Doman method of early development how to apply. The opinion of experts on classes according to the Glen Doman method at home

Moms dreaming of raising a child prodigy learn from promotional materials that the Doman technique works real miracles. Manufacturers and sellers of didactic materials themselves are unlikely to delve into all the subtleties of the system, they need to sell products. Take your time to lighten your wallet, get familiar with the system first. Turn on your imagination and imagine what the life of the whole family will turn into under such a regime. Think about what activities can be applied at home, what and when you need to purchase, and what you can make yourself.

The emergence of the technique

American physiotherapist Glenn Doman dealt with the rehabilitation of children with pathologies of the nervous system. Based on the collected materials, he developed a methodology for educating young patients. He used his system at the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential, which he founded. The recovery system gave good results, the condition of the patients improved. Patients of the pioneering doctor showed amazing success. Paralyzed children began to move, patients with intellectual disabilities received reading and counting skills.

The scientist noticed that during the rehabilitation of children according to his method, healthy parts of the brain also activate their work. This led him to decide that some of the system's recommendations could be adapted to raise a healthy baby. Doman's book Harmonious Development of the Child, about early learning to read, swim and other skills, has gained great popularity. The author argues that if the child is regularly engaged in the physical exercises given in the work and uses simulators for the brain, he will begin to walk and read much earlier.

For more than 50 years, the system of early development has been used all over the world. Based on his observations, the scientist concluded that the baby is born programmed for learning. Until the age of 3, the brain actively grows and forms, at which time it, like a sponge, absorbs new information, and at preschool age this process slows down. The most productive time is from 0 to 4 years. The period is not too long, so classes should be started from the first days of life and carried out several times every day.

The fundamental idea of ​​the methodology: physical and mental development are interconnected. A special gymnastics complex stimulates thought processes, the child becomes both healthy and smart. Unfortunately, not only parents, but also some information resources ignore this fact. On the sites you can find separate information on intellectual development or on physical exercises. But the methodology of Glenn Doman is one, it cannot be divided into parts.

Physical development

Before deciding what are the pros and cons of any technique, you need to at least briefly read its description. It is necessary to begin the physical development of a child from the first days of life, any reasonable person will agree with this. The whole question is how much time and how to do gymnastics. Well, if in your city there are groups for the physical development of newborns. Before signing up for classes, be sure to check if the instructor has an official certificate and permission to work with newborns.

All complexes consist of 3 groups of exercises:

• crawl;
• manual exercises;
• developing a sense of balance.

Glen Doman recommends that immediately after birth, forget about diapers that hinder movement and put the baby in a special track where the baby can push off the walls with arms and legs - this is how crawling skills will develop. Any mother will be glad if her newborn can crawl a few meters at 2 months, but before such training, you need to consult a specialist. The spine, bones and joints of the baby develop according to a schedule determined by nature, and inept gymnastics can disrupt the formation of the musculoskeletal system.

Modern mothers often completely refuse diapers, and then complain that the baby does not sleep well. Before going to bed, it is better to loosely wrap the arms and legs so that their involuntary movements do not frighten the newborn.

Manual exercises are based on an innate reflex. The baby firmly grabs her mother's fingers, and the woman first lifts him slightly, and then holds him in a half-hanging position. To develop balance, the author of the technique recommends using turns in different planes, tossing up. The same training involves dynamic gymnastics, which is common in Russia.

If you fully follow the Doman system, all periods of wakefulness should be devoted to either physical education or intellectual pursuits. Approach the recommendations wisely, leave time for communication with your mother, playing with rattles. The technique recommends completely abandoning toys. No pediatrician or child psychologist will support this theory. The kid must learn the world through all the senses, he needs time to touch, shake, lick as many different objects as possible. Allocate reasonable time in the daily routine for both gymnastics and entertainment.

intellectual development

Doman argues that with proper physical development, the baby's brain is ready to learn to read and count already in infancy. You can purchase expensive didactic materials, or you can make cards yourself. Is your baby already 3 months old? So, according to the author of the methodology, it's time to start.

For work, you will need cards on which simple short words are written in large red letters: “mom”, “dad”, “house”, “ball”. Show and say the names of objects several times a day. Gradually, the tasks become more difficult. The author of the methodology is convinced that you need to start reading not by letter, but by remembering the whole word. The basics of mathematics should be studied not by abstract numbers, but by points on a card.

For training, the baby should be comfortably seated or laid down if he is still too small. For 2-3 seconds, bring a card to his eyes and clearly name the word or number. The distance between the face and the text should not exceed 60 cm. For the first lessons, take 5 cards and show them one after the other 3 times a day. Every 5 days one of the words is replaced by another.

