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Letters from Parents

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Thank you very much for your book How To Teach Your Baby To Read. My twenty-five-month-old daughter is happily and hungrily learning to

read.

 

Also, I don’t want to stop with reading since I now realize what a marvelous little human being is in my care.

 

May God bless folks like you who help folks like me be a better mother, teacher, companion, and friend to my little one.

 

P.S. I knew I was doing the word game correctly when my husband came out of another part of our apartment to investigate all the cheering and

clapping, and when my little one cried, “More words!” when we put the word game up. Here’s to learning with true joy and happiness!

 

—Abilene, Texas

 

 

 

My little girl (age two and a half) is learning to read (delightedly, I might add) by the method you outline in your book. Needless to say, my husband and I are excited and happy about your work. I believe that it is the most important current development in childhood “education” that I am aware of, and as a parent I respect you highly for it. I could go on and on, but I’m sure you’ve heard it all before…

 

—Mesa, Arizona

 

 

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We are parents of two children ages six years and nineteen months. My youngest child is being taught by your system. It works (and works well) and may God bless you for it…

 

I suppose you have been told this often enough but everyone who tries out your system cannot praise you enough. You are a much-loved man in my friends’ circle…

 

—Maharashtra, India

 

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I have a four-year-old boy who was so hungry for this he learned ten words on the first day and didn’t want to quit to sleep—was up again at 6:00 a.m. ready to continue the next morning…

 

This is the happiest discovery in my career as a mother! I only wish I had had this with my three older children (fourth, third, and first grade).

 

—St. Johns, Arizona

 

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I have just finished your book, How To Teach Your Baby To Read, and begun teaching my seventeen-month-old daughter to read. I am so excited and enthusiastic about this project. I look at this as the greatest birthday present I could ever give

her…

 

—Lowell, Massachusetts

 

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You have done the “impossible.” Six months ago, if someone had said that my two-year-old son could be reading by three, I would have said, “Impossible.”

 

—New Orleans, Louisiana

 

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Thank you so much for your innovative book, How To Teach Your Baby To Read—it inspired us to try it on my nephew. He is two years, three months old and he can now read more than fifty English words, some even rather difficult ones.

This, only a few months after his parents tried the method with him.

 

This is of great significance, we believe, considering that this little boy was born, and lives, in the Philippines, where English is not the mother

tongue…

 

—West Covina, California

 

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I wrote you about a year ago to let you know my daughter, then two, could read about sixty words. A year has passed, and I am pleased to tell you that she is now reading books like a pro. She can read just about any book now, and she understands what she reads! I thank you for your

book, How To Teach Your Baby To Read. I wish more mothers realized what an enjoyable experience it is for small children to learn. My daughter, Josie, I believe, reads much better than kids four years older (or even older!)

 

…I am very grateful to be able to help my daughter learn. She enjoys it thoroughly, and she asks me to please “play school” with her. Indeed, kids love to learn.

 

—Covington, Louisiana

 

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I first read How To Teach Your Baby To Read when our son was fourteen months old. We got a slow start into it, getting all the materials together, etc. But, at eighteen months, my son started to speak clearly and I finally began to realize that he was retaining it all! Terrific! We are real excited about it all! Thank you for opening

our minds.

 

—Falls Church, Virginia

 

 

 

I employed your method on my granddaughter at age two and she could read the Reader’s Digest at age three. Currently she is an “A” student in Los Angeles schools at age sixteen. I recommend your book to all young mothers. Thanks…

 

—Escondido, California

 

 

 

I have read your book entitled How To Teach Your Baby To Read and am thoroughly delighted with the results I’ve had with my thirty-fivemonth-

old daughter. I began teaching her only four days ago and she is grasping the words at a phenomenal rate! Of course I may be prejudiced since she is my daughter, but this program is really exciting!

 

—Orem, Utah

 

 

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…I started this program with my twin boys when they were two years old. They are now thirteen years and always at the head of their class. In fact, they have been placed by the schools in a class for “gifted” children. They were reading

fluently and with understanding by three years, and were writing by four. This experience was one of the most rewarding ones I have had in raising our sons.

