TEACH YOUR BABY MATH!--By Glenn Doman
INTRODUCTION
Our study of children & their development actually began with brain-damaged children, as we tried to help them become capable of taking care of themselves. In the process, we've learned a great deal about children in general, some of which we would like to share with you here.
Brain-damaged children are those who have physical problems resulting from dead cells in their brains. There are actually two brains, a right brain & a left brain. These two brains are divided right down the middle of the head from front to rear. In well human beings the right brain (that is, the right half of the brain) is responsible for controlling the left side of the body, while the left half of the brain is responsible for running the right side.
If one half of the brain is hurt to any large degree, the results are catastrophic. The opposite side of the body will be paralysed, & the child will be severely restricted in his activities. Many such children suffer problems that do not respond to any known medication, & usually die.
It was said that nothing could be done for children with dead brain cells, but by 1955 members of our group were performing an almost unbelievable kind of surgery on such children. It is called hemispherectomy.
Hemispherectomy is exactly what the name implies--the surgical removal of half the human brain.
Now we saw children with only half a brain who walked, talked & went to school like other children. Several such children were above average, & at least one of them had an I.Q. in the genius area!
It became obvious that if one half of the child's brain was seriously hurt, it mattered little how good the other half was as long as the hurt half remained. If, for example, such a child was suffering problems caused by the injured left brain, he would be unable to demonstrate his intelligence until that half was removed to let the intact right brain take over the entire function without interference.
We had long held that, contrary to popular belief, a child might have ten dead brain cells & we would not even know it. Perhaps, we said, he might have 100 dead brain cells & we would not be aware of it.--Or even 1000.
Not in our wildest dreams had we dared to believe that a child might have billions of dead brain cells & yet perform almost as well & sometimes even better than an average child.
Now the reader must join us in speculation. How long could we look at Johnny, who had half his brain removed, & see him perform as well as Billy, who had an intact brain, without asking the question, "What is wrong with Billy?" Why doesn't Billy, who has twice as much brain as Johnny, perform twice as well, or at least better? What indeed is wrong with supposedly well children?
In the brain-damaged children we succeeded in stimulating their mental growth. We soon began to believe we could apply this process & many of the same techniques to normal children as well. One of these techniques is the teaching of very small, brain-injured children to read.
By 1963 there were hundreds of brain-injured children who could read & read well, with total understanding at two years of age. They had been taught to do so by their parents at home. Some of the parents had even taught their own well tiny tots to do so.
In May of 1964 we published a book called "How to teach Your Baby to Read." Today that book is in 15 languages, & letters have come in by the thousands from mothers around the World testifying that it is possible.
Those letters report three things over & over again:
1) That it is much easier to teach a one or two-year-old child to read than it is to teach a four-year-old; & easier to teach a four-year-old than to teach a seven-year-old.
2) That teaching a tiny child to read brings great happiness to both mother & child.
3) That when a tiny child learns to read, not only does his knowledge grow by leaps & bounds, but so also does his curiosity & alertness. In short, he clearly becomes more intelligent.
The mothers also posed exciting new questions for us to answer, & high among these questions was: Now that I've taught my two-year-old to read, shouldn't it be even easier to teach him math, & if so, how do I go about doing it?
It took 10 years for us to answer that question. But at last we've answered it, & in the process taught hundreds of children to do math easily & with a degree of success that has left us in open-mouthed astonishment!
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Mothers are the potters, & our children the clay.
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MOTHERS & KIDS--THE WORLD'S MOST DYNAMIC LEARNING TEAMS!
A hundred yards from my home is The Evan Thomas Institute with its charming young mothers, staff & very ordinary, but extraordinary, babies & tiny tots. Visiting it one morning, I found myself in a room where 3 Staff members in their late 20's were kneeling. Facing them in a semicircle are 20 mothers in their 20's & 30's. Sitting on the floor in front of the mothers are their lovely two & three-year-old children. Some of the mothers also have a baby in their arms.
A beautiful little blond 2-year-old girl is reading aloud. So absorbed is she in what she is reading that she sometimes giggles as she reads a phrase that touches on her sense of humour.
