An infant's mind develops every waking moment of their life, and this occurs predominantly in the first few years of life. Experts suggest this is the best time to teach a second language also. With that information, it makes many of us wonder what exactly our infant is capable of. There are popular programs available that claim they can teach your baby to read, even as early as 9 months old.

A lot of parents got caught up in the hype about "Baby Einstein" products, which were believed to somehow make your child smarter by exposing them to artists, music composers, and other well-known brainiac greats of the past. These products also targeted a very young audience- babies! Logically, I can't imagine how any of this would make a child smarter- do you suppose geniuses of the past had these helpful videos?

It seems right to assume teaching your baby to read would be more beneficial sooner than later, instead of at age 5+ when their learning curve lowers significantly. Reading ability is a direct correlation, in many studies, with higher confidence and better school performance. There are, however, no long-term studies to suggest that these early learning programs have a direct effect on how successful a child's future will be.

It's pretty impressive that a baby can begin learning the fundamentals of reading. The program in the video is "Your Baby Can Read", and states that it is very different than "Baby Einstein" or "Brainy Baby" products. Specifically, it helps an infant connect visual, audio, and speech together by showing a word while saying the word, and using it in relevant context. The latter two products did not make the same connections.

Yes and no, but mostly up to you as a parent. The "Your Baby Can Read" video disturbed me because it looked like some of the infants were bored or not enjoying themselves and everything seemed mechanical. Several reliable child psychology studies agree on one thing; infants learn by playing and interacting. I'm not sure how interactive these programs are or if they're a way to help parents feel less guilty about babysitting their children with a video or dvd.

Children also learn a lot through the examples in their environment, and if the parents are reading, then the child will most likely enjoy reading as well. I think a child should lead the way- teach them and talk to them about what they are interested in and read them books about those interests. Overall, my vote goes to spending time in a variety of learning conducive settings, not solely in front of a TV screen or a one-size-fits-all program. The creator of the prgoram mentioned above, initially tried these methods on his own daughter, but he never mentions how she turned out- is she above average intelligent, more confident; there aren't any studies, especially long-term to suggest this has any benefit, or possibly harm.