Is Your Baby Can Read a Scam? Reviews and Complaints
I saw this commercial on TV called “Your Baby Can Read” does anyone know if this really works? Or is it a fake scam? I am a teacher, but I have not seen any evidence that it really gives babies a leg up in reading later, and although I do not have any reason to this program would be detrimental, I do not feel to comfortable with the idea of using cards or teaching a baby.
I would much rather interact and experience with my child. It’s been a while since I took a child development class, but I believe that babies can pick up a lot just from playing and interacting, noticing what they’re interested in, whether that’s words and letters, numbers, animals, whatever. So has anyone tried this or is your baby can read a scam?
I was also was thinking i might buy it. But I feel like its out of my price range. i’m going to make my own flashcards. I do not understand why we should pay so much for flashcards?
Plus there are alot of Your Baby Can Read complaints all over google. It could be a scam but i would love for my baby to be able to read at a young age. I think this would give him a huge head start.
I would love to know if its legit too. I see both sides tho. I found complaints of your baby can read customers and I found people that really said it works great. But Im sure if you put time into teaching your baby to read you can be successful.
I have the program and my baby is just one year and can read. He never holds a book upside down he even knows when individual letters are upside down. I am tired of all this scam sh*t. It works if you follow the directions.
My children read just as well or better than ‘Graham’ who was featured on the commercial. But unlike Graham, and the poor children of the parents who buy this junk, WE actually SPENT TIME interacting with our kids. WE taught them. We didn’t plunk them down in front of the boob tube with this product. Besides, after spending all that money, you STILL have to interact with your kids. Parents are the primary teachers of their kids, so if you ignore them and abandon them to a DVD, what message are you sending? The benefits you do in fact get from this product can be had just as well or better for $2.50 in overdue charges at your public library.
I am simply blown away by the negative comments about Your Baby Can Read.
This program is amazing. My 16 month old daughter LOVES the cards. And to correct some of the comments above, you don’t simply “plop you kid in front of the tv.” You work with them on the cards. They are not standard “flash cards” either. The fonts are different, colors are different and each one has a picture that the child can view.
To second Jenna, my daughter never ONCE held a book upside down and can quickly spot and identify animals from the cards.
This is a great product and the people who are condemming it simply have never tried it. They form their opinions simply from watching the infomercial.
How sad. Their children could benefit tremendously…
The your baby can read is not a scam. There are a lot of parents that do not know how to teach their kids and this will help them. If teaching was so easy, why do you have to get a degree to teach.
The kit is all about the up sale, just like everything you buy in life. Buy the DVD and get the words from the dvd or search for them on google ( your baby can read word list) and write them on index cards. Kids will want to play all day if you let them. This is the start of structured learning. Watching a dvd for 15 min twice a day is not much TV. that is the same as on episode on Sponge Bob. and there is no educational value in that.
If your child is bored watching this then they are watching too must TV including videos. Work in a daycare and preschool …The kids that “LEARN thru PLAY ONLY” get a rude awakening when they have to sit down in Kindergarden.
and the whole site words vs phonics debate is crazy. kids need both skills. phonics skills are used to add new words and site words are used to increase your reading speed. if people used phonics on the SAT they would fail.
no reading system is the say all, end all. when my child gets a little older i will get hooked on phonics too.
as a parent you have to expose your kids to a lot to build up their confidence and learn to follow instructions and be social. you know tee ball, gymnastics, music lessons and all that stuff.
btw Brainy Baby is good too … english is the closest to this. and Baby Einstein is not that good.
Here are my Reviews, I bought Your Baby Can Read for my grandson before he was born. He will be a year old in two weeks. He can read letters and words in children books. At this point, he points out words he recognizes on signs, posters, etc. In addition, he has been learning to sign. What really convinced me this works is when he started making the signs that relate to printed words when he saw them. We had not tried to tie the two together prior to his doing it on his own. It takes a lot of work from the parents and grandparents to teach him, since it is not just ploping him in front of the TV. Like Michael said, you work with the cards also. We have also started reading other books with him. He is able now to pick up new words from them.