 

—Maple Ridge, British Columbia

 

 

 

When my daughter was about one year old, I saw a program from The Institutes which showed brain “deficient” children who could read and babies who could recognize specific numbers of dots. I attempted to use the techniques shown

with my baby. She learned to read words at age two, read sentences by three, and whole books by four.

 

—East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

 

 

 

I wanted to thank you so much for opening an exciting world to my children.

 

When my son, Aaron, was three years old, I read your book How To Teach Your Baby To Read. Very suspiciously I began the program you outlined. Six months later, Aaron was reading a vast amount of vocabulary words. But much more to my surprise, his sister (one and a half) had learned right along with him. She picked up the words one day and one by one read through all of them. Today (five years later) my children are doing great! They love school, they love to learn. Trisha (almost seven) has written two of her own books as well as many single stories. Thank you so much for your research and your book.

 

—Newberg, Oregon

 

 

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I’m writing to tell you that my personal experience has been marvelous. I started the program with my then twenty-six-month-old daughter in February. By the end of March, she was reading [the book] “Good-Bye Mommy.” Now, at thirty four and a half months she reads everything and anything in sight. She can sound out words as well as almost any of the fifth-graders I had during ten years of teaching.

 

—Omaha, Nebraska

 

 

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We successfully taught our first son to read at an early age, using your book, How To Teach Your Baby To Read. Last May, in first grade, he tested first in his class, with a fourth-grade reading and comprehension level.

 

I must tell you that I received a copy of your book as a joke, since I read quite a bit.

My family really laughed when I used the methods on my nineteen-month-old son. But the laughing stopped when he read books at two and a half.

 

Our only problem came up when we were traveling and our son could read the fast food billboards and wanted to stop at every one!

 

—Piketon, Ontario

 

 

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Eight years ago, I happened upon your book How To Teach Your Baby To Read and decided to try your methods on my then three-year-old

daughter. It was a total success in spite of my hit or-miss approach, and she’s been reading up a storm ever since.

 

When my second daughter was born, I was determined to do it right from start to finish but while my intentions were good, time was short, and she got an even briefer version than number one. Once again it took, and she, like her sister, was reading earlier and more competently than anyone else around.

 

By the time my son came along I was totally convinced, and he is now four and amazes everyone with his skill. It has been an extremely satisfying experience for me each time and I would not have missed the moment when it all came together for each of my children, for all the money in the world. Thank you.

 

—Petaluma, California

 

 

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My father, three years ago, bought me Glenn Doman’s How To Teach Your Baby To Read and life hasn’t been the same since. He (my son) loves reading—our Friday shopping expedition takes us to the library where he spends ages reading away to himself, while I wander around supermarkets feeling sorry for mothers dragging reluctant youngsters round with them.

 

This week’s books included words like “infuriating,” “irreplaceable,” and “paraphernalia,” all of which gave him very little bother...

 

—Benfieet, Essex, England

 

 

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My son, Jason, was born in 1976 and being a single parent I lived with a group of nuns who helped me raise my son for the first couple years. The nuns had six to eight babies to look after during the day. They also had your book How To Teach Your Baby To Read and the flip cards that went with the book. They’d line up all the babies in their chairs and show the flip cards as well as a pile of flip cards the nuns had made themselves in short intervals, four to five times a day. The babies loved it and they all learned how to read, including my baby, Jason.

 

He’s twenty-five years old now and a proud father of a baby boy. Jason wants me to find a package of flip cards like the nuns used.* Do you still sell them? I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for being so intelligent and recognizing years ago that it’s best to teach babies how to read. Thank you.

 

—British Columbia, Canada

 

 

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I took your courses* in 1982 and in 1986. I loved every moment. What I received from you people was worth millions...

 

I always said (since the time they were born) that I wanted my children to grow up to be decent people, who knew how to deal with their fellow man and contribute something. My sons chose not to complete college. They were both A+ students, but they did not want to further their education. However, they are very decent people.

 

My one son is absolutely a social genius! He can talk to anyone about anything. He always makes everyone feel comfortable and welcome. I have never seen anyone like him. Everyone I meet that knows him tells me what a very special young man (now twenty-one) he is. He works in a bank, investments. I could tell you about his achievements in his job, but it’s not important.

 

My older son has just made me a grandmother. Now the Bits* and other materials

come out of storage for my precious granddaughter...

