When you first begin your baby reading program you will need to show your baby a word between 15 and 20 times before they master it. However as you work with your baby, you are strengthening the connections in their brain.  This means that through exposure to words and written language your baby is learning the patterns of the language at the same time.  When you first begin teaching your baby to read the written language is completely foreign to them.  After a few months on a reading program your baby will be able to pick up new words at a much faster rate.  This is because you are exposing them to phonics even though they are learning to read using the whole word method.  Your baby is picking up the sounds of the letters and will master new words at a very fast rate.

In the beginning you definitely want to show the words many times, but as soon as you notice that your baby is capable of learning new words after only seeing them 2-3 times, you will have to pick up the pace of your program.  You can also introduce short phrases and sentences to keep it interesting for your baby.

When my baby was 2 years old he would pick up new words after the first viewing.  I would go to show him the words again and he already knew them.  It helped that he could speak and tell me what he knew, otherwise I may have bored him to death.  It wasn't long after this that he was reading words phonetically that he had never come across before.  It happens at different times for different children but it is certainly magical when it does.

Do you have your own story to share?  I would love to hear it.

If you want know more about how you can start your baby on a baby reading program check out www.monkisee.com.  Monki See teaches babies to read through their fun and entertaining baby DVDs and baby flash cards.