no no no!! teach phonics!! there is no logical learning to this program. i’ve taught phonics and seen great results. the baby can read starter DVD teaches kids to RECOGNIZE, not read words. of course kids can “read” gorilla when there’s a picture of a gorilla sitting there. kids need to learn the fundamentals, and to sound words out. YOUR BABY CANNOT READ!! i know kids that have used this and can recognize lots of words, but are now behind in ACTUAL reading. As an experienced child care provider, who has seen a wide range of children’s capabilities, in public and private care, dont buy it
I’m just wondering if the video really helps or not. Your Baby Can Read comes with a DVD, flash cards, and a board book. has anyone thought of just using the flash cards and board book? i have a feeling the DVD has nothing to do with learning how to read. I have not purchased the product but from what I have seen from the infomercial, any parent can get a board book with the word “clap” written in it and picture of a child clapping, and then also show the child how to clap.
what the question really is is where is the evidence? when has this been scientifically proven? i looked it up on several academia research sites and found nothing. i highly doubt Your Baby Can Read teaches all babies to read fluently.
Two observations (at 2 cents apiece):
1) Most infants that are old enough to sit up unassisted can hold a book with the orientation correct! Unless they have a visual and/or nerve disorder, they are able to hold a book right side up because the pictures on the cover and in the pages tell the child which way to hold a book. It is a simple function of recognizing the things they observe around them.
2) The product is simply a way to earn revenue for the company that makes it! My mother made sure that my earliest toys were educational. I’m referring to things like bathtime books made out of plastic pages, books that doubled as a substitute for a teething ring, and most importantly, a show-and- read type of thing that she found that had a video cartoon narration of a story that was to be played in sync with it’s respective book. Many of them were little golden book based videos. I also enjoyed Sesame Street as a kid. Thanks to two devoted parents who took an ACTIVE interest in my educational foundation, I was able to read AND comprehend at the age of 33 months. It all boils down to how much TIME and EFFORT you want to put into working with your kids, period.
Now I don’t have any opinion about the product either way, BUT it does sound overpriced, and under powered for the price. I noticed that a young girl reading Charlotte’s Web was able to read and comprehend individual sentences, but completely unable to relate one sentence to the next as a whole story. It was clearly evident when she commented that the idea of Fern pulling the Ax out of her father’s hand (when he was about to ax poor little Wilbur for just being born small !?!) was ” not nice.” She got the gist of reading each sentence, but couldn’t tie them to one another.
I think that focused parenting is more beneficial than ANY overpriced, overhyped and overrated product ANY day of the week!
Interesting that people think spending 200 dollars on a reading program is a scam but are probably wasting tons of money on unnecessary toys, clothing etc. If you want your car to look nice, you put money and time into it. so is the same with this product. I started using it with my son at 6 months and he is currently fifteen months and able to read words on the cards and videos. Even if we are out shopping, and he sees a familiar word, he is able to say it and point to it. The thought that babies learn this way or that way is ridiculous as well all should know each child is different as is stated on the product. I read all these your baby can read reviews but there is no guarantee on this product that it will work for your child either. Also as far as reading is concerned, even without this program, children who are learning to read begin their learning with memory. To take fifteen minutes out of the day and have them watch this video twice or so is such a small amount of time taken out of your busy schedule but in addition to this you have to read with them and show them cards. Some parents don’t know that this type of interaction with children is so meaningful to their learning and this is a great way to build that interaction. My son loves this product and still has time to watch sesame street or nick jr. I would recommend this product to anyone rather than plop my child in front of cartoons for hours.
I have not experience using the program. But as I can tell it is just the same as teaching your child sight words. Kids learn to read by sight and memory. I taught my daughter to read and comprehend the books completely at the age of 3. If you get age appropriate books for your kids and write down all of the words that are used frequently throughout the books. Put them on index cards for your kids. They will be reading in no time. But remember your child have to be able to comprehend the books they are reading. The problem is that a lot of kids can read words, but when they are tested on what happened in the books. They can’t remember. The main focus in all of this is COMPREHENSION. To end all of this, do what you think is best for you and your child, but what will be beneficial to your child(ren) in the future, especially in this new age world of testing to get to the next grade.
As a mother, I was curious what the programs out there were about. There is nothing wrong with these approaches to reading as long as the videos are relevant and information is not forced on a child. We have the Your Baby Can Read series and we wanted a bit more so we purchased the Monkisee DVDs. I decided to try out different programs thinking if it ever became work or something she did not want to do than we could use them as Frisbees. I am truly impressed with the Monkisee DVDs as a mother and as a school psychologist, wish I could hand them out to the young children I assess for developmental delays.