 

[His wife] told me that she thanks God every day that I raised him the way that I

did because he is a beautiful person. She never knew anyone like him. His mother-in-law spoke to me from 3,000 miles away and said she had to meet the person who raised such a beautiful person.

 

All of you helped me reach my goals. I cannot tell you that they are Nobel Prize winners, rocket scientists, or even “successful financially” in the eyes of the world. But they are decent, responsible, loving, caring, giving people who contribute to

those whose lives they touch. I often think of you, with such tender feelings and such tender tears. What I learned from The Institutes did truly change my life, and I thank you forever.

 

—Desert Hot Springs, California

 

 

 

I have just finished reading your new book How To Multiply Your Baby’s Intelligence.* I cannot tell you how glad I am that you have written this book. You clearly deserve a Nobel Prize. It was over twenty years ago that I bought a copy of How To Teach Your Baby To Read and promptly taught my three children to read long before school. The results were (and are) very impressive. I advocated the concept (and still do) to friends who have small children. I put on demos with my kids and even gave away a few copies of your book. Yet, as far as I know, no one else taught his baby to read. I suppose I know some of the frustration that you feel. As Winston Churchill once said, “Men occasionally stumble on the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.”

 

My daughter Katherine…is now a student at Bryn Mawr. She was a National Merit Scholarship Finalist and she won a national poetry contest at

the age of twelve.

 

I am now teaching my youngest daughter, Bethany, age one. No doubt a better job will be done due to your new book.

 

—Fort Washington, Maryland

 

 

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Our association with you and the Evan Thomas Institute has provided my wife and me with many opportunities to work with our son [two years and ten months old] and our new daughter, Alexis [four months], at a most precious time in

their life…

 

Alexandre is being considered by Columbia University for enrollment in their gifted children’s program. Since only fourteen children are admitted to the program out of thousands of applicants, he was required to take the Stanford-Binet I.Q. test, which was administered by the testing center

of Columbia’s choice.

 

The psychologist commented that his I.Q. is well above 160 but the test could not measure beyond 160. He also commented that Alexandre was beyond a doubt the brightest child he had personally ever tested (the psychologist has been testing children for many years). It goes without saying that he will continue with the Evan Thomas Institute Off-Campus Program in any event and we consider this the far more important program. We are convinced that the I.Q. is a direct result of your techniques and programs.

 

Please accept my thanks and best wishes for your continued good health and search for the understanding and development of children.

 

—New York, New York

 

 

 

 

Please forgive me if somehow I feel I know you personally. Please allow me now to say “Hello” after many years of thinking about you and your work at The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. The fact is I feel that whatever words I might write would be inadequate to express the gratitude and thanks I owe for the words in that book (How To Teach Your Baby To Read) and the discoveries you and your team have made and described so well.

 

I first came across your book in 1972, shortly after my son was born. It was in W. H. Smith’s bookshop in Southampton on the south coast of England. In 1973 we moved to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There, on the clear sandy beaches and in the shade of the bouganvillea, we taught him to read following your methods. At three years old he could quite happily read P.D. Eastman’s “Going to the Moon.” My parents-in-law complained bitterly when we returned to England that year that

too much time was being spent reading before bedtime and that he was too young. At seven he had a reading age of eleven, and at thirteen he won a full-fees scholarship to Harrow, to the great surprise and pleasure of many members

of a large extended family. His seventeenth birthday is in July.

 

We also used your methods with my two daughters, whose pleasure in reading and love of books is a joy to behold.

 

May I also say that February of this year my wife, Jennifer, took up teaching the possibly brain-injured child of a friend using your methods after the school inspector said the child should spend the next six months “learning” the letter C. Anyone can see the intelligence shining in the young Anna Ross’s blue eyes. She’s five

years old.

 

The secretary in the office where I work has a son aged fifteen months and she is now having a marvelous time teaching him to read.

 

Jennifer and I believe your methods could help Anna Ross improve enormously in neurological organization and enable the young child to keep up with her elder brother and younger sister, or maybe, one dares hope, surpass them. Thank you, sir, enormously, for the great work and power of your discoveries and the benefits

they have bestowed upon my family.

