The Catskill Chronicle

Twice Divorced by Grayce Goin

Dear Twice Divorced:

I am expecting my first baby soon, a daughter, and eagerly await her arrival. This is a time of anticipation, questions, concerns and plans for her future.

Something I do find very confusing are all the programs aimed at making one’s child brilliant at a very young age. I have friends with children between the ages of two and five spending a great deal of money on some of these programs in the hope of giving their children a great start with very early education. Sadly, I’ve also seen these same friends’ frustration at every turn when their kids aren’t willing participants to their parents’ wishes and well intentioned goals. This aside from the expense incurred from the costly programs doesn’t sound very promising to me.

I do want to give my daughter the best start possible, and I don’t know what to do. Would you recommend any of these programs?

Confused in Clifton

Dear Confused:

Since receiving your letter I have done a little research on some of these programs and the results are about what you would expect.  About one half of the reviews are pans and the other half are raves. Cynic that I am, I suspect that at least some of the raves are written in-house by the various product manufacturers.

My recommendation is to go with the tried and true practices. Read to your baby from day one with lots of inflection in your voice.  You can be reading anything from Plato to a motorcycle maintenance manual – as long as your vocal tonality varies. Sing to her – make eye contact frequently, when she starts crawling, get down on the floor with her and tell her the names of things as you crawl about the rooms.

I recently came across an article in Scientific American – Mind which related the results of a study done with two year olds and how they best learn to recognize colors. The bottom line of this very convincing study was that the American habit of saying things like red balloon and yellow banana actually delays toddler’s color recognition abilities. That structure makes the child perceive the adjective red as part of the noun balloon. Instead you should say the balloon is red or the apple is green or the sky is blue. The same sentence structure applies to learning numbers – look at the dolls,  there are three of them; pour a few cheerios-type cereal pieces on her highchair tray, count them then say there are five of them.

Since children learn by example, they should see you reading and enjoying music and exploring new things to help stimulate their intellectual curiosity. Think of all the accomplished women of the past and present; they did very well indeed with these overpriced parent pacifiers.

Enjoy your baby, and

Be Well