The humour is lost on me because she is reading in Japanese. Although I often work in Japan with Japanese children, my small store of Japanese is not up to her reading. When she reads the phrase that makes her giggle, the other children laugh too. She is reading the Japanese, not in English characters but in the ancient Kanji, the language of Japanese scholars.
There is only one Japanese person in the room. Beautiful kimono-clad Miki interrupts to ask the girl a question. Miki's question & the girl's reply are both in Japanese, so I understand neither. And the Japanese language class is soon over, & the cavalcade of mothers & tiny kids troops down the hall toward the next class, which is advanced math.
We've come a long way since the publication of "How to Teach Your Baby to Read" in 1964. When mothers discovered that they could not only teach their babies to read, but could teach them better & easier at two years of age than the school system was doing at seven, they got the bit in their teeth--& a new & delightful world opened up, a world of mothers & kids. It has within it the potential to change the large World, in a very short time & tremendously for the better.
By 1975 a handful of young, bright & eager mothers had discovered our learning institute, & our institute had discovered them. Together they taught their babies to read, superbly in English & adequately in two or three other languages. They taught the kids to do math at a rate that left them agog, in shocked but delighted disbelief. They taught their one, two & three-year-olds to absorb encyclopedic knowledge of birds, flowers, insects, trees, presidents, flags, nations, geography & a host of other things. They taught them to swim & play the violin.
In short, they found that they could teach their tiny children absolutely anything they could present to them in an honest & factual way.--And they found that by doing so they had multiplied their babies' intelligence.
Most important of all, they found that doing so was for them & their babies the most delightful experience they had ever enjoyed together. Their love & respect for each other multiplied.
On a particular morning a year or more ago, when I arrived at our institute's math class, helpers Suzie & Janet were presenting math problems to the tiny kids faster than I could assimilate the problems. Their answers were correct--not nearly right but exactly right.
"What," Suzie asked, "is 16 times 19, subtract 151, multiply by 3, add 111, divide by 4 & subtract 51?"
"How far is it from Philadelphia to Chicago?" asked Janet. "And if your car gets 5 miles to the gallon, how many gallons of gas will it take to drive to Chicago?"
"Suppose the car gets 12 miles to the gallon?"
I thought about Giulio Simeone & the day I had asked him what 19 squared was.
"361, but ask me something hard with a big answer."
"Okay," I had responded, searching in my mind for something with a big answer. "How many zeros are there in a sextillion?" Giulio, who was three years old & likes big numbers, pondered for a few seconds. "21," he announced with a smile. I sat down & wrote out a sextillion. There are 21 zeros in a sextillion.
Considering how extraordinarily bright babies are & how easily they learn, it is not surprising that we can teach them. What was incredible was that they had learned math better than their own parents, who had themselves done the teaching.
How could this be, & how had we learned about it?
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"Man a dunce uncouth, errs in age & youth; babies know the truth."--Swinburne
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THE ROAD TO UNDERSTANDING!
Years ago I gave a lecture in Tokyo to some Japanese parents, who had been using our methods to teach their children math. The parents, who were delighted that they had successfully taught their kids, were extremely attentive, but were still not clear on my explanation of why kids could do math faster & better than they themselves could.
I knew the reason that they didn't really understand it was that I didn't really understand, & it was I who was explaining it! Both they & we knew beyond doubt that it was so, because the children were doing math beautifully. But neither they nor I were satisfied with my answers as to why.
That night I went to bed unhappy with my own complex answers to their questions. I came awake a few minutes before six the next morning, completely alert, with what might be the answer.
Could it possibly be that we adults had so long used symbols to represent facts that (at least in mathematics) we had learned to perceive only the symbols & were not able to perceive the actual facts? It was clear that children could perceive the facts, because they were virtually all doing so.
It was the answer. It's astonishing that we adults have succeeded in keeping the secret of doing math away from children as long as we have. It's a wonder that the tiny kids themselves with all their brightness didn't catch on. The only reason some careless adult hasn't spilled the beans to the two-year-olds is that we adults haven't known the secret either.
The most important secret is about the kids themselves. We grown-ups have believed that the older you are, the easier it is to learn, & in some things this is true. But is certainly not true concerning languages.
