Glenn Doman’s Method in Practice
To risk a new educational approach, a “Challenge to Literacy” was the least that I
could do to contribute to the modifications of our antiquated educational system.
To challenge the present day process of eliminating illiteracy is an obligation for all
serious educators. Perhaps it was because of this conviction that I did not hesitate
to teach my babies to read. What damage could be done? None whatsoever!
There is much controversy among specialists over the best methods to facilitate
learning in infancy. While these controversies continue, we parents and educators,
who are in contact with our children since birth, must not prevent the appearance of
solutions.
We must struggle and find the solutions. We need to see the possibility of a new
educational approach. Is it utopian to imagine 4 year old children entering school
already literate? How much time and effort would be saved in society and in the
educational system as a whole?
In the world of stimuli that they are exposed, the ability to read is a tangible
concept, among others, that they manipulate (with their eyes) and as a concept is
assimilated, absorbed. The experiences that follow from this are accommodated,
resulting in a growing necessity to acquire always more of the concept, the ability to
read. The activity of reading, which began as a game, becomes itself a game all the
time. As the game is played more and more, more does the child wish to dominate
the game itself. The fact that reading is a spontaneous game, made real by the
child’s own mind, shows that mental activities are the only things that we really
learn, and as such, lead the baby to dominate real objects and their abstractions
during her integration in the family and in society.
Glenn Doman, the director of The Institute of Human Potential, in Philadelphia,
initiated a clinical project, working in the beginning with children with brain defects,
which led generally to unexpected results. He perceived that problems with the ears,
eyes, feet, among others, could be minimized if the treatment began in the mind.
He introduced an approach which emphasized the brain with the objective to detect
and resolve problems of other organs.
In this difficult task, he discovered that even a child with millions of dead brain cells
may perform and learn certain tasks that were considered impossible. He noted that
a child with half the brain removed appeared to perform equal to another child with
an intact brain.
The challenge presented itself in the form of the question “Why would not a child in
normal conditions not have a better performance, perhaps a factor two better, than
a child with cerebral problems?”
Asked was could be wrong with the education of normal children, Glenn Doman
discovered that we were teaching children to speak, to listen, but giving no
opportunity for them to see the words, that that would lead obviously to the ability
to read, if we were to do so.
He suggested to parents that they begin a “smooth revolution,” increasing letter size
and showing them to children daily, in the form of a game. He verified that they
would learn well, and successfully.
In his book ‘How to Teach Your Baby to Read’ Glenn Doman prepares the parent to
confront the controversies and prejudices. He presents in Chapter 7 his method,
which if only seen superficially, can appear as a useless ‘recipe’, which would lead to
nothing.
In my book “Babies Can (and did!) Read”, I can say that I have tested such a ‘recipe’
and that it is not what it seems to be initially; this ‘recipe’ is, above all, a true
instrument which will conduce to an effective revolution in human education, of the
normal child. The application of Glenn Doman’s method to my three children, which
will be briefly explained in the following pages, was the scientific validation in Brazil
of the applied and experienced method, added to its respective results. The results
obtained and annexed at the end of my book will serve to foment new research in
the educational field, and will give way to more inquiries into the workings of the
educational system and in the ways we have been dealing with our children since
early childhood. Let’s all ‘Challenge Literacy’ and with it, increase our babies
learning!!!
Eliane Leao, PhD
Challenge to Literacy (c) 2006
http://www.baby-can-read.com
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Dr. Eliane Leao is a native of Brazil, South America. She has a
background in Education from Purdue University (Masters) and a PhD in the
Department of Educational Psychology from the State University of Campinas
(UNICAMP)/Purdue University (Ph.D.). Dr. Leao has also three Bachelor’s degrees,
one in Piano, another in Musical Education, and a third in Voice. Dr. Leao is
currently a professor of Music Education and Music Therapy conducting research on
the influence of Music in Early Childhood Learning.
Her ‘babies’ have grown to become productive members of their
communities. Dr. Leao hopes that the trials and successes of her family may inspire
and convince other parents to stimulate their children during early childhood so that
they may enjoy a rich, stimulating, integrated, and happy life always.