What is all this hype about flash card memorisation and mental mathematical abilities? Does it really help? Does it affect the child's brain? Or is it all rubbish? I've heard my Aunty go on and on about this and how her grandson is insanely smart due to flash cards and at the same time I've heard that it's all nonsense. What' do you ladies think?

I think it ultimately boils down to what you think about it, because there's no hard rule on parenting or raising a child. If you believe that it works, sure go ahead - if you don't, then just take it as new knowledge and leave it :) It also depends on how you want to raise your child, because it looks at what your end goal is. My end goal is just to have a son who had a happy childhood with memories of us playing, bonding and being there for each other (I'm a single mum), and to find out what his interests are - I'm not an academic or result-oriented parent, so things like memorizing, mathematical skills, getting ahead of others etc do not bother me. My approach is to let him learn through play, develop his character, personality and creativity - and find out what he's interested in so I can give my full support to him in the future. It's not something most parents would go for, but it works for me and it works for my son - and that's enough :)

It definitely helps. I started to send my girl to heguru then happy train. She started at 10mth old. I tot its waste of money but since everybody talks abt it, I just try till she was 20mths where we started CC n stopped. We were quite amazed with her learning n memory capabilities. During meet the parent session, teacher mentioned abt her ability to remember all the flash cards she shown n commented on her memory skills. I told her, we did classes for her, Mayb it's showing the result now. Till now, my gal rem things very very well n she's only 28mths o. We are thinking to put her back to class with her meimei. N between heguru, shinchida n happy train, they r all for training memory but slightly differs in style. Heguru is open concept where kids gets to roam around, happy train is class room settings.

Children are wired to learn about their environment through play. Play and interaction with an adult or a peer is a powerful medium in which children learn language and social rules, develop their imagination and motor skills and consolidate what they understand about their world. The use of flash cards and the push for mental math skills has no proven evidence base in terms of making your child 'smarter'. Rather than use flash cards, I strongly recommend that parents and caregivers spend the time to take part in their child's imaginative play and talk to their child about what is happening in their play scheme. It will certainly be much more enjoyable for their child.

Flash cards can come handy, but don't put too much pressure on your kiddo if he/she does not like them. There is a whole life ahead where your kiddo will be using flash cards! For me, I try and keep my son's curiosity alive by answering all his qns in a non-patronising manner. If he shows interest in something, I end up asking him questions that would stoke his curiosity. There is going to be a peak in your kid's life. No sense in having that peak early.

Agree with Dr Quek. Is more of the interaction between parent and child rather than the flash card itself. I would usually let my LO see flash card and imitate the sound i.e duck and I would imitate duck sound. My LO loves it. And he can now say the word duck and the duck sound when I show him the card. So it’s really not about cards but rather the interaction. Talk and read to your LO more. Play with them often.

I think it can help to a certain extent in terms of memorization and mathematical abilities but definitely not the only way nor is it the best way. Personally, I'd prefer using educational toys, books and natural tools instead of those flashcards. Memorizing is all good and dandy but I want my kid to actually learn instead of just memorizing.

I feel that it's good to expose your kids with different types of play and learning but do not force and just focus on one as different kids have different learning style. It might be ideal for some kids but might not work for yours.

Helped my child familiarize especially with stuffs she encounters day to day. Also during my primary days, our curriculum includes this and it helped me on math subjects, sharpened my memory and made me answer qs more quickly.

My 2 year old never went through flash card training. His memory is better than mine. Really. I get so amazed by him sometimes. Don't believe in the hype! I agree with Dr Quek's comment!!

It definitely helps, but I think sending your child for classes and brain training is actually much more effective, frankly