Association or memorization is not reading. Studies specifically show that a child’s brain is not able to grasp the concept of decoding words at this early age. My child knew how to hold a book properly very early on due to the fact that we, as parents, read to him a great deal. Interaction, using language, and exposure to the written word will get you much further than buying into a program you see on TV. Spend time with your child, read to them, and most importantly, allow him/her to be a child!!!! In lieu of flashcards, take your baby outdoors and blow bubbles, fingerpaint, any EXPERIENCE they can learn from. Give yourselves a break, and your child! The most successful children will be the most happy and loved, not those who could read at 16 mos. Your child will read!!! Their time to read and work with flashcards will come before you know it!!!
Everyone who has said that this is a scam is completely right. I have not used this program but there are numerous studies that show children memorize and mimic actions before they can fully understand what they mean. Even in early childhood education classes they tell you that children can memorize words such as clap, stand, apple etc and will be able to perform the actions and recognize the object. But what good is it if they don’t grasp the instances when its ok to clap or stand? Or that you eat an apple and that it’s the color red? More than likely children who use this product are actually going to be delayed because they are going to have to go back and learn how to comprehend the words they are reading more than the children whose parents actually sit with them and are active in their learning.
I found this website looking for a reason not to purchase this seemingly amazing product after seeing the infomercial. I found my reason after reading everyone’s comments and realizing that no one needs this product. See, I have a child in 2nd grade who reads at a 5th grade level, who was reading simple books (not just board books) on his own by the time he was 3. In tiny tots and Pre-K his classmates would sit around him while he read them books. His grandmother and I taught him to say and recognize the entire alphabet and sat and read with him every day from the time he could speak. Any child you spend quality time with will pick these things right up. I never spoke to him in ‘baby talk’ like most people do with their babies and toddlers. It’s hard since they are so cute and little, but save that stuff for your dog who won’t be harmed by it. I always corrected him on his pronunciation, relentlessly. It’s a lot of work and takes time to teach your child to read, to write, to have a healthy sized vocabulary, to potty train – which he also did before he was 2 yrs old because I put the time and effort into it. As long as they have the means, they can be taught. If they can walk they can be potty trained. If they can speak they can learn to read, not just recognize words and associate them with pictures they’ve seen. Anyhow, I realized that since I’ve done this once I can do it again. No miracle product on TV is going to do it for me. Besides, I want to spend that time with my child. What was I thinking?
Your baby can read and other products like it are likely to work for reasons mentioned by others. The method used appears to be the old ‘look-say’ where whole words are associated with pictures (or not) and the words are ‘learned’ as remembered by letter configuration. Supposedly, this confuses the phonics learning process which should occur at some point later in education for the child…..I cannot confirm or deny this, but it does make logical sense. There was a large push years ago in education to get away from ‘look-say’ method(s) due to the various problems that surfaced later in education. Why not just teach phonics early if you want your child to read? It probably would not work as fast, but would be more effective long-term.
I think its VERY TELLING when all you whiners begin your posts with statements such as “I have never used this program before BUT…..yada yada yada scam scam scam.
99% of the people who are complaining about the product have never even tried it and are simply repeating the same crap they read somewhere else.
Its obvious that the results fully depend upon the effort you put into it with your child period. Just like anything else in life.
Yes..I plan on trying out the product and ONLY then will I return with a Yea or Nay. All these Reviews are not making me say no!
I see good things and bad about Your baby can read, but no one that has bought it has said anything bad about it. Is there anyone out there that has bought it and used it, that can say anything bad about it?
I can not tell anyone weather to buy this product or not, I can just tell you about my experience. I use to always see this infomercial and paid no mind to it.I felt like how a lot of other people felt, $200 dollars are you crazy thats a lot of money for a couple of dvds and flash cards. Then I had my 4th child, the cutest little boy. When he was about a year I started to notice hey he doesn’t talk yet and he didnt really play with the other kids at the daycare. I had him evaluated and they told me he was Autistic. I have gone through countless hours of therapy, I have him in an ABA school and he was only able to say about 2-3 words after a year of this. I saw the infomercial again and thought hey it can’t hurt. My son has a short attention span but for TV he can sit for hours if you let him. When it first came I was going to return it but decided to give it a try. I let him watch it and at first nothing, but as he went on then i started hearing little whispers coming from him. Little by little I started hearing more and more. My daughter didn’t know about the flash cards so when she heard him talking she starting writing the words on regular paper and testing him, when she showed me I was floored. I cant tell anyone if this will work for their child but for me I would have spent twice what I spent to get the results that I have gotten.
