Imagine walking into a public library and telling your six year old child to pick any book they wanted to read. Not ju
st any book from the kids section either. The thought of this scenario sounds too good to be true. But it’s not. Steve Van De Walle, creator of the “Believe It Baby!” program has made it possible to teach your baby how to read.
The inspiration for the “Believe It Baby!” program came from when Steve was studying to become a teacher in college. In a clinical observation class he saw that many of the kids struggled with reading. With his first child on the way he knew that he did not want his own child to have any difficulties at all. Using the knowledge he obtained from his books in class along with books written by Glen Doman, the founder of The Institutes for the Achievement of Human potential, he developed a program that shows parents how to teach their children to read at an accelerated level. In her kindergarten year, Steve’s daughter Amaris was able to go to a second grade reading class as a result of her language comprehension.
The “Believe It Baby!” program is built on language comprehension.
“What we are building is automaticity. We teach a word, knowledge about that word, a picture and a corresponding word,” Van De Walle said.
He also incorporates high frequency words in his program such as; ‘an’ and ‘that’. Instead of isolating these words as schools sometimes do, he gives them meaning in the context of the sentence or phrase being taught.
With both parents working in most households, Steve says that parents are relying on the school systems more now than they ever have. He isn’t putting down the school systems, though. He just believes that it takes a combination of school and home teaching to be most effective. Some of his sessions might only last for one minute. He goes on to say that they are so short because a child’s brain works so fast. A common thing he sees with his clients is that sometimes they are going too slow with the interactive play cards. After maybe a week, the child has already learned those words and is ready for more.
Love, trust and joy are the building blocks of the “Believe It Baby!” program. Steve explains, “Nobody loves their own children like their parents. The parents have to trust that their baby is a linguistic genius and can learn how to read. Joy is important because this program is supposed to be fun.” Steve also said that emotion is the superglue of his program. “If you don’t show true emotion as you do the units with your child it won’t be as effective,” said Van De Walle.
Steve would like to return the concept of family as the most important element of a successful home. He says that his program will make the time with your baby more enjoyable and you will grow more as a family. From birth to five years old, he says there is a window of opportunity to start teaching your kids to read and the best place for this is not in school but in the living room of the family home.
Michelle Johnson, a client of the program, says she was a little skeptical at first. It was when she witnessed her four year old and her 6 month old using the program to communicate between each other that she knew it was working.
Literacy Worldwide is something Steve is currently developing now. His program would be available in multiple languages and help parents from all around the world.
With a fourth baby on the way, Steve will continue to implement his program with his newborn. What his newborn wont realize until a few years into her future is that her learning experience will be documented and used to keep the “Believe It Baby!” program around for many years to come.
To find out more about this program visit BelieveItBaby.com.
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