Glenn Doman technique

In today's world, many parents think that the sooner they start developing activities with a child, the better. Thinking about how to do it better, they are looking for a suitable technique. One of the most famous is the Glen Doman technique. Let us consider in more detail what the features of this technique are and how it works.

In 1919, Glen Doman was born in one of the oldest cities in the USA - Philadelphia. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940, he began his career as a physio-physiotherapist at the hospital. It is here that he begins work on the study of how the children's brain develops. However, the beginning of the war interrupts her. In 1941, Doman goes to the army as a volunteer, having completed training in infantry officer courses. His service ends with the title of commander of an infantry company with the award for outstanding services by the cross.

Returning to medicine after the war, Glen Doman, together with fellow workers, begins to assist in the recovery of children with various brain injuries and serious damage to the nervous system. In 1955, he founded the non-profit Institute for the Development of Human Potential. The theoretical and practical base of the Institute was the Doman method.

For more than 20 years, constantly being in work, conducting numerous studies, experiments, experiments, drawing conclusions, coming to any conclusions, Doman and his like-minded colleagues looked for ways and possibilities to cure such children (with complete or partial paralysis , a strong developmental lag, unable to perceive the world and communicate). They considered it important to treat the root cause - the brain, and not the consequences of the lesions, i.e. body.

In 1960, Doman publishes an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association about methodological work and the treatment of children with brain damage and the results of their rehabilitation. It was then that very many people learned about him. His work made a "soft scientific revolution."

From this period, together with his associates, Doman actively continued his work, developing and improving new programs and techniques for the recovery of children. For success in his work he was awarded many awards.

In the book "The harmonious development of the child" you can find a more complete description of his method.

As a result of his observations, Doman came to the conclusion that children in their entire life do not learn as much as information can learn in the first 6 years of life. Almost from birth, the child is ready to know the world, he is interested in everything that is in his environment. At this age, you do not have to further motivate the child. Classes should be held in the form of an entertaining game.

In his opinion, you can start teaching children from 3 monthsbecause it is at this age that the crumb reacts to objects.. The educational process begins with the demonstration of cards for a short period of time (literally a few seconds per card). It is necessary that real objects be represented on the cards: vegetables, fruits, animals, furniture, transport, geometric figures, etc.

For many years, Doman has conducted various studies, focusing on working with children who are lagging behind in development. However, looking at how their brothers and sisters, who were absolutely healthy, joined the classes with great interest and achieved great success, he created a methodology that was developed taking into account their interests and needs.

The main provisions on which the methodology is based:

• The human brain grows and develops, only being constantly in work.
• To achieve great success in the development of the intellect of the baby, it is necessary for his brain to work actively from birth to 3 years.
• Physical development plays an important role in the maturation of the brain and motor intelligence.
• Until the child is 5 years old, his brain is set to receive new knowledge, there is no need to additionally motivate the child to this.

• It is necessary to start the learning process as soon as possible, because the younger the child, the easier it will be for him to learn.
• Do not forget to praise the kid and sincerely rejoice at his success.
• A child is also an individual, to which it is necessary to show respect and trust.
• Training should be conducted with pleasure.
• Training should take place in an appropriate setting.
• Occupation should end before the child gets bored or bored.
• New information for training needs to be provided very often.
• Regularity, consistency and organization of classes are very important.
• No need to check how the baby learned the information.
• It requires careful preparation for classes, you need to do everything in advance.
• Immediately stop the lesson, if suddenly the baby or you feel bored.

It is the physical development that Glen Doman pays a lot of attention to in his system. He is sure that it is directly interrelated with development of the child’s intelligence. That is why you need to pay attention to good physical development from birth.

The needs of the child in swimming, walking, crawling, grabbing are given to him by nature. It is necessary from the moment of the appearance of the baby to the world to approve their development, to give the child complete freedom of movement. By helping the child to be active from birth, parents help him develop intellectually much faster than his peers.

A special crawling track can help. It is necessary that the crumb was located between its sides, almost touching their forearms and thighs. The track is located on a small slope. Best of all, its surfaces are smooth, no blankets or mattresses are required. To wear the baby, crawling there, you need to a minimum.

During the day, the baby should spend at least 3-4 hours in it. On such a track, the child will be able to crawl a fairly large distance, and by 4 months, if properly organized, he will already begin to crawl actively. Thanks to this, the active intellectual development of the child, his brain and the possibilities for perceiving the new will go on.

Teach your baby to overcome obstacles with a variety of rollers and ladders. Twirl and twist it as often as possible, this will contribute to the development of a sense of balance. Help and encourage the child in his attempts to walk, run, swim.

For newborns, Glen Doman has created his own equilibrium program - dynamic gymnastics, which you can successfully use at home.

Together with the active physical development at the same time, you can begin intellectual exercises.For this purpose, cards with large real pictures and a signature on them are used. With their help, the baby is easier to learn new information, gets the right load for the development of the brain.

You can buy ready-made sets of cards, find them on the Internet and print them on a color printer or make them yourself. All cards should have a white background, on each - only one picture. The caption is written from the bottom in large red letters. As often as possible, offer your child a new, interesting information. If you do not do this, then the child very quickly will not be interested in these activities.

At the beginning of classes you will need 5 cards of one thematic line. Each card is shown to the baby for 5-10 seconds, the name under it is clearly and loudly read. After about three lessons, you can start replacing cards in one of the sets. Show the child one set only once per lesson. Need to engage in at least 3 times a day. You will have at least 15 card hits per day.

What would you have taught the child, do not expect instant results. You will see results when the child is ready to show them to you. Be sure: the crumb hears all and remembers, being engaged with it, you do not spend time in vain.

