I HAVE started teaching Sophie to read. Yes, you read that right. She may not even be 11-months-old yet but I'm taking the 'you're never too young to learn' attitude. Of course I don't expect her to be settling down in her cot with a Harry Potter, but I want her to become comfortable with words so fingers crossed she'll have a bit of a head start at reading once she goes to school.

When I was little I could read pretty well before I went to school, and I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons I always enjoyed books, did a degree in English and work with words today. My mum taught me with flashcards and said she was pretty sure she'd started by the time I was 18-months-old.

So I've gone and bought the DVD series "Your Baby Can Read". I have absolutely no idea if it will help Sophie learn to read, but I'm fairly sure it can't do any harm. I couldn't afford to buy it from the official website so I've picked up a set off Ebay for a fraction of the price. At least that way if it is useless or Sophie doesn't enjoy it, I won't feel too miffed. We've only done one day so far so I can't report any results yet, but it claims to be suitable for babies as young as three months!

For the first month, you're meant to show your baby the starter DVD twice a day. It introduces 22 written words ranging from clap and wave to gorilla and elephant. I know it all sounds a bit ridiculous but Sophie enjoyed watching the film and I think she just thinks it is like any of the programmes I let her watch on Cbeebies.

The idea is that after the first month, you start showing the next DVD, which introduces more words until they have eventually watched all five, with a whopping 160 key words.

Sophie is already proving to be a little sponge when it comes to learning. During the first viewing of the DVD she said "cla" and started clapping her hands when it showed another baby giving themselves a round of applause.

And I'm very aware that now there are often actual words mixed into her lovely babbling. She named one of the characters in her favourite television programme the other day, although she had to say it twice before I realised it wasn't just a coincidence.

I know the best way of learning is through play (and believe me she gets plenty of time for that) and I know there'll be a whole host of people who will say there's plenty of time for learning when she's old enough for school. But if there's a little something extra that can be done to help her along and which she finds fun, I personally think it can't be a bad thing. I'll let you know when she picks up her first Enid Blyton...