In another example of the use of threats as a disciplinary strategy, Doman warned mothers that if they did not teach their children when they were tiny, they would have wasted those precious early years when, he argued, they are most able to learn to read. Like other examples of literacy advice documented in this chapter, one strategy evidenced in Doman’s advice for normalizing intensive mothering and domestic pedagogy was the regulation of domestic time (For example, do this five times a day for five minutes each time) and space (in a corner of your home free from visual distractions), and of mothering practices such as: “hug your child, praise him, tell him he is the most clever child ever” (p. 56). In patronizing tones, he declared that his team had “come to the conclusion that the vast majority of mothers would be successful in teaching their children to read, but predicted that the small majority of intellectual mothers would enjoy even more success than ‘dizzy blondes’” (p. 153.) However, he stated, “our results proved the opposite, dizzy blondes were more enthusiastic” (p. 153).

In the 1960s, Doman’s book both reflected and stimulated interest in “early reading” in the academy in ways that suggest how the social trends and interests of popular culture can often drive academic research. For example, in 1966 Durkin published her ground breaking study, Children Who Read Early, documenting the practices that support early reading at home in ways that challenged the tenets of “reading readiness” as well as the drill techniques associated with Doman’s method. Krebs and Krebs (1966) writing in Parents’ Magazine, reviewed research on the new interest in “early reading” and told parents they should not be tempted by the promises of “smart babies”. They pointed out that,

To answer the claim that early formal teaching is desirable because there is so much more to learn than before, and therefore the earlier children begin the better, educators point out that for average children there is apparently no lasting advantage to early reading. (Krebs & Krebs, 1966)

The authors concluded that experiencing failure in learning to read “early” would be more detrimental to children than not being taught to read at all. The desirability of children’s early reading was up for debate. However, increased interest in the home as a context for literacy development of pre-school and school-aged children led to the formation in 1967 of the International Reading Association’s Committee on Parents and Reading. This committee was formed as a result of the “Parents and Reading” convention held in 1967 in Kansas City in collaboration with the International Reading Association (IRA) and the US National Congress of Parents and Teachers. As described by the organizers, this was the “first IRA conference concerned specifically with the role of parents and the home in reading instruction” (Fay, in Smith, 1971, p. v).