Our Doman Program

We are modelling our learning approach on the Doman Program so I thought it would be wise to include a summary of the Doman program for you all!

Glenn Doman Summary from Brill Kids website;

Glenn Doman is a physical therapist and a pioneer in the field of child brain development. In 1955 he founded The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP), a non-profit organisation providing teaching programs and books designed to improve and accelerate the mental and physical development of normal as well as brain-damaged children.

The IAHP was originally set up to develop the capabilities of brain-damaged children through intense programs of mental and physical stimulation. Starting from the 1960s, the IAHP began offering courses aimed at accelerating the development of normal children. Methods taught on these courses drew on many of the techniques used to help brain-damaged children. Doman’s books include How To Teach Your Baby To Read (1964), How To Teach Your Baby Math (1979) and How To Teach Your Baby To Be Physically Superb (1988). Doman’s daughter Janet (director of the IAHP) and son Douglas (vice director) have also contributed to the literature. In 2006 Janet coauthored (with Glenn) How Smart Is Your Baby?: Develop And Nurture Your Newborn’s Full Potential, while Douglas authored How To Teach Your Baby To Swim: From Birth To Age Six.

The Domans’ books are available from the IAHP’s Gentle Revolution Press. On the IAHP website, Glenn Doman explains that the objective of his “gentle revolution” is “to give all parents the knowledge required to make highly intelligent, extremely capable, and delightful children, and, by so doing, to make a highly humane, sane and decent world.”

So what does this mean for us? Well from reading the books (Yes, we have all 7 of them!), we have learnt that tiny children are capable of FAR MORE than we give them credit for. Traditionally we sit around and wait for them to accomplish goals rather than encouraging them to explore, experiment and learn new things. We want BC to ENJOY learning, because learning new things is FUN! What makes learning painful is the way in which we test children, suggesting that we don't believe that they know it, and we want them to PROVE it.

My husband and I both have a love of learning new things and we hope to instill this in BC. EVERYTHING a tiny child does is learning, whether it is playing with Mummy and Daddy, playing with his toys, playing on his own, going for a walk, going to the shops or reading stories and looking at flash cards. It is all learning and all fun. Proof that little children can learn to read and recognise words is evident in simple everyday examples such as a little one getting excited when pulling into the McDonalds car park or wanting the box of cereal with the Wiggles on the front. They learn these things (from TV and experience?) and then apply them to real life.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm not explaining it properly so feel free to check out their website, http://www.iahp.org/ and http://www.gentlerevolution.com.