To keep the baby interested, organize learning in a playful way. Words may suddenly appear before his eyes and suddenly disappear. You can accompany the show with your comments or a demonstration of the relevant toys. There are no strict criteria in how to conduct Doman classes for kids, each mother must understand for herself how to interest the child. Do not check how the child has learned the lesson - you just play with him. If the baby himself wants to please you, he will say a word or point to an object.

Accumulation and processing of information

For most people, the left hemisphere of the brain is dominant. Thought processes take place there, logical chains are built. The programs of educational institutions are also mainly aimed at studying the exact sciences, while art and creativity occupy a supporting position. The right half of the gray matter on a meager diet gradually degrades.

Information can also be stored in the creative hemisphere, but it must come in small quantities and have an emotional coloring, include imagination. This part of the brain does not know how to analyze a combination of symbols, it perceives only the whole picture. It is not known from where appearing and disappearing cards surprise the baby, red letters evoke positive emotions. As a result, the memory "photographs" what he saw.

Doman believed that it was necessary to maintain the active work of the right hemisphere up to 3 years, later the logical part of the brain would take over. If before that for a long time the child regularly saw flashing cards, in the future the leading role will automatically move from the logical to the emotional half and back. What consequences such interference in the natural formation of mental processes will lead to, one can only guess.

Parents can give up when after a few months of classes they do not see any progress. The author of the methodology warns that lessons should be conducted strictly according to the regime at the same time. If you are making cards yourself, you need to make them the same size, identical in everything except the text. Never miss a single class. Information will be stored in memory, but the visible effect will not appear soon. Perhaps a year or more will pass, and suddenly an insight will descend on the baby, he will begin to learn new material very quickly.

Pros and cons of the technique

One of the arguments of the opponents of the Doman technique is the fact that the baby simply mechanically remembers the information received, thinking and creative activity are not involved in the process. The scientist does not argue that the system is aimed at obtaining a large amount of knowledge, which will become the basis for research, reflection, and fantasy. It is not clear to many why a child should be able to read if the text does not cheer him up, does not make him think, it will simply be deposited in his memory as an unnecessary thing. A healthy baby is overwhelmed with emotions, fictions, he either laughs, or is surprised, or says that he saw a spider the size of a table. When practicing according to the Doman system, there will be no time or energy left for the development of emotions, imagination, and fantasy.

Psychologists and educators believe that in the classroom the child should not be a passive spectator - he needs to work together with his mother. Demonstrating cards is more like loading information into a computer than exercising with a curious live baby. He wants to take the card in his hands, touch it, chew it, try to tear it up, but the cardboard boxes just flash before his eyes. Not every child will like these lessons. It is also possible to teach a child to read in this way, he will not be able to only understand the text, enjoy an interesting book or rhythmic verses.

We should not forget that the system was developed for English-speaking countries. Spelling in Russian changed along with pronunciation, so each letter in our country corresponds to its own sound. We write the same way we speak, with the exception of unstressed vowels, unpronounceable consonants, and some other rules. A preschooler can write "sontse" or "karova", but in general the text will be correct. English spelling has not changed for many centuries, and now a large number of words are written quite differently from how they are pronounced, they only have to be memorized. Perhaps for English, as well as for Japanese or Chinese, teaching in whole words makes sense, but a Russian person is more comfortable in the traditional way.

Of the advantages of the Doman system, one can note the fact that very little attention is often paid to: the child must develop physically. If you want to use the full range of gymnastics, be sure to consult your doctor. You do not know what loads the baby's spine can withstand, what he can and cannot do. Early intellectual development also does not hurt if the parents themselves approach the issue reasonably. Do not show flashing words, it is better to put cards with drawn objects and captions for them, cubes with letters in toys. When the baby's brain is ready to perceive symbols, the child himself will be interested in incomprehensible icons, but for now, let him examine, feel, throw, gnaw on educational toys.

Don't trust publicity stunts

Early development specialists and didactic material sellers strive to attract as many followers as possible to their side, therefore they strive to show only the positive characteristics of the methodology. Often they themselves post positive reviews on information resources. It is not necessary to believe all the statements, sometimes it is enough just to analyze the statement, and it will become clear how much it corresponds to the truth.

There are many myths around the Doman technique. The most common of them:

• lessons do not require a lot of time and money;
• the system develops mental abilities;
• high efficiency, unprecedented results.

Indeed, the show will take a few minutes. Now think about how much time it will take to prepare for classes. You need to choose cards to study, periodically replace one word with another. In order not to confuse anything, you will have to keep a journal. It will be a shame for parents living in cramped material conditions to give a lot of money for ordinary cardboard rectangles, mom would rather take paints and begin to write words herself. Add to this that intense brain activity should go hand in hand with physical exercise, which should also be carefully prepared. It is possible that after this time there will be no time left not only for household chores, but also for ordinary communication with the baby and other family members. You will have no time to watch how the little man grows, to rejoice with him, to look at the world through his eyes.

