Chapter 7 - The vital years

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The vital years	249

fact it's probably easier - because the ability to see is developed before the ability to talk. But don't take my word for it. Ask any producer of television commercials. They use the same simple communication techniques. Look at TV any night, and you'll hear someone screaming COCA COLA, or McDONALD'S - and at the same time the brand-names appear in large colored words, often tied in with a jingle that's easy to remember. And two-year-olds have broken the code. Now they can read because the message is large enough to be interpreted."21
  So Doman-trained parents not only talk new words to their youngsters - loudly and clearly - they show them the words in big type, just like TV commercials or company billboards do.
  In many parts of the world parents have found it simple common sense to label as many things as possible, so children can recognize written words as well as those spoken, starting with all the names of important things: from baby's own name to mummy and daddy, parts of the body and everything around the house. Printed letters, three inches high (about 7 cm.), are recommended.
  When preschools were combined with parent education centers in the Pacific island of Rarotonga over 20 years ago, they labeled everything in English as well as their native Polynesian language. They found it a great way to encourage youngsters to read and speak in two languages.
  In Malaysia, the Nury Institute has trained hundreds of parents to teach their three- and four-year-olds to speak and read in both Malay and English - specifically using the Doman technique.22
  English-born teacher and author Felicity Hughes has used similar methods to teach young Tanzanian children to read in both English and Swahili.23 Many of those children have then helped their parents read.
  Felicity Hughes and the current authors agree - but Glenn Doman disagrees - that phonetics have an equal part to play with the "whole word" method of learning. Of the key words in English, about half are phonetic - written approximately as they sound: hat, sat, mat, hit, fit, sit. The other half are not phonetic, including such difficult spellings as through, tough, cough, where, tight, weigh and bridge.
  Learn only "phonetics" and you'll be able to spell set, bet, get and met. You'll also quickly learn prefixes and suffixes such as un, de, dis, re, ing and ed. But you won't be able to read Once upon a time (phonetically: Wunce upon uh taim). And you won't be able to read the words from one to ten (phonetically pronounced wun, tu, three, for, faiv, six, seven, ait,

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