Languages are made up of facts called words, numbers or notes, depending on which language you're talking about.--Spoken or written language, mathematics or music. In the learning of pure facts, children can learn anything we can present to them in a factual & honest way. What's more, the younger they are, the easier it is.
In reading, music & math, most adults do better than most kids, but in distinguishing the individual words, notes or numbers, all kids learn quicker & much more easily than all adults if they are given the opportunity young enough. It is easier for a five-year-old to learn facts than a six, for a four-year-old than a five, for a three-year-old than a four, for a two-year-old than a three. And it is even easier for a one-year-old than a two, if you're patient enough.
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Mothers--and Others!--Poem by Amos R. Wells
Others weary of the noise,
Mothers play with girls & boys;
Others scold because we fell,
Mothers kiss & make it well.
Others love us more or less,
Mothers love with steadiness.
Others pardon, hating yet,
Mothers pardon & forget.
Others keep the ancient score,
Mothers never shut the door.
Others grow incredulous,
Mothers still believe in us.
Others throw their faith away,
Mothers pray, & pray, & pray.
--Amos R. Wells
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It is now abundantly clear that the younger one learns to do something, the better he does it. John Stuart Mill could read Greek when he was three. Eugene Ormandy could play the violin when he was three; so could Mozart. Most of the great mathematicians, such as Bertrand Russell, could do arithmetic as small children.
In the learning of mathematics tiny children actually have a staggering advantage over adults. We adults recognise the symbols that are called numerals with great ease, from the numeral 1 to the numeral 1,000,000 & beyond without effort. We are not, however, able to recognise the actual number of objects beyond ten or so with any degree of reliability.
Tiny children can actually see & almost instantly identify the actual number of objects as well as the numeral if they are given the opportunity to do so early enough in life & before they are introduced to numerals.
This gives tiny children a huge advantage over all adults in learning to do & actually to understand what is happening in arithmetic.
Here are some final facts:
1. Tiny children want to learn math.
2. Tiny children can learn math (and the younger the child, the easier it is).
3. Tiny children should learn math (because it is an advantage to do math better & more easily).
God bless you as you take advantage of these facts with your children!
P.S. You may find when teaching reading (or math) to young children, that in order to make the most progress in the least amount of time, you need to stick to the most tried & proven method consistently, & that is Glenn Doman's new revised method of quickly flashing large-print flashcards to the children just a few times a day. This gives the children that consistent daily input with all fun & no effort on their part, & very little effort on yours! (See also the entire summary of "Teach Your Baby Math" in CCHB Vol. 2, Pages 336-339.--And the summary of Glenn Doman's new revised method of teaching with flashcards in F 17, Pg. 259-260.)
+ + +
"Teach Your Baby Math" is available from:
Pocket Books
Department CCB
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020, USA
--"How to Teach Your Baby to Read" is available from the same address, or may be found in many bookstores, in English or 15 other languages!
+ + +
You can purchase the math dot flash cards already made from:
The Better Baby Press
The Institutes for the Achievement of
Human Potential
8801 Stenton Avenue
Philadelphia, PA. 19118, USA
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"Teach Your Baby Math" kits are available from:
Jonathan Cape, Ltd.
30 Bedford Square
London, WC1
England
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"Parent's Prayer"--Poem by Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby)
Newspaper columnist Abigail Van Buren has composed a "Parent's Prayer" in which she stresses the practical side of raising children. Says "Dear Abby":
Oh, Heavenly Father, make me a better parent. Teach me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say, & to answer all their questions kindly. Keep me from interrupting them or contradicting them. Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me. Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes or resort to shame or ridicule when they displease me. May I never punish them for my own selfish satisfaction or to show my power.
Let me not tempt my child to lie or steal. And guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all I say & do that honesty produces happiness.
Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me. And when I am out of sorts, help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue.
May I ever be mindful that my children are children & I should not expect of them the judgement of adults.
Let me not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves & make decisions.
Bless me with the bigness to grant them all their reasonable requests, & the courage to deny them privileges I know will do them harm.
Make me fair & just & kind. And fit me, O Lord, to be loved & respected & imitated by my children. Amen.
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