Critically, one should approach the statement about the rapid intellectual development and high efficiency of the system. Perhaps the child will begin to read very early, but will he be able to perceive the information received? He memorized and began to recognize combinations of symbols. If this ability is recognized as thinking, then computers should also be declared intelligent beings. The effectiveness of the technique was tested by specialists from well-known scientific centers, but was not confirmed anywhere. On the contrary, American scientists issued several warnings that Doman's classes are useless and dangerous for the child's psyche.

Russian pediatricians and neurologists are also sounding the alarm. They noticed that often disorders in the nervous system occur in babies whose parents believed in miraculous methods. The child's brain is not yet ready for such activity; first of all, the areas responsible for vital functions (nutrition, respiration) mature in it, then the motor centers become ready for work, and only then areas of intellectual activity are formed. Simply put, a newborn should sleep and eat, an older child should run, jump and play, and only then sit down to study literacy. If this order is violated, the blood supply to the brain regions will be distributed according to the wrong pattern, vasospasms will occur, leading to poor sleep, enuresis, and tics.

The symbol method can be used to enter information into electronic systems, and the child needs to live not in the world of symbols, but in a single information space. After reading the word "apple", he must remember the huge red fruit on the branch, remember its taste and smell. With intense mental work, the baby has neither the strength nor the time for imagination or emotional communication with family members and peers. If isolation does not lead to mental disorders, then it will be very difficult for the child to enter the school team, to find a common language with classmates.

Mom wants to be proud of a child prodigy, but does the baby need such a fate? The child is not a guinea pig and not your property, it is an independent person, and parents do not have the right to distort his life for the sake of their vanity. Ask any parent if they want their 12 year old daughter to get pregnant. Not! And why, if she physically already had such an ability? Remember this example when you want to teach a baby to read or play Beethoven's sonatas.

All parents wish their children well and all want to see them happy. But each of us has a different idea of ​​how to help children find happiness. Love in general and parental love is especially expressed in the desire to develop the object of one's love. We want to see our kids smart, developed and, of course, successful in the future. But how can this be achieved? There are many methods of early development of children. Let's take a look at one very well-proven Glen Doman's child development methodology.

A bit of history: who is he?

Glen Doman- a scientist who lived a wonderful 94 years filled with war, research and important discoveries for us. was born in Philadelphia, USA in 1919 and trained as a physiotherapist on the eve of World War II. He volunteered for the front, fought bravely in Europe and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. After the war, he began to study the possibilities and reserves of a person, created the organization "Institute for Achieving Human Potential" and began working with children with lesions of the central nervous system.

As a result of his research and practice, it was created, thanks to which sick children are restored, and healthy children develop and learn quickly. Author of many popular books Glen Doman tells them how to teach child read according to the development methodology; how to restore a child if he has brain disorders and how develop a child who has learned early reading.

Glen Doman Method. Description

And now about the method itself, about how the scientist came to his method and what results he got. Glen believed that the human brain is limitless in its possibilities. The reserves of the brain are especially great in the first three years of life, so you need to start the baby as early as possible. It is advisable to start at six months. At the same time, the author unique development methodology believes that child no need to motivate to discover the world and learn, he himself is set to discover and learns with pleasure.

The more information the baby receives, the faster it learns and is ready for a new portion. The later the learning process begins, the less interest the child has in learning and the more difficult it is for him to learn.

By the age of six, he believes Glen Doman, the capabilities of the child's brain are greatly reduced, the child is learning more and more difficult and he is no longer so interested in discovering the world and learning new things.

It involves a combination of motor activity with intellectual learning. This gives good results, the author of the technique himself spoke about them in his books in the 60s. He strongly recommends from the first days of life to help the child move, learn to crawl, grab objects, roll over.

And so that the baby begins to develop physically faster, according to development methodology of Glenn Doman, it is necessary to make a small chute along which to let the child, helping him to crawl. You need to do this every day for a few minutes. In general, such physical exercises can take up to 4 hours a day. Physical activity, claims author of child development methodology, helps to activate the baby's brain from the first days. He sees the toys, he tries to take them, he follows them with his eyes, while the brain is working, absorbing information about the world around him.

It is very important to deal with the baby every day, without missing a day and preferably at the same time. After all, the schedule actually gives life stability and confidence. Gradually, in addition to crawling, exercises are added to physical exercises to grab the fingers of an adult with the hands of a child, and gradually get used to hanging on these fingers.

Glenn Doman's development methodology paints all the physical exercises with the baby for each month. " Glenn Doman. Harmonious development of the child»- with this book you can start a detailed study of the features of the methodology and the possibility of their application at home.

Glenn Doman's teaching methodology

The most interesting thing happens next. Begin intelligence development classes. By development methodology of Glenn Doman You can start them from the age of three months. However, you can start later, but still it is better not to delay.

