DownSyn Forum

Amy · Posted: November 11 2009, 12:56 PM Post subject: Reading Poll

Tell me about your children with DS. Do they read? At what age did they start reading? Did you find phonics or sight reading to be the most helpful? Better yet, what program or curriculum did the school use.. or if you are teaching, what did you use?
Did your child learn to read mostly at school or did you have to do a lot of work at home with them as well?

Thanks for responding!

_________________
Keep the Faith, Amy
Mom to Kristin (26) Jessica (24) Rebecca (21) Rachel (16) Sarah (14) Hunter (11) & Austin (7) DS

mom2alex · Posted: November 11 2009, 1:08 PM Post subject:

My son learned to read using phonics. To be specific they used a program in school called Wilson Phonics. I was amazed at how he really picked up letter sounds, learned to blend them and really take off on his reading.

He read sight words for a really long time but it wasn't until he did the phonics that he was able to string the letters together to figure out words.

_________________

Nicol - Mom to Alex -19

Amy · Posted: November 11 2009, 1:11 PM Post subject:

mom2alex wrote:

My son learned to read using phonics. To be specific they used a program in school called Wilson Phonics. I was amazed at how he really picked up letter sounds, learned to blend them and really take off on his reading.

He read sight words for a really long time but it wasn't until he did the phonics that he was able to string the letters together to figure out words.

Nicole, how old was he? At what grade or age level would you say he can read?

_________________
Keep the Faith, Amy
Mom to Kristin (26) Jessica (24) Rebecca (21) Rachel (16) Sarah (14) Hunter (11) & Austin (7) DS

Nat · Posted: November 11 2009, 1:36 PM Post subject:

I have done a variety of things with Lily. First, I have always read to Lily or pointed out pictures of things.We then started with singing the abcs and pointing to the letters along the way. Also, we got several of the leap frog products ( love, love , love them!). Then, I started with Dolch Sight Words. I picked out some keys words and taught 5 at a time. Then, when school started (kindy) the teacher took over and I supported and supplemented along the way. Lily is now 6 and reading at grade level. Now, if we can just get the handwriting under control!

mom2alex · Posted: November 11 2009, 1:37 PM Post subject:

Sadly we were not exposed to the phonics program till he was in 6th grade. He could read sight words way before that but it really clicked for him the sounds forming words once he began this program.

I am sure if we started it earlier we would have had success as well.

_________________

Nicol - Mom to Alex -19

naomid · Posted: November 11 2009, 4:35 PM Post subject:

Callum is 6 1/2 and is in year 2 here in the UK (grade 1 in the US?)

The school use a phonics system called Jolly Phonics that all the children are exposed to from nursery (age 3). It's used extensively in reception (age 4) and continues to be taught in year 1 and year 2. School also use a reading program called Oxford Reading Tree.

Callum picked up the phonics sounds reasonably easily but has only started actually blending sounds to actually sound out words in the last few months. Now he will sound out short words (2 syllables) , but still has trouble with longer words.

He began sight ready at age 4 with the key words and his words have expanded over the last couple of years. I'd say he's about a year behind in his reading age, mostly due to his comprehension skills rather than his actually reading of words. He reads in a group at school and his teacher has said that Callum helps others in his group with words that they don't know.

We have always read a lot at home and Callum enjoys reading so it was never a chore. We didn't do any formal reading with him until he started school. When he started reading we worked a lot on helping him learn his key words, lots of matching games, etc. Now we listen to him read each day but we're concentrating more on comprehension.

Reading is a strength for Callum, I think because he enjoys doing it and is very proud of himself when he does read.

