My youngest boys have had the pleasure of trying out the Little Reader Basic Software ($199.00) from Brill Kids Learning Systems for the last month. Yes, I really mean Oliver my 1 year old and Daniel my just turned 3 year old. Have you ever considered teaching your baby to read? Believe it or not, I had. I came across the concept about 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Oliver, my 5th child, but decided that I simply did not have the time to create all the flashcard based materials I would need. The concept, however, is solid. You can learn so much on the Brill Baby section of the website, so be sure to read beginning here to learn more. I have to share one video, this is the daughter of one of the creators of Brill Kids. It shows Felicity reading from the ages of 12 months to 2 1/2 years old. You can see even more videos of other babies and young children reading on the Brill Baby area of the site HERE.
So just what is the Little Reader Software? Basically, it is a software program that eliminates the work of creating multitudes of flashcards for mom. The 12 month curriculum has daily lessons to watch with your baby or young child, each lasting about 5 minutes. You do this twice a day and all you have to do is push play. Basically, the program shows a series of flashcards, photo cards, animated action cards, or videos for a set of words each day. 
There are a variety of pictures used for each word, giving your child the opportunity to define for themselves what makes a dog a dog, for example. One day they may see a bulldog, the next a golden retriever, the third it could be a poodle. The text flashcards on the screen change both font type and color, which helps your child recognize it in any variation it may appear.
Little Reader offers several lesson types, as shown below. 
These take advantage of both a child’s right brain ability, which is strong until age 6, and their senses. Little Reader is something you do with your child. When you are doing a multisensory lesson your child is encouraged to do actions corresponding to the words, and the parent both models and helps a young child to do the movements. All the work of preparing and creating lessons is done for you, however…
Another neat feature of Little Reader software is the ability to personalize lessons for your child. While the software comes with two complete semesters of curriculum, you can choose to add pictures and voices from your child’s life to the flashcards. For the word ‘nose’ you can add pictures of Mommy’s nose, Daddy’s nose, and your child’s nose. You can record Mommy, Daddy, or Grandma saying the word ‘nose’. If you have pets you could add photos of your own pets for the appropriate cards. Remember, this is optional, but is it a quick process and engages your child even more in the lessons.
Free content to download and expand your program is available through the Brill Kids Forum. You can download more categories of flashcards that have been created by other users of the system for free. There is even a large foreign language section created by native speakers in more than 24 languages, which expands the potential for Little Reader beyond a reading program. I have found the forums to be active and full of ideas.
What about phonics? I’m a phonics mom, I’ll be honest. I feel most children will need to be able to decode words for long-term success in reading. Little Reader software takes that into account as well, as you can see below: 
Little Reader can show words in pattern phonics if you choose, helping a child learn to decode words. The process takes advantage of a child’s natural intuitive drive to see patterns.
You can try Little Reader free for 14 days HERE. Brill Kids is so confident in their product that they offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Here it is in their words:
“We're so convinced our easy-to-use learning system is so effective, that we will confidently guarantee that your child will learn to recognize words after following the 12-month Course Curriculum (Semester 1+2)!”
What has our experience been so far? Let me say, it’s been a mix. I actually have been using the soon-to-be released updated version of Little Reader and the first thing I noticed is my desktop computer wouldn’t open it. However, my husband’s laptop gets along with Little Reader and so that is what we have been using for the review period. I worked with Technical Support to troubleshoot why my specific computer is not compatible with Little Reader, and just this week was finally able to use Little Reader software on my desktop. I have to say customer service has been thorough, helpful, and diligent in working with me to solve the problem. I am very satisfied with the Brill Kids customer service!
I love that Little Reader has taken the work out of creating multiple flashcards for my children. I like being able to customize the program with our own photos and voices with a few clicks of the mouse. Little Reader has made the process of teaching a baby or young child to read doable, even for me, and I’m a busy homeschooling mom with 5 children and baby number 6 due next month. It is easy to find five minutes to snuggle up with my children and push play on our lesson each morning and afternoon.
What do Oliver and Daniel think of Little Reader? They like it. Honestly, it’s fun to them and Daniel especially wants to do more than one lesson at a time. Having only worked with it a few weeks, it is still too early to see them reading on their own. We are planning on continuing to use Little Reader though, so I will update our experience later on.
You can read my Crewmates’ thoughts on the Little Reader Software here for more opinions.
{Disclaimer: I received free access to the Little Reader Basic software to enable this review for my work with the TOS Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}
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