Classes on the development of intelligence according to the development methodology of Glen Doman should be done regularly. The child is taught speak and read. Perhaps this will surprise readers, but it is thanks to this technique that children begin to quickly understand words and remember their spelling.

IMPORTANT! Like any technique, in this case it is important to apply it systematically and preferably daily. The baby may not even have days off, but on the other hand, his brain, thirsty for new information, does not need them.

Glen Doman's Reading Method

To kid show card with an animal, fruit, vegetable or other understandable simple subject and card with a written word denoting the subject on the first card. When showing, you need to clearly pronounce the word several times.

Glenn Doman's development methodology suggests starting with the simplest words: porridge, cat, apple, ball. Words must be written or printed on a card in large bright colors, such as red, orange, scarlet. They must be pronounced loudly and clearly, carefully observing the reaction of the baby.

Cards gradually gather in groups: separately animals, separately fruits, vegetables, body parts, names of loved ones. In addition to the fact that they can be downloaded and printed, cards can be purchased in ready-made sets already divided into groups:

• Vegetables;
• Fruit;
• Food;
• household items;
• Amphibians;
• reptiles;
• The Bears;
• Dog breeds;
• Cats;
• Objects of nature;
• Pets;
• predators;
• Inhabitants of the water element;
• Wild animals;
• snakes.

The nuances of applying the methodology of early development at home

• child during Glenn Doman Development Methodology Classes should be full, calm and well-rested. That is, he should not be disturbed or distracted by anything.
• You need to start with five cards, show and pronounce the names of the images in just 2 seconds. Thus, you understand that the time costs are minimal, with the maximum result for the crumbs.
• Hold the card in front of the baby's eyes at a distance of 50 centimeters.
• Such exercises should be carried out three times a day for five days in a row. You can arrange a weekend, you can not arrange. They usually recommend with them, because the returning family on the weekends, as a rule, finds it difficult to keep the regularity of classes. And here the main thing is their systematic constancy.
• In this case, the sequence of displaying cards must be constantly changed. That is, you do not give the same sequence, but constantly shuffle the cards.
• Five days later, one card is exchanged for another, and for the next five days, four already familiar cards and one new one are shown to the baby.
• In the next five days, the second card is replaced by a new one, and so, according to the development methodology of Glen Doman, every five days a new card and a new word appear for the child.

Glen Doman Method. Cards

You can make your own cards. Can write words on a large sheet, you can stick a picture. And you can put points and thus teach the child how to development methodology of Glenn Doman mathematics, pronouncing the number of points in words. The most important thing is to decide where exactly you start.

In addition, the market for goods and didactic materials child development filled with ready kits for teaching reading and math from the cradle. Therefore, you can purchase the one you see fit:

Useful video

If you are fluent in the language, you can watch Video by Glen Doman:

Description of Glen Doman's early development methodology in Russian:

Last modified 01/06/2018

For every mother, her own child is the most valuable and dear person. In order to increase the influence of this factor, many mothers resort to various developmental methods. One of the most popular techniques today is the development technique of Glenn Doman.

It is very difficult not to pass by this development technique, since this method lures parents with its great potential for a successful and prosperous unborn child.

Who is Glen Doman

Glen Doman is a famous physiotherapist, originally from America. He founded a non-profit organization whose task was to practice restorative techniques on children with an affected nervous system. After they showed a positive result, some of them were recorded in the doctor's books for early development. One of the most famous books by Glenn Doman is the Harmonious Development of the Child.

The most famous development technique is considered to be the learning method of reading using special cards. Glenn Doman's method consists of a series of serious physical exercises, as well as mental simulators, which must be followed regularly.

A physiotherapist claims that when doing physical exercises with a child, parents help stimulate the development of the child's intellectual abilities. A simple conclusion follows from this - the level of intellectual abilities directly depends on physical development.

Glen Doman exercises

Here are some exercises for this method:

Exercises from birth:

1. Exercises to improve motor skills. From birth, the baby is required to crawl through a specially modeled track, using repulsive reflexes. A good result will be considered 1 stop per distance. The number of repetitions - 10 times a day;
2. Exercises to improve manual skills. It is advisable for a child from birth to offer to take solid objects in his mouth for a firm grip. At the moment of contraction, the parent holding the child should slightly raise his upper body;
3. Exercises for the development of balance. Smooth, undulating swaying, rotation and tossing of the child in various planes. A series of 15 exercises is aimed at developing the vestibular apparatus. The duration of the procedure is 10 minutes;

Exercises for children who have passed the initial load for newborns:

1. Exercises to improve motor skills. The child needs to crawl in a prone position, leaning on his elbows behind objects lying on the floor;
2. Exercises for training manual skills. Grab a wooden stick/fingers. When performing this exercise, the parent holding the child should slightly raise the upper body so that the baby is in a dangling state. The frequency of the exercise is approximately 15 times a day with a duration of 2-10 seconds;
3. Exercises to improve balance. Performing light tossing, swaying and rotation of the child in various planes. The session consists of 15 exercises aimed at the active development of the vestibular apparatus. The repetition frequency is 1 time per day with a duration of 10 minutes.

