“ Brittney is 12 months old. Britney’s mother bought a program to teach her baby to read. In this program, parents are instructed to present flashcards three times a day to their baby.” Discuss the potential pros and cons of the effects of this intervention on Brittney’s intellectual functioning as well as her social functioning.
Flashcards are useful in that they help kids become good readers from an early age. Moreover, flashcards give the kids the 'Mathew Effect' whereby the good readers from the word go become better readers while the poor readers become worse as time progresses. As such, it is notable that flashcards have a long-term effect on the reading progress of the child. Furthermore, early childhood educators suggest that teaching kids to read before preschool is advantageous as it eliminates learning problems that may arise later (Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, & Eyer, 2003). Besides that, it is notable that those kids who begin to learn early are more likely to excel than those who wait to join the school. Studies also show that kids who can read from as early as 12 months most times take reading as a hobby and most time use it to avoid boredom and truancy.
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However, using flashcards also has its cons such as the development of poor eyesight by the child. Research conducted earlier indicates that engaging in reading at an early age for kids leads to vision problems that may last a whole lifetime. The other disadvantage of flashcard readings is that it robs the children of the important developmental stages that are only learned outside such as tasting, touching smelling and experiencing. This may make the child miss some of the important cognitive development stages (Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, & Eyer, 2003). What is more, teaching a child to read at an early age is time-consuming; as a result, many suggest that reading should be taught beyond the age of ten years when the child can understand better. Moreover, not all kids who are subjected to reading this early are successful at it. This then becomes disadvantageous as it sets the child up for failure.
References
Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R. M., & Eyer, D. E. (2003). Einstein never used flash cards: How our children really learn--and why they need to play more and memorize less .