 

—Taunton, England

 

 

My first contact with your materials was in 1963 when my younger brother was born. My mother read your book (hot off the press) and made a bet with my dad that she could teach her baby to read. Ken was reading many words from seeing

them on the television very early. We (three sisters) all helped play the word games. Mom wrote words on the blackboard in our kitchen, and she cut up the cardboards that came in my dad’s shirts from the cleaners and wrote words on them. His baby book records that he could read fifty-five words by his second birthday, and

he could read almost anything by his third. He enjoyed writing as a young child and penned many little books, complete with illustrations. When Ken was in elementary school I was in high school, and I began teaching him some elements of algebra and geometry. He competed on math teams in high school and excels in math to this day. It would fill a book if I reiterated all my brother’s pursuits and accomplishments

as a child. I am convinced that it was the result of early education. Ken has won

a number of honors and awards, was second in his class in high school, and is presently on an academic scholarship in university where he is an engineering student. He was (and is) very well adjusted socially also.

 

Now I have a little girl of my own. Madeline is two, and I am using both your reading and math materials* with her. I also read Kindergarten is Too Late and was inspired to expose Madeline to all sorts of things: classical music, drawing and painting, gymnastics, geography, films, the Bible, swimming, and numerous other learning experiences. She has a large collection of puzzles and loves to sit for long periods of time working on them. She’s learning the states through her U.S. map puzzles, countries of the world on fiash cards, U.S. Presidents on fiash cards, etc. She is a delightful child with excellent verbal ability, a quick mind, and quite a sense of humor! I will admit to you privately that I have observed that she is

far more advanced than other children her age, and people comment on that all the time.

 

—Dallas, Texas

 

I have read with considerable interest your letter on the subject of teaching one’s baby to read. This brought many pleasant memories back to both my husband and myself, and I brought out your book, How To Teach Your Baby To Read, and noted the date was October 26, 1964. At that time our son, Keith, was sixteen months old. Just prior to obtaining your book we had read an article covering your work at

The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential on this same subject. With great enthusiasm, my husband and I set out to teach Keith to read. We printed our cards initially—quite a few of them—and launched the program when Keith was seventeen months old. The results were absolutely “mind boggling.”

 

Today Keith is nineteen years old, having graduated from St. Francis College as Valedictorian of his class in Chemistry and Biology at age fifteen years. He has been attending Indiana University as a double medical major and science student (combined M.D./Ph.D.) and will receive his Ph.D. degree a year from now (age twenty); two years later he will receive his M.D. and then will continue to specialize in whatever medical field he chooses.

 

To say we have enjoyed Keith’s accomplishments immensely would be a gross understatement. There is no doubt that his ability to read early has done much to enhance his progress throughout the years; and incidentally, socially he is a well-adjusted person—has never had any serious problem in dealing with his peers, who

have always been five to seven years older than Keith. He has always been accepted well by his classmates, teachers, and professional associates. He is an accomplished organist—having built a full-size theatre organ at age nine—and also an accomplished guitarist and singer with his own folk group at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Bloomington (Indiana University Campus), Indiana.

 

In view of your obvious delight in success stories that help take your depression away, perhaps this one might add a little light to your soul as well. We would be delighted to hear from you and, in a sense, you might consider Keith as one of

your products. I am sure you would find it a joy to meet him some day.

 

P.S. Keith is at the top of his entering medical class for the fourth year with all “A’s”.

 

—Ft. Wayne, Indiana

 

 

 

In 1964 my father imported what was probably one of the few copies of How To Teach Your Baby To Read into Ireland in order to begin my education. I was six months old at the time and went through the entire reading program and one of generally accelerated learning organized by my parents.

 

Thirty-five years later I find myself beginning my own child’s education program and have gravitated to your publications as the basis for a learning program for Mia, our little girl.I thought I would write to you since my selection was not done on the basis of any conscious awareness of your books. (My parents never told me what materials and references they used to educate me and my brothers.)

 

My choice of your program was on the basis of a subconscious comfort with the picture on the front of the How To Teach Your Baby To Read book. I reacted warmly to the fiash card image depicted on it. When I told my parents of my choice of your

book they then told me of how they had chosen the same materials.

 

I just thought you would be interested to hear of the deep and positive memories which your teaching method had generated.

