Have you been wondering what the answer is to any of these questions?  How on earth can a 3 month old baby, or a 9 month old baby really learn to read?  The answer really isn't complicated.  It happens the same way that your baby learns to speak.  Babies are wired to learn language from birth to 5 years old.  Your baby hears language beginning at birth, yet doesn't understand it immediately. It is through repetition and frequency that babies come to understand language.  Then all of a sudden, usually around their first birthday, they begin to speak.  Shortly after their first words they amaze us with complete sentences.  This is because the foundation was laid for understanding language at birth.  Through repetition and frequency your baby learned your language.

The same is true for learning to read.  In the beginning you show your baby words.  Through repeated and frequent exposure to those words, and always being told what the word says, your baby learns to read and recognize those words.  In the very beginning of your baby reading program your baby is just memorizing the words.  But them the magic happens.  Through continued expose to written language your baby can figure out the phonetic rules of the language without ever being taught phonics.  The phonetic rules are understood by your baby and then used to read new words using the very rules they have deduced.

But how can you tell your baby is really reading?  Here are some clues.

• Your baby follows the words with their eyes
• You baby will straighten a book or word card if it is upside down
• If you give your baby a choice between two words they will either look at or point to the correct word
• When your baby begins to speak they will also begin to read orally
• Your baby gets excited to see words on flash cards or in books