Exercises carried out for children who have reached the age of 7 months:

1. Exercises aimed at improving motor skills. The baby crawls on all fours with a repetition rate of 20-30 times a day and a duration of at least 4 hours;
2. Exercises to improve manual skills. The child is required to spend time on the bar without the help of parents for 20 seconds, 15 times a day;
3. Exercises to maintain balance. Performing smooth swings, rotations, tossing the child in different planes. This session consists of 10 exercises that are part of the passive balance program. The frequency of repetitions should not exceed 15 times a day. The time for each type of exercise is 20 seconds.

An exercise program designed for children who have reached the age of 12 months:

1. Exercises aimed at improving motor skills. The child needs to regularly walk around the house, no more than 1-2 steps for 20-30 times a day for 2 hours a day;
2. Exercises to improve manual skills. The child must move through interceptions, and also periodically hang on the crossbar. The duration of the session is - 10 times of interceptions, 5 times of hanging. The duration of the procedures should not exceed 5 minutes;
3. Exercises that contribute to the development of balance. The child should be carried out all sorts of rocking, tossing and rotation. A series of classes consists mainly of passive balance programs. The frequency of the procedures carried out last for 20 minutes, 1 exercise 2 times a day.

Combined series consisting of intelligent simulators:

What needs to be done for a child to learn to read well?

1. The child is shown cards on which certain words are written. In the early stages of the session, the child will need 15 exposures to words, preferably nouns. Further, the volume of the studied words should be increased to approximately 9. In later stages, the child is shown cards depicting phrases and simple sentences. On the card, words must be written exclusively in red to draw the attention of the baby;
2. Intelligent bit. The child is shown cards, 28 × 28 cm format, with various pictures of certain objects located on a white background. At the start of the procedures, the number of cards should not exceed 10 pieces. With each subsequent time, this indicator gradually increases, up to 120 cards. As a result of the exercise, the child is able to remember about 1000 images of objects and their features;

How to develop counting skills in a child?

In order to teach a child to count up to 20, parents must show the baby cards with a certain number of dots. At the initial stage of study, the number of sessions should not exceed 3 times with the number of used cards in the amount of 5 pieces. Each subsequent one is added with 2 new cards.

Dr. Doman assumed that with a sufficiently regular and intensive demonstration of cards with a certain number of points, the child, after a while, would be able to easily perform arithmetic calculations with larger numbers without recalculation.

Is it worth using the Doman method?

Today on the Internet you can find a lot of reviews, the owners of which share their successes in the forward or reverse direction. There are rumors that some real Nobel Prize winners developed according to this technique. However, no supervised trial has been able to confirm its positive effect at the early stage of development. In addition, with all this, many companies that promote the Glenn Doman development methodology have high hopes for these courses, which, as a result, greatly affects the final cost of the courses offered.

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Today there are many methods of early development. Children are the most important and promising part of society, our future. And as you know, you need to work on the future in the present.

To date, no system has generated as much hype, controversy, and controversy as Glenn Doman's early development methodology. Many parents and professionals categorically oppose the advice of this American physiotherapist, but even more mothers are ardent supporters of his system.

Nevertheless, the need to study the early development of children objectively exists. Every sane parent strives from an early age to instill in his child the most essential skills and to prepare him physically and psychologically for adulthood as much as possible.

Who is Doman?

Glen Doman (born 1919) is a neurophysiologist who developed a program for the early physical, intellectual and sensory development of children. Glen worked as a physiotherapist and military doctor, but found his calling in helping children with neurological disorders. In 1955, Doman founded the Human Development Institute in Philadelphia. He also published a series of books on the rehabilitation and harmonious development of children.

In 1966, Doman received in Brazil the title "For Services to the Children of the World", and in 2007 he was awarded a medal from the Italian Senate for his work with children.

Director Doman died at the age of 94. He had three children, two of whom - Douglas and Jeannette Doman - continue the work of a great parent and run an institute in Philadelphia.

For whom was the technique originally created?

In the post-war years, Doman worked as a neurophysiologist and was engaged in the rehabilitation of children with brain injuries.

Brain damage of various origins leads to a whole range of diseases, which in medical practice are commonly referred to as diagnoses: "cerebral palsy", "cerebral stroke", "epileptic syndrome", "autism", etc. Brain damage of varying degrees can also be accompanied by genetic diseases, the most common being Down syndrome.

More than 20 years of daily work with children with neurological disorders preceded the invention of Doman's comprehensive rehabilitation system. Even at the beginning of interaction with the younger generation, Glen was clearly aware that the classic methods of working with patients with damage to various parts of the brain work less than 15%. These methods include massage, passive exercise therapy, paraffin, ozocerite applications, orthopedic surgeries, prosthetics, plastering, botulinum toxin injections, etc. Their action is aimed only at resolving the symptoms and does not affect the cause of the disease - brain damage.

