I have friends who let their children watch Baby Can Read, and some of those children can read many sight words as young as 10 months old. I understand they are hothousing their children.

My real question is if their children are gifted since they can sight read so young?

They may be gifted or they may not be. Hothousing makes the water cloudy so it is harder to see true giftedness.

I am very curious as to what happens to the babycanread kids around 7-8.I hope you are still around here so you can tell us if they stay ahead or not

Don't get me wrong. I am happy that their children are already sight-reading at such young age.

What is considered hothousing, and whether they are hothousing or not is not my place to judge.

I am just curious whether they are indeed gifted. Or any children who can sight-read at such young age are gifted?

No clue what it means when kids can do that but I met a mom once who had done those DVDs with her son. She said her son knew all his letters, colors and a lot of numbers between 1-2 years. She was trying to get me to do them too (everyone assumes we'd like that stuff because we sign with DD???).

I'm curious how it'll play out for those kids too.

I would say you cant tell, and I agree a better predictor is te intelligent leve of their parents as if both parents are gifted the likihood is the child will be.
People aways assume we use something like that with DD since she reads at almost a second grade level, it is nice that she rsponds very loudly..."I taught myself!" Something i guess she is proud of LOL. she is very outspoken. I am interested to see where the kids who used this method are in several years as well.

I think the difference is between "let" and "make". Parents of infants who let their babies watch DVDs are not hothousers. Parents of infants who MAKE their kids watch DVDs are hothousing.

I had a neighbor when my DS was little who put her son in a high chair and showed him flashcards. She would give him a bite of his lunch when he got one right. That to me is hothousing. Making a child, far below the expected norm, perform for food (or love or attention or whatever you're withholding).

That being said- a baby that can read may or may not be gifted. I don't think you know until you see what else they can do at an older age.

Also, children can learn to memorize words as symbols. It's not the same as learning the alphabet and reading phonetically. I spoke with a school principle who says he gets kids at his primary who appear to read well but are actually unable to read unfamiliar words.

CAMOM I am so with you on the difference between let and make. To me, if someone shows educational videos and the kids like it, isn't that better than watching Sponge Bob? If the mom is forcing them to watch it or using flashcards when they don't want to do it, that is a whole other matter. I can't force my kids to do anything they don't want to in terms of learning so it is hard for me to comprehend, but there are probably little ones out there who are more compliant and are just forced into learning. I can't imagine that is good for their creativity or self direction. We read books from the library that teach things about animals or science etc, and if my DD like it, she likes it. If a baby loves the Baby Can Read video and they aren't in front of it all day, big deal. Is the kid gifted???? I don't know. I suppose you would look for other signs that were not related to memorizing those words. If the child learns a word after seeing it once or twice they are probably gifted if he has seen the word a hundred times and finally gets it, it seems less likely (but that is at an older age and not in reference to a ten month old learning to recognize words).

I think most very young readers that are truly gifted in this area, have a 'hunger' for words, books, signs .... . We're not talking about learning from a video, but constant demand - pointing to print by the young one ... desiring to know the word and then using it next time they come across it. Somehow, and it's beyond me how, there is meaning to these squiggles - and a genuine 'need' being met, in our world of the written word. Of course this is not a basic need. I wonder how kids without access to print over the centuries applied their talent. There must be other purposes for this ability, but I don't know what.
This then moves on to the child who loves to decode, just as another loves to build puzzles ... there's a fascination. Basically books satisfy.
Again, there is the comprehension aspect. Single words and mundane sentences won't hold the gifted reader's attention for very long. In my experience reading becomes entwined with their personality, opinions can be expressed at a very young age and judgements made.
So there you have it folks, one Mom's take on this thorny subject.

Yes, books satisfy...that is exactly the word that comes to mind when I think of DD.

I do think there is a difference in letting and making a child watch....DD has an assortment of videos...some educational...some just kid movies and vidoes. When it is TV time she can choose...and sometimes she chooses the educational ones....actully I would say about 75% of the time she will choose a leap Frog, a magic school bus, or some other one that is educational. But that is her choice...I will let her watch any of them.

DD has been interested in print and words with no promting from a very young age. I can't imaging forcing DD beacuse well she does what she wants...she is more stubborn then I am. I have learned things have to be her idea. LOL

Yep Amazedmom- my DS was obsessed with Magic School Bus from 2 1/2 till almost 4. He has seen every single episode at least 3000 times! Totally his choice. It's funny now at 7 years old, he still remembers almost everything from them and considers it a "baby" show. But I use it with my 6th graders all the time for intro lessons!

DS5 was obsessed with MSB from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 as well and now considers it a toddler thing!

I think ALL kids have the ability to obtain a ton of information in the early years - just like it's easier to teach sign language or another language to a baby or young child than it is an adult or older child. And I believe this is what Baby Can Read does. It takes advantage of children's ability to process information at a young age. And for that reason alone, I don't see anything wrong with parents using it as a tool. This is like having two children, one who is nurtured and one who is ignored... the one who is nurtured will possess qualities of sympathy and empathy, love, caring, etc, and the one who is ignored will not. However this doesn't mean that the one who is nurtured won't have something in his/her genes that will allow him/her to know how to use these qualities (I'm not sure if that makes sense).