 

I would also be interested to hear of any direction you could provide for source material for the Encyclopedic Knowledge* program, which I would like to develop for Mia over the next year.

 

—North Sydney, Australia

 

 

 

I was one of the early “Doman” mothers. In 1965 I was an unenthusiastic expectant mother until March and April of that year, when I read an article in Ladies’ Home Journal entitled “How to Teach Your Baby to be a Genius.” The moment I read the article it was like the Green Flash of Revelation! It opened up a brilliant and vast horizon, and I could hardly wait for the day I could begin to lead my child down this wondrous path. I enjoyed the process of making the reading cards, finding it relaxing and serene. During Heather’s first four years of life we moved from the U.S. to Chile, Peru, and Brazil, and wherever we went a supply of white poster board and red felt pens went along. When delays in shipping held things up, words were written on steamed-up windows or in the sand on the beach, and Heather was bilingual in English and Spanish, later adding French beginning in Grade One in Canada. How I wish we had also had the math program* at the time!

 

I went to school in England almost sixty yearsago and my husband attended school in Canada, and neither of us can remember any child being unable to read no matter what their economic background might be. Even in the poorest (financially) homes there was an old maiden aunt or grannie who took pride in teaching the children

their “letters,” as they would say. Recently, my husband had his first experience of a young man in his mid-twenties, a high school graduate who could not read or write. Truly, when the day comes and I stand before my “Maker” and am called to account I shall be able to say that my greatest contribution was teaching my child to

read.

 

Sincere good wishes for the continued work of The Institutes, and my heartfelt thanks for opening up the wonderful world of childhood.

 

—Honolulu, Hawaii

 

 

We bought your book How To Teach Your Baby To Read in 1964, when our firstborn was two years old. It worked like a charm. He was reading at the fifth-grade level in the first grade, excelled in every subject in every grade, found music lessons easy, won every math contest entered, and received 1400-plus on his SAT

exam.

 

At seventeen he went to UC Berkeley and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in physics. Later

he earned an M.S. from UCLA, where he was awarded a fellowship. He is now teaching college and is a resource person on English usage for the curriculum committee. My wife and I are not particularly smart, and I’ve always thought that early reading skills were what made all the difference. I have just bought all your reading and math books* for my new granddaughter. Thanks for such a fine thing.

 

P.S. My son represented California in the National

Spelling Bee in 1973 and 1974.

 

—Gig Harbor, Washington

 

 

 

 

Twenty-six years ago, I bought your book How To Teach Your Baby To Read. My husband and I began an exciting adventure with our son, John, and six years later continued with our daughter, Christa.

 

John’s birth history was not the best. I developed toxemia, was put on bed rest, and after thirty-three hours of labor John was born. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, his right lung did not infiate, and he immediately developed pneumonia. The ob-gyn doctor told me several times that John came “this close” to

being mentally retarded.

 

John walked early, at nine months, but talked late, after he was two years old. John was probably fifteen months old when we began your program. He never resisted, in fact, he frequently would get the cards and bring them to me. By John’s third birthday he could read everything. When tested in the public school system before

entering kindergarten, John was reading on the third-grade level. Also at that time, he was diagnosed as having minimal brain dysfunction. Due to his advanced skills and outstanding test scores, we were advised to move and put John in a private school where he could get the attention he so deserved. We did. John graduated from high school and went on to Stanford University, where he graduated with honors and distinction with a major in  political science, completing all necessary requirements in three years. He then went to the University of Michigan Law School, made Law Review, and was courted by the finest law firms in the United States. He now practices corporate law in San Francisco. He has been a lifelong reader. It is

indeed one of his favorite pastimes.

 

Our next child was adopted at the age of four months from Korea. We know almost nothing about her birth history. Again the cards came out, and at the age of three Christa read anything and everything.

 

Her second-grade class made a contract to read thirty books by the end of the year. Christa met her quota by October and read 360 books that year. She sailed through lower, middle, and high school and was accepted at the College of William and

Mary, where again she excels and will graduate this May with a major in finance.

 

Both children’s lives were infiuenced greatly by your work and we are forever in your debt. My husband and I offer you our most sincere thanks. Please contact me at any time for additional information.

 

—Phoenix, Maryland