At the same time, unfortunately, it is impossible to replenish, build up or patch up damaged areas of the brain, but the potential of this mysterious organ is underestimated, and it can be developed to a level unknown until now. Thus, according to the Doman method, it is possible to develop the undamaged areas of the brain to the maximum, and they can begin to perform the functions of dead cells.

Dr. Doman argued that most of the diagnoses, at first glance, inconsolable ("cerebral palsy", "Down's syndrome", "stroke", "neurological blindness", "deafness", "muteness", "autism", "epilepsy"), are just medical terms, not sentences. A team of doctors led by Doman managed to prove that the human brain has huge, invaluable resources for self-healing. He introduced the term "neuroplasticity" into the medical lexicon.

Doman proved by numerous studies that "there is no connection between brain injury and mental retardation." On his active initiative, the term "mental retardation" was removed from the official list of diagnoses in America.

The essence of the methodology of early development according to Glen Doman

The whole essence and global meaning of the multi-level rehabilitation method according to Glenn Doman fits into one sentence: “The brain is irreversibly improved when learning complex skills” . But at the same time, the brain degrades if it is not used.

He noted that children with brain damage have great learning abilities, it is only important to find the right approach to them and start rehabilitation from the level at which the child is.

Doman is the author of a methodology for assessing a child's skills called the Development Profile. This is a scale for assessing the sensory, physical, manual skills of the baby. For healthy children, assessment according to the "Profile" is not necessary, but for children with brain injuries it is necessary.

Institute for Human Development

This is a group of scientific non-profit institutions that have been helping children with brain injuries and teaching a unique technique to parents and professionals from around the world since 1955. After the death of the founder, the institute is headed by his son Douglas Doman.

Branches of the institute are located in Japan, Mexico, Italy, Singapore, Guatemala, Brazil, Spain, France.

Mostly at the institute, children with special needs are accepted for courses, where they are carefully diagnosed and parents are taught how to deal with children at home.

How necessary is Glen Doman's early development technique for healthy babies?

At the stage when hundreds of thousands of children from all over the world with brain damage of varying degrees underwent rehabilitation using this system, the institute's specialists began to observe strange things. Some skills in brain-injured children who exercised intensively were much more developed than in healthy peers. Naturally, the cause of this could not be a cerebral injury. Scientists realized that if special patients can be ahead of healthy ones in development, then children without neurological disorders are also able to develop much faster if they are trained according to the same methodology.

Thus, the global popularization of the concept created by Glen Doman began. The technique of this American neurophysiotherapist was no longer perceived only as a rehabilitation system for patients with brain injuries, but also as a method of early development for all children.

It must be emphasized right away that Glen Doman and his followers never tried to motivate parents to make world champions or generally recognized leaders out of their children. They emphasized that classes according to the system are just an interesting part of the life of little people, and it should not be a burden to either the kids or their parents. But such training provides a qualitative basis for the further development of the child.

What books should be read before starting activities with a child?

Parents of children with developmental problems should read What to Do If Your Child Has Brain Damage first. In it, the author writes about the creation of institutions and how the methodology of Glenn Doman developed. The description of the main problems associated with brain damage (such as neurological blindness, hearing impairment, imbalances in muscle tone, pathological reflexes, epilepsy, delayed speech development) is also given by the author in some detail, supplementing useful information with practical recommendations for teaching children on all counts, as well as statistics on the results of children in the program.

The book "The Harmonious Development of Your Child" will be useful to parents of special and healthy children. This is a kind of action plan that suggests how to follow the program, how to integrate the acquired knowledge into everyday life. All subsequent literary works of Doman are already in-depth versions of this book, which detail the program by profile:

• How to teach your child to read.
• "How Smart Is Your Child" (co-written with his daughter Jeannette Doman).
• "How to Give Your Child Encyclopedic Knowledge".
• How to make a child physically perfect.
• How to develop your child's intelligence.

Physical development according to Glen Doman

It doesn’t matter if the child is sick or absolutely healthy, but for the development of physical intelligence, the cub needs to move.

Meaningful movement is the basis of life. That's what Glen Doman said. The development methodology is practically based on ensuring that the child lives in motion.

According to Doman's concept, the best place for a newborn in the first months of life is the floor. And the best position is on the tummy. The most important skill for every person is crawling on their stomach, then crawling on all fours. Doman insists that the child does not need to be forced upright, led, put in a walker or other devices. Children should not miss the crawling period, which helps to strengthen the muscles of the back, legs, arms, develops breathing, vision and speech.

He recommends putting the baby on the floor at every opportunity. At the same time, the floor must be made comfortable and safe, ideally - lay a gymnastic mat or floor, as in playgrounds. At the same time, the legs and elbows of the child should be undressed, for good adhesion to a horizontal surface.

