Headstart Programs for Baby

Headstart programs for baby can either enhance or inhibit their future success and achievement in school. Pushing too hard too early can have serious negative implications later in life.

I have seen many children freeze with anxiety and nervousness when reading or approaching new tasks from early pressure from parents to learn and perform early.

We must provide opportunities for early learning that send pleasurable signals to feed the brain. Any tasks that send tense or painful signals will steer the child away from learning.

The best headstart program parents can offer their baby is one that involves the child learning in a natural cycle, suitable for their level of brain development.

If the brain is incorrectly wired early in life from hefty headstart programs, it can seriously inhibit their learning and success.

How reading will give your child a headstart.

The best way to build a child's vocabulary is through reading regularly and conversing regularly. A child's vocabulary level upon entering school will immensely help or hinder their comprehension.

The vocabulary and words that a child knows upon entering school determines how much they will understand what the teacher tells them. Your child's personal vocabulary level will either feed or frustrate their understanding and comprehension of concepts.

From my knowledge as a teacher, once a child starts to struggle or get behind in class, they have to work extremely hard to keep up. More times than not, the gap widens and is very difficult to regain.

Reading to baby early helps to build this vocabulary level so that they have a strong chance of a good background knowledge of their world and ready to understand their instructors at school.

The simplicity of regularly reading to baby or child is that it's not the toys in the house that will impact on their future success. It is the words in their minds that are valuable to learning.

A child's reading ability affects their entire report card as reading is truly at the heart of education. The knowledge of almost every subject area in school stems from reading. You need to be able to read the science experiment, you need to be able to read the maths problem, you need to be able to read the questions in your exams to understand the tasks.

Headstart Programs - More on building your baby's vocabulary:

Many people think the best way to build a baby's vocabulary is simply to talk a lot to them. While this is still recommended and very wise, many people overlook the impact that reading to baby can have on their vocabulary acquisition. It is actually proven that conversation is inferior to print and reading when trying to build vocabulary.

It is the less common and more rare words that we use when talking or reading to baby that effectively builds their vocabulary and consequently strengthens their reading.

Childrens books and even picture books are known to use a significantly higher rate of rare words than those spoken in everyday language around the home. In order to expose baby to more rare words to build their vocabulary, we must read to them. By this we don't mean read the encyclopedia. Simply read books that interest them and are pleasurable.

Put simply, the best headstart programs parents should consider for their baby is not workbooks, drills or skills programs.

Parents simply need to read regularly and consistently to their baby and talk often. Remember that babies and children learn the most from their parents.

Vocabulary and background knowledge are the key prerequisites before starting school.

The Brainy Bambino's My Baby Can Read Program explains exactly what, when and how parents can help their baby learn to read.