trust myself to behave appropriately, I choose not to do the activity rather than jeopardise my connection with my child because it is important for both Mum and child to be happy, connected, and relaxed.
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The thing about subitising… It is worth being aware of the following from BrillKids – https://www.brillbaby.com/teaching-baby/math/subitizing/subitize-this.php:
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“The ability to subitize large quantities will typically fade away as a child grows older. The exact age at which children lose this ability varies from person to person. However, it is safe to say that children retain the ability to perceive large quantities at least up to the age of two and a half…
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…The ability to perceive quantity – or to name a perceived quantity – does not of course automatically give your child the ability to do math. But if you can get your child doing equations before he loses the ability to subitize large quantities, then your child should always understand the reality of such equations – even after he has lost the ability to subitize their components. His brain will have been trained to manipulate dozens, even hundreds of items, just as effortlessly as the rest of us can visually subtract 5 items from 7 to make 2.
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What will this mean in the long run? It may not be possible to train your child to become one of the world’s greatest mathematicians. What you can do, however, is give your child the gift of feeling comfortable with numbers and numerical concepts starting from before school – and for the rest of her life.”
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I hope that helps.
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Palace memory is a little like Peg memory, except, instead of using numbers and images for the pegs, we use a place. For it to be effective, it should be a place that is very familiar, like your home. Usually, I recommend starting palace memory with an older child so they can understand the process.
If you’re using your home, think of a route that you would travel through your house. It must be the same route each time. Let’s say you come home, the front door will be your first stop as you will need to unlock the door to enter the house. Similar to the peg memory, this would be Peg 1 – front door.
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Once you’re through the front door, what do you do next? Maybe you take off your shoes and put it into the shoe cabinet. This is Peg 2 – shoes.
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Next, you want to rest for a while so you go to your living room and sit in your big armchair. This is Peg 3 – armchair.
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As you’re relaxing in your chair, you turn on the TV for a little while. This is Peg 4 – TV.
It’s going to be dinner time soon, so you have to go to the kitchen to start cooking. There you must open the fridge to collect your food items. This is Peg 5 – fridge.-
Keep going in this manner until you have created a complete route through your house. You must remember this route in the same way that we memorise the pegs from peg memory.
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When you need to remember say your shopping list, you will peg each item on your list to one of the memory palace pegs.
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Say you need to remember lemons, spinach, chicken, milk and rice. The first stop is the front door, so you have to create a vivid image linking your lemons to the front door. It could be something as silly as finding a lemon as a door knob on your front door.
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The next stop is your shoes and we need to link spinach to your shoes. You can imagine a big bunch of spinach growing out of your shoes.
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The next stop is your armchair. You want to sit in it but you can’t because a big chicken has stolen your spot.
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The next stop is the TV. Let’s imagine the TV melting into a big puddle of milk.
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The next stop is the fridge. You open the fridge door and rice keeps spilling out all over the kitchen floor.
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Remember the wilder the imagery, the easier it is to remember. Then when you’re at the supermarket, you go through your “memory palace” and collect all the items you need to remember.
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This is just a simple example. I hope it helps to clarify. Please let me know if you need me to explain further.
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Hi Ekta Agarwal – Usually, most children start writing from about 3 years. Some can start earlier and others later. It depends on the child.
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You can start introducing “mark-making” from 1 to 2 years. At this age, your child will be able to hold a crayon and make marks on paper. It is good to encourage this as it helps them develop the muscles in their hands. You can encourage colouring as well using those large colouring books with big pictures. Don’t worry about colouring within the lines, just encourage the action.
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There are also activities you encourage your child to practice which help build the hand muscles and teach your child the “pincer grip” which is needed for holding a pencil. Activities like threading beads, using a pair of tweezers, and pinching clothes pegs are great for helping children to practice their pincer grip. Activities like kneading play dough, pressing LEGO-type blocks together, and cutting paper with a pair of scissors are terrific hand strengthening activities.
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You can also read more here:
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https://figur8.net/2014/11/02/mark-making-and-emergent-writing-supporting-childrens-writing-at-home/
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and here:
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If your child is moving more it may be that this is now her interest to develop. Children go through phases of intense development where their focus is on that one thing they want to master. This can be more intense in some children and that may be why she isn’t interested in books right now because she wants to move and has discovered that movement allows her freedom to explore.
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What you can do is find a quieter time to bring out the books. For instance when she’s having her milk bottle or nursing time? Winding down before bedtime.
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Sometimes it can be the topic. When a child is intently focused on one topic, they are not interested to hear about other things. My elder boy was like that. His focuses were so intense, I could only hold his attention if I brought out things about trains. He would only wear clothes that were the colours of his favourite trains. When he went to playschool, his uniform was the wrong colour and he wouldn’t wear it. In the end, I bought iron-on train appliqués to put on his uniform so he would wear it. I could only teach him things if I could find a way to relate them to trains.