On the flip side, I don't believe that reading early in general makes a child gifted at all. And like the other posters have said, I feel it's only hothousing when you are making the child do something (or taking something away from the child if they don't) that he/she doesn't want to. Forcing it...

My first reaction to this is "oof, in that case doesn't every parent hothouse?" but on reflection, the right response is surely "smarter than what?" I certainly want to help my DS get smarter, just as I want to help him get happier, friendlier, more polite, etc.; that seems like just a normal part of parenting. I expect what you meant is something like "smarter than the child's natural level" but I don't actually think there's any such thing. "Hothousing" is just what you call providing an encouraging and stimulating environment when you think someone's doing it beyond what the child is up for (and we should all be very careful about judging that, as it's easy to be wrong if you only see a small part of the interaction). Sorry if this sounds preachy, but I get a bit fed up with how this word is often used as a pejorative that applies to Other People.

I don't want my kid to be or appear to be smarter. Not at all. I also don't want her to be friendlier or happier or more polite. She's plenty happy, friendly, and polite. She's more than plenty smart. Perhaps if she were less happy, friendly, polite, and smart, I might want to change her.

I don't think there's one right way of parenting.

I think that the term 'Hothousing' is used to frighten parents. Intelligent parents - as a group - tend to enjoy doing activities that help develop intelligence. Intelligent children - usually - are very gratifying when you interact with them in ways that promote development of intelligent. But many of us Gifties were told from an early age that if we wanted to do those activities, or - heaven forbid, learn in school, that it was 'our fault, our problem.' So when we finally have children of our own, and want to just have 'our kind of fun' with them, we are always looking over our shoulder, to see who is judging us or calling us names like helicopter or hothousers.

If you are worried about your child burning out, look into information about
Unschooling - Wikipedia, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WZcasSoFuNoJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unschooling+unschooling+wiki&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I think we must be at cross purposes. You don't think improving is part of growing up? At all? Or is it that you don't think you have any role in helping her improve as she grows up? I'm not talking about helping my DS to go up the percentiles as he gets older, not about him getting smarter relative to his peer group - just smarter (etc.) in the sense that he's 6 now and I hope when he's 7, or at least when he's 16, he will be smarter than he is now, otherwise he's had no growth in that area.

Maybe it's just a word choice issue, but both your posts seem to imply that smarter is better, and I just don't see it that way. Of course I expect that DD will change as she grows. Of course I hope that she grows into a healthy, happy person. And of course I don't think that it is healthy to stop developing cognitively or physically. I also don't think that DD would be happy if she wasn't learning new things.

But as far as my role is concerned, no, I don't think it is my job to "improve" her in the areas of intelligence, happiness, politeness, or friendliness. (Nor do I, as a doting parent, think that she could be improved upon.) My job is to keep her safe, to love her, and to help her when she asks me for help.

I think it is (largely) a word choice issue; specifically, I think we're using the word "smart" to mean two very different things. My "getting smarter" is (by my intention) pretty much synonymous with your "developing cognitively"*. As for the other distinction you draw, I'm interested in helping my DS to develop rather than in developing him against his will - although we are not unschoolers, and I do direct to some extent, so it is possible we aren't 100% in agreement!

*thinking about it, I could believe that this is non-standard usage. Sorry for the confusion if so: I'm British, so in my native language being "smart" actually means wearing polished shoes and an ironed shirt!

On the sign reading point. IMO reading Mcdonalds and Coke may not be reading, but being able to apply those written words elsewhere 'Old Mcdonald' for instance, and seeing the word 'joke' and 'getting that it's like 'coke' is. Gifted readers do this, not because it is pointed out to them, but because words appeal to them. This is just based on my experience with DS now 9.

p.s. Translation of smart - American to English = clever.

I'm going to leave the hothousing issue ... back to you guys:-)

No no, we're done - but honestly, I think the translation is not that simple (descriptively, based on how people use the words). However, if I explain why not, we'll be here all night, and I Don't Feel Like It, so I am Not Going There. Goodnight all :-)

Gotcha.

I noticed my boy could sight read a few words early on (cat, dog along with counting to 20 etc. So I got him a bunch of educational DVDs. "Your Baby Can Read" among them.

I would put them on and he would watch them sometimes, sometimes not. He never read a word off the show out loud or pointed at anything as instructed.I thought all of the videos seemed pretty goofy.

I'm also a big fan of the iphone (great for subway rides). One day I replaced the flash cards of animals etc. with the words straight off the video and showed them to him on a subway ride.
he knew them all (from "baby" to "hippopotamus".)

Turns out no matter how pathetic or goofy the dvd he gets something out of it. at 17 months I got him "Leapfrog Letter Factory" and he learn his phonic in a few days. Now he is 2 and five months spells many words and more important trys to sound words out.

Is he gifted or a bit smart I don't know for sure. I do know that he got a whole bunch of info and built on it from those silly dvds for sure.

They seem ridiculous and this is not what I expected.I'm glad I went ahead and got them for him.

may be your kid is really gifted..
congrats for that....