Your Baby Can Read Company Going out of Business

Associated Press ^ | July 16, 2012 | DAVID CRARY

[reaganaut1]

The company that persuaded hundreds of thousands of parents to buy Your Baby Can Read products is going out of business, citing the high cost of fighting complaints alleging its ads were false.

Your Baby Can LLC announced the decision on its website.

[reaganaut1]

I have not used "Your Baby Can Read" and doubt that trying to teach infants and toddlers does much good. But I don't think it does any harm, either, and the idea that someone can complain to the government and put an educational company out of business for "inflated claims" scares me. Can I sue the public schools and have them shut down for all the inflated claims they make? Or can I start small and sue the publishers of Everyday Math? In a free country, people who think an educational program doesn't work publicize their complaints, but they don't get the government to take the product off the shelves. Btw, the Amazon reviews of the company's products are mostly favorable. Many of the people who actually bought the product like it.

[null and void]

If it keeps one baby from learning to read, it’s worth it.

[sportutegrl]

"Your Baby Can Read"

For those who find Hooked on Phonics just too hard.

[Eva]

My grandson learned to read by the time he was 15 months old, using Your Baby Can Read. When he was two, he could read every word in his vocabulary and some that were not even in his vocabulary, like “Chimpanzee”.

I took him to a little zoo when he was 15 months old and pointed to the pig barn, which was labeled, “Pigs” and he told me what it said. I also tested him with flash cards and he was actually able to read them.

[nickcarraway]

Do they have a program to teach my dog to read?

[humblegunner]

A much simpler business model would be “Yo Chile Ignerint”.
Easily designed curriculum, minimal study time.. send money
and we can assure that at a minimum... Yo Chile Ignerint.

I missed my calling in marketing, tell you what.

[Albion Wilde]

I used similar techniques (in an earlier decade) to teach my child to recognize colors at age 4 months and to read independently by age 3. While the other parent and all four grandparents scoffed, he skipped a grade and remained a top-notch student all the way through the doctorate, in spite of several family tragedies and upheavals that statistically are found more often in kids who fail.

If you can read, you can learn or solve many other fields and problems. If you can’t read, everything is a struggle.

It is probable that the complainants expected to open a package, sneer at the instructions and have magic happen with no effort. Losers. To try to get paid off for it is evil.

[Rennes Templar]

Gov’t agencies love to protect us from such evil entrepreneurs, while potential terrorists walk across our borders daily.

[Eva]

Hooked on Phonics doesn’t work on babies. Your baby can read does.

The problem that a lot of people have with the Your baby can read program is that they allow the child to watch other tv. My daughter never turned the tv on during the day for her son.

[OldPossum]

Do they have a program to teach my dog to read?

Now that's something that would interest me. LOL.

[AlmaKing]

Actually, it’s more likely that your child was an outlier. The majority of kids cannot read at such an early age no matter how much chest thumping you do. It’s not the parents’ fault as so many would love to believe here. It’s not for lack of trying, it’s just a fact.

These ads were clearly false.

[Twotone]

My aunt learned to read at 4 while looking at the book as my grandfather read her stories. They later found she had a genius-level IQ. She used to read calculus books for enjoyment!

[texas_mrs]

I never used any product like this to teach my kids, but don't doubt that it does them some good. I think teaching your child to read is the number 1 thing a parent can do to ensure their child's success. When my youngest was born, I read to her every night before she was even sitting alone. She paid attention to the pictures and then later, apparently, the words, because before she even started school she began to read billboards, trucks and packages to me. And I don't mean she recognized the brand names, etc., she was reading words she could not possible guess at. Later in school, she was reading at a 12th grade level in the 6th grade & is a spelling and grammer nazi. She began college last year with the idea of a degree in English, but changed to geology by the end of the year.

Today, she is playing with the Tarleton band for Governor Perry at a political event. She's not too impressed, though, as she considers him a rino, as do I.

[JaguarXKE]

I’m waiting for “Your Baby Can Do Analytical Calculus.”

[MrB]

“Your Baby Can LLC”

hmmm... your baby can form business entities?

[texas_mrs]

Agreed! If you don’t do another thing for your child’s education, you give them a great gift by instilling the ability and love for reading and open up a whole world of possibilities within their reach.

[nickcarraway]

You should definitely punish your children severely, if they don’t read by age 2. That’s good parenting.

[KarlInOhio]

I’m waiting for “Your Baby Can Do Analytical Calculus.”

Your baby can do seal training. Either the SEAL type of silent infiltration and killing or seal tricks of balancing a ball on his nose and catching a fish in mid-air would be cool.

[OB1kNOb]

I certainly attribute the YBCR program in large part to our 4 year old granddaughter’s ability to read so well.

[ScottinVA]

I’ve never used it for my kids or granddaughter. I’m a believer that children should learn to read the old-fashioned, phonetic way.