Readers' Comments: Flashcards Testimonial

FLASHCARDS TESTIMONIAL

Mother says her son remembered

the 'bits' he learned in infancy!

Pamela Johnson's story

I came across your web site while doing a bit of web surfing, and it took me back. I thought your readers might be interested in the experiences of one of the oldest living bits makers.

We attended the very first Better Baby Institute and the first Professional Parenting training given at IAHP. (Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential.) We began my son on the program when he was four months old, and did all of the activities, including languages, reading, physical excellence and Suzuki violin, but his absolute favorite was "bits." I made hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them (all saved, by the way).

I was often asked if I really believed that he would remember all the things on the bits cards, and frankly, I really had no way of knowing at first, but I kept telling myself that I had learned a lot of nursery rhymes "by osmosis" when I was a toddler and there was no reason that more useful information could not be picked up the same way.

When my son was about ten years old, he came home with a "problem." It seemed that he found himself knowing a lot of things he could not remember ever having learned, but which would pop into his mind unexpectedly when a subject came up. A little discussion revealed that these were things we had done as bits when he was a tiny baby. He had no conscious recollection of doing them, but the information "stuck." His recommendation, by the way, is that you teach your baby all the tedious stuff that he will have to learn by rote eventually, like Latin and Greek declensions: "hic, haec, hoc, huius, huius, huius" would probably be as amusing to a baby as "itsy, bitsy spider," and it would save a lot of drilling later!

Anthony is graduating from MIT this year (with a double major in computer science and French literature - all that emphasis on a broad education also stuck!) and I have been out of the bits-making business for quite a while, but I still find myself looking at material and thinking "That would make a great bit." With computer graphics programs and all the other early learning materials I find on-line and in home schooling resources, I have ideas for hundreds and hundreds more bits which I am saving up for eventual grandchildren.

Oh, and on the subject of early reading: Anthony began reading about the same time he began talking, so I was able to take in stride the notice received from his school that according to their screening test, he was at risk for dyslexia! Actually, since he was premature, suffered oxygen deprivation and had an Apgar of 2, he was at risk for everything, and was tested constantly during his first year. At one year, he scored 167 on the Development Quotient test (also his adult IQ) and everyone relaxed. I don't know to this day whether all of the early activities we did overcame problems, or whether he never would have had any, but I can live with that uncertainty!

Editor's note: 'Bit of Intelligent Information Cards', or 'Bits' is the name Glenn Doman, the founder of The Institutes For The Achievement of Human Potential, gave to his own flashcards.