I decided about two weeks ago to attempt to teach DD how a few words are spelled... she has "baby" and "hi" down right now. (She recognizes them when printed on a piece of paper or when we spell them out with her wooden toy letters.) I think we could keep going and just show her all her favorite words and she'll pick them up. She started learning her alphabet around.. 15? months and then started noticing all the letters in books and would pick them off the page. So I thought we could take the next step.
I've read comments on here about "hothousing" and I'm slightly worried about that... but I feel I'm following the child here. She likes to bring me flashcards and have me show her the word and the picture together. She learned the alphabet through signing DVDs and by bringing me the wooden letters I bought for her.
I want to hear your thoughts on teaching reading and what you think of the phonics vs whole language debate. I'm googling away, of course, but I want to hear what you've experienced with your kids.
The situation is a bit odd for me, because DD is a mostly non-verbal hearing 18 month old who knows the alphabet and can recognize two words so far... but uses her 300+ ASL signs to communicate with us. So I kind of have to teach her with the signs she knows in mind.
Last edited by islandofapples; 06/09/12 07:06 PM.