And for the people who talk about sitting your kids down in front of the TV is bad, I mean come on the majority of people’s kids watch TV,its the amount of TV you allow them to watch thats the problem, so dont blame this or any program. And speaking as a parent who works full time and have 5 kids some in different age groups you can only do so much without a little outside distraction I dont care what anyone says. If you choose to buy this product just do it, if you don’t thats cool to because what works for me and someone else may not work the same for you, hey I have 3 older kids and they learned to read just fine without this Baby Can Read product, but to those out there dont knock what you dont get.
Your baby can read is amazing! I’m a single mother and the real reason I bought this program was because I LIKE to shower! lol I figured if I could put him in a bouncy chair infront of this program I wouldn’t feel guilty about showering and blow drying my hair. I NEVER thought it was going to have a real impact on him but I firgued it can’t hurt. At first he didn’t like watching them, so I did what the instuctions told me to do and turned it off and tried it the next day. By the third day he would sit through it. He’s now 16 months and ASK’S to watch them or do the cards. He reads all 50 words AND about 20 other words hes picked up from us reading together.
Now to the person who said this is a product for people who want to plop their child down infront of the tv and not interact with them, you are SO wrong! I spend a ton of time with my son but there are times when I need a break so I can keep my sanity and this program is my break and my son and I are better for it!! He already speaks in three or four word sentences AND he’s just starting to sound out words that hes never seen before! I can’t imagine what hes going to be able to do by the time hes five and starting school.
Also for anyone who is worried about the price Toys R Us just started selling it online for $99.00!!!!!!
Sorry I finished reading the rest of the comments and i’m a litte disturbed! Does the commercial say “HEY do you want to ignore your child…..good purchase this product” lol I mean really, I bought the product AND I spend time with my child NEWS FLASH you can do both, this program isn’t an opt out of parenting !! I read to my child more now then I probably would if we didn’t use this program simply because all day long he comes up to me going “mommy book, read it please” !
I don’t know if this is a scam or not but I just bought this product at a well known home store for half the price that’s on the “Your Baby Can Read” website. Then on top of that I was able to use an in-store coupon. So my final cost was $80. So regardless if this product works, I got it for less than half the price. My first impressions of it makes me think it will be fun for my child. In fact, my child was very intrigued with the cards and books. But as the product states, you work with your child not just leave him/her in front of the tv. And since I’m a first time mom, I’m new to the game of teaching and I’m willing to give this product a try if it means helping my child learn faster, easier and while having more fun.
I honestly have to say that this product is an amazing tool for parents. The benefits of learning to read early in life will continue to be beneficial throughout the child’s life. I happen to know two girls who are now teenagers (one 16, the other 19) who used this product and have been INCREDIBLY successful; much of which can be attributed to the advantage of knowing how to read before entering school. Just sayin’ all these your baby can read reviews are real, but you need a tool to help you help your kids.
Children under the age of two should not look at television or computer screens, it’s not good for their development at that stage in life. DVD’s aren’t the best way to teach babies and toddlers, unfortunately.
I was thinking of buying this ” Your Baby Can Read ” but after reading these reviews about this company, I would suggest any parent or grandparent or friend think LONG and Hard before dealing with these people/company.
I JUST BOUGHT THIS PRODUCT AND FEEL THAT IF IT DOES NOT WORK AT LEAST IT WILL BE A FUN PROGRAM FOR ME AND MY CHILDREN TO DO TOGETHER. I FEEL IT STILL SHOWS THEM THAT LEARNING IS FUN. I DO NOT BY ANY MEANS INTEND TO JUST “PLOP” THEM IN FRONT OF THE TV AND HOPE THEY LEARN SOMETHING. ITS INTERACTION AS WELL. ITS NOT DIFFERENT THEN LEAP FROG OR BABY EINSTIEN… AND DO YOU FEEL YOU THROW YOUR MONEY AWAY ON THOSE. WHAT ABOUT DOLLS AND CARS AND OTHER TOYS? ARE YOU INVESTING IN THOSE? MY GREAT GRAND PARENTS ALWAYS TAUGHT ME DON’T TALK BAD ABOUT THINGS YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. SO FOR ALL THOSE COMMENTING ON HOW ITS A SCAM AND BLAH BLAH BLAH …HOW DO YOU KNOW? YOU MAY BE DISCOURAGING SOME ONE FROM PURCHASING THIS BASED ON YOU ASSUMPTIONS FROM THE AD YOU SAW ON TV.