Often children with developmental delay cannot crawl on a level floor. Doman advises their parents to build a crawling board, with sides, the right surface, and place it at an angle where the child can slide.

Doman does not advise leaving the child crawling on his own. Instead, he recommends that parents always stand at the finish line with interesting toys and exaggeratedly praise the cub for achievements.

Development and correction of vision, hearing, sensory perception according to Doman

Glenn Doman's Early Development Method "From 0 to 4 Years" includes a mandatory sensory program. The doctor noted that the sensory pathways are the main incoming channels to the brain that the child uses from the first days.

It is sight, hearing, smell, tactile sensations that give the baby the opportunity to make the first picture of the world around him. In children with brain injuries, outgoing neural pathways are most often impaired, that is, the functions responsible for the transmission of signals from the main brain to a certain action (meaningful movement, verticalization, speech). Such children also often perceive the incoming information in a distorted way or do not perceive at all. They have impaired vision, hearing, smell, tactile signals. Moreover, the curvature can be in the direction of both hyposensitivity and hypersensitivity. For example, some patients have sensitive hearing, notes Glenn Doman. The methodology of rehabilitation measures for such children is very multi-level. It is very well described in the book What to do if your child has brain damage.

But it is also important for a healthy child to experience the full gamut of sensory signals daily. They not only influence the development of brain functions by themselves, but also prepare the main organ for the perception of more complex information.

Doman advises to develop the child's vision from an adequate level. That is, you do not need to palm off cartoons or Picasso's works on a month-old child. From birth, children's sensory receptors are still underdeveloped. At this time, the cub perceives shadow and light more. Glenn Doman's method of early development recommends starting with a flashlight. In a dark room, turn on one light bulb or flashlight for several minutes and teach the baby to look for a ray of light in a dark space.

Then you can prepare the child's vision for the perception of contrasting images by showing him black and white pictures. Then you can add one color at a time.

Also, the child's tactile perception can be developed by giving him the opportunity to feel things of different temperature, density and texture: warm and cold, hard and soft, smooth and rough, etc.

If you follow the behavior of an infant, you can immediately understand that the initiator of such a sensory experience is often the cub itself. He sniffs everything, feels everything, puts it in his mouth. This is how the child perceives the world around him. He should not be scolded for trying to know space, even if they lead to damage to household property. You just need to secure this very space, remove unsafe, valuable or very small items.

How to develop a child's intelligence?

Parents who want to engage in the development of their child’s intellect can often hear complaints of a similar nature from the first months: “Don’t touch your child, let him live happy, let him have a childhood, otherwise he will have time to get tired 200 times from all this training . He still has a kindergarten, school is ahead. This is indirectly influenced by the very system of obtaining knowledge in our country. Education is perceived as something forced, burdensome.

But Western experts, including Doman, insist that a child is happy when he gets to know the world around him. The process of learning something new for him is as natural as breathing. In addition, in early childhood, the brain is so plastic that it can absorb and process an infinite amount of information. It is only important to present knowledge to the child in a playful, non-coercive form, to praise the child for any initiatives, successes and attempts.

Doman advises to develop intelligence by practicing with cards - “bits of intelligence”. You need to start with primitive information: colors, shapes, objects in the apartment, animals, etc. For example, prepare several cards depicting geometric shapes. Show them in turn, calling: "This is a rhombus, a triangle, a circle, etc." Praise the child for attention and finish this little lesson. According to Doman's research, it is enough for a child to look at one card for 5 days five times a day in order to forever remember the image on it and its designation.

Many are interested in Glenn Doman's progressive reading methodology. It is based on the fact that it is difficult for a child to perceive symbols, letters. They essentially do not mean anything, but the words that consist of symbols have real designations. Doman recommends teaching a child to read word by word. Write on the card in large letters the most understandable words for the child: “mom”, “dad”, “woman”. The words should be shown to the child rather quickly, clearly voicing each. They need to be written in large type, each letter is approximately 7-10 cm high.

Glenn Doman's teaching methodology is also based on the fact that numbers essentially mean nothing to a child. They are just symbols. But they can mean a number of items. You need to start teaching mathematics from the recalculation of subjects, and then connect the study of the numbers that this number indicates.

Glen Doman: a method of early development at home. Feedback from parents and specialists

The essence of the Doman technique is based on daily home care, which is provided by the parents themselves. Doman brought the role of the parent in the development of the child to a new level. Domestic doctors like to focus on the fact that parents have become “so smart that it’s scary” or “specialists know better”. But Doman partially rejects this approach, emphasizing that the parent is the main character in the life of the cub. It is he who knows his little one best of all. But you need to be vigilant and reasonable. It doesn’t matter if the child is sick or healthy - you should start doing Doman classes only after reading his books. Training should be conducted in a free, playful, relaxed atmosphere.