Glen Doman is sure that it is already possible for a half-year-old crumb to begin learning to read in this way.

To work will require a card with sets of words. Their size should be 10 * 50 cm, the text is bright red, the font should be 1.5 cm in thickness, and each letter should be 7.5 cm high. Do not introduce the child to difficult words at the very beginning of training. Try to find the words that the child knows well (mom, dad, grandfather, you can use the names of preferred dishes, clothes, pets).

Try to adhere to the following training scheme:

• A word set is a group of 5 words united by one theme.
• Need to do three times daily.
• The first day. Show the child one set of words. Speak words in a clear, even voice. For each word you need to spend no more than 15 seconds. It turns out 3 lessons with one set of words.
• Second day. To the set of words already shown, add another. We will get 6 lessons per day (3 with the set of words studied earlier, 3 with a new one) and two sets of words.
• Third day. Three sets of words and nine lessons.
• Day four. Four sets of words and 12 lessons.
• Fifth day. Five sets of words and 15 lessons during the day.
• The sixth day. You add another set of words, but at the same time you exclude one word from the five previous sets.

Adhering to this scheme, you will constantly replace sets of words, adding a new one each time. First demonstrate the words, then phrases, and then you can try to demonstrate the whole sentences.

Adults having heard the word "two" imagine a figure, and children think with facts. They will present two points, two candies, two apples, but they will not even guess to associate the word “two” with the image of a digit. Doman relied on this child-specific feature when creating the methodology. By allowing your child to interact with concrete facts, rather than abstract concepts, you will give him a great chance to learn the account without recounting, determine how many things are depicted, learn about basic mathematical operations.

To train your account, you will need 100 cards of 27 * 27 cm in size. Red dots on the cards are scattered from 1 to 100. Their diameter should not exceed 2 cm.In the classroom, the child will initially master the concept of "quantity", then the concept of "equation." After that, you can start learning to solve problems. Only then, by Doman, it is possible to acquaint the child with a graphical depiction of numbers, the concept of “figure”. The last thing to do is to solve digital equations.

Familiarize yourself with the basic actions also with the help of points. For example, when teaching subtraction 2 of 3, pronouncing an action (three minus two equals one), demonstrate the corresponding cards with three dots, a minus sign, two dots, an equal sign, one dot.

In comparison to the human brain, Glen Doman puts the most advanced computer, which sums up based on the facts. He believes that it is absolutely useless to explain something to the child for a long time and to wait for clever thoughts and right decisions about the actions committed by him afterwards. The child must be provided with accurate, accessible, clear information. To explain this, he gives the following example.

Looking at the dog, the child is interested in you about her. What can you do:

• dismiss him with the words: "Leave me alone, I have no time";
• tell crumbs: "This is woof-woof";
• short answer: "This is a dog";
• say: "This is a St. Bernard dog";
• show pictures of dogs;
• show pictures of different breeds of dogs and say: “Look, there are animals everywhere that are called dogs, but they can be different. There is a poodle, a German shepherd, Doberman, chow-chow, dachshund ”, etc.

From the last answer, the kid will be able to make a small discovery for himself, having understood that all dogs have common features - this is the number of paws, the presence of tail, wool, but at the same time they can vary in color, size, length of hair, tail, ear etc. In this way, in just half a minute, the child will be able to do a great deal of intellectual work and speed up brain activity.

If you follow Doman, then you need to understand that the goal of human life is to obtain multilateral knowledge about the world. Explanations and explanations for children will not bring any benefit, their brain is able to perceive only the facts.

In order for learning by cards to give the child a truly encyclopedic knowledge, it is necessary that:

• all the details on the cards were clearly visible;
• there was only one item on each card;
• all the items depicted had a name;
• this object was previously unknown to the child;
• cards were quite large (28 * 28 cm);
• cards were clean.

It is necessary to deal with cards on average for 30 seconds.

It would seem that everything in the Doman method is clear, accessible, clear and logical. However, as in any other method, it has its negative aspects.

• It’s not enough for a child to know the facts, he must be able to apply them in life, use them. Otherwise, all the information he receives will be just rubbish in his head.
• A large load on the brain of a baby can lead to negative consequences. in the form of mental disorders, mood swings, lack of appetite, problems in communication, increased anxiety, vulnerability, sensitivity.
• It is necessary that the training is consistent with the age of the child. If a kid sees a dog, he will associate its image with the word “dog”, and according to Doman this word will cause him an association with the card. For example, seeing a giraffe or an elephant in reality, a crumb can simply not recognize them.
• The passivity of the child, the lack of creative and creative moments in learning. The child does not learn to independently find information, curiosity is dulled.
• The kid has almost no time to chat with friends, play. No attention is paid to aesthetic, emotional, moral development. Parents spend a lot of time in preparation for classes: they make cards, sort them, select suitable ones, etc.
• Not all senses are involved. No tactile development, no sense of smell or taste buds.
• Mechanical memorization of words when learning to read. If the child in the text will meet unfamiliar words, he will not be able to read it and understand the meaning of the read.
• According to the method, it is necessary to accompany the readable text by showing pictures. In the future, it will be difficult for a child to learn to read texts without illustrations, he will hardly understand what he read. All this can lead to a lack of desire to engage in the fact that he is uninteresting or bad at work.
• Lack of active gaming activities in which it is easiest for a child to learn new information.

The technique of Glenn Doman can greatly help parents in the development of their children and even grow geniuses and geeks. but You must take into account the age capabilities of your baby, to approach the class correctly, to monitor the health of the child, take into account his individual abilities. You can not force the child to engage. It is best to conduct comprehensive exercises in a playful way and not to forget to praise and encourage for each, even a small, achievement.

Watch the following videos for the features of the Glenn Doman Method.