Exaggeratory Claims of Infant Linguistic Developing Programs
Raymond Mattison
PSYCH 600
September 22nd, 2014
Debbra Jennings

Exaggeratory Claims of Infant Linguistic Developing Programs For as long as human records show, there has been the stereotypical ‘Snake Oil Salesman’. These stereotypical parts of society thrive off of the ignorance of the masses in order to sell an item or theory that may seem as though is works but in reality doesn’t. Examples of these include an early 1900’s method of weight control in which people bought pills containing tape worms and were told to take one pill to start losing weight and then take an anti-parasitic pill that would hopefully kill the tapeworm (Winterman, 2013). The result was hundreds of people with tape worms and serious medical conditions. While some of these items can cause injury to the users, such as the tapeworm diet, most are harmless schemes to earn money for selling a fake product. One such modern product is a program that claims to be able to teach an infant to read at a very young age (within the first or second year of life) called ‘Your Baby Can Read’. This product claimed that using the program, which came in multiple methods including DVDs, VHS, books, etc., could teach an infant to read.
Targeted Area of Development The targeted area of development in the child was their language and cognitive development. This involves multiple sub-areas of development. With an older child, such as a child in preschool or kindergarten, teaching them to read seems to be limited to their ability to understand language alone. In reality there are multiple other areas that are developed prior to being taught to read that takes time in order to build up to the language skill. Included in these prerequisite skills are cognitive processes such as memory, attention, audition,