Doman himself outlined the following guidelines for parents:

• Encourage the child to any movement. This is the basis of life and development. Do not limit the baby to special devices (playpen, walkers), do not tell him to sit down.
• Whatever physical action the baby is doing, let him do it on his own. That's what Glen Doman advises. The technique that is practiced in his institutes completely excludes “squatting” over a child and all body movements in the spirit: “Enough running, sit down already calm down” or “I myself, otherwise you will break, break, scatter, etc.”.
• Teach your child to be proud of what he does so well and excels at.
• But do not force the child to study when he is sick or tired.

Glenn Doman's technique was created over 50 years ago. At the time of its creation, this rehabilitation system was the most advanced, holistic and comprehensive. But even today, many parents raising children with brain damage observe positive dynamics in them only after Doman classes.

Several dozen Russian children are even patients of the institute in Philadelphia. Their parents create forums, actively discuss the methodology, share impressive results. In fairness, it should be noted that parents of children with cerebral palsy and autism share mostly positive feedback about the Doman method. For every child with whom they are conscientiously engaged, this system has helped in some way. But parents of special children rarely embark on new rehabilitation techniques without preparation. They carefully re-read books, consult a good neurologist, and perhaps even apply to institutes.

However, there are people who speak negatively about this program. These are mainly those parents who did not bother to comprehensively study the philosophy of the method, did not re-read the books, did not ask a specialist, but heard that the child needs to read 25 words every day, show pictures, stuff unnecessary knowledge, make him crawl for a kilometer, etc. . Also, some experts speak negatively about the Doman system, especially those who promote their early development systems.

Despite the contradictions that, according to some experts, Glen Doman's development methodology has, it is still the most comprehensive system for the rehabilitation of children with brain damage in the world. Do not count the number of children who this rehabilitation helped to realize the happiness of the first steps and first words. And director Doman was able to prove, using the example of many courageous and purposeful children and parents, that the possibilities of the human brain are limitless. And every parent can multiply the potential of their children many times over if they believe in them and make efforts for their development.

There are a huge number of developing methods for children, the theory of Glen Doman is the most famous of them. You can learn about the essence of the methodology, advantages and disadvantages, as well as download Doman cards (conveniently arranged into categories) on this page.

The essence of Glen Doman's technique

From birth, the human brain is tuned to the knowledge of the world around us by all possible means. Using this feature of it, it is possible to carry out successful learning earlier (note that we are talking about learning, not development!). It is recommended to start exercising from 3-6 months of age. The Doman technique allows you to lay the foundations for the development of a high level of intelligence, form a strong craving for knowledge, teach incredibly early reading in your native and foreign languages, and mathematics. So says the author of the method.

Training cards were specially developed for the methodology. They contain an image of an object and an inscription-word denoting it. Presented in the form of sets, united by a common theme. For example: "Flowers", "Fruits", etc. You can download such Doman cards by going through the sections of this page.

When developing them, numerous nuances of perception and attention of young children were taken into account, which directly affects the efficiency of work. In this section, cards are available for free download, made strictly in accordance with the principles of Doman. Each of them displays only one object on a pure white background, they are large, without frames and colored edging, all important details are perfectly visible in the picture. All items have their own name. It is written under their image in large font in bright red.

Just download Doman's cards, print them out and give them to your child? No, parents will need serious organization and, over time, a huge fantasy of how to catch, seat and show these cards to the child in the end. The problem of the interest of an ordinary, healthy child in the process is the complexity of the methodology. In addition, there are certain rules. It is necessary to start the exercise when both the baby and the adult are in a good mood. Be sure to say: "Now I'll show you ... (birds, trees, etc.." After that, start the show. It is recommended to demonstrate each card for 1-2 seconds. At the same time, the adult pronounces loudly and clearly, in a calm voice, the word written under drawing.The number of cards can be from 10 to 120, depending on the interest of the child.Important points:

1. It is impossible to look at the card when demonstrating, so as not to interfere with the child's view of the image.
2. Classes are initially carried out 1 time per day, then their number is increased.
3. One card should not be shown more than 3 times per day.
4. It is not necessary to require the child to repeat the names, unless he himself wants to do this.
5. It is better to stop the game before the baby loses interest.
6. Gradually, you need to add new sets, and remove well-studied ones.
7. Shows should be systematic, only in this case you can achieve results.

How to make Doman Cards yourself?

We suggest you download Doman cards and print them for your child. It is better to do this on matte (so that there are no glare) paper with a density of 250-300 g / m2 or stick it on cardboard. It is advisable to laminate ready-made cards, then they will last longer, and they can be used in other educational games.

This didactic material can also be successfully used in the method of Makato Shichida, aimed at developing photographic memory, creativity, and intuition. To do this, you only need to cut off the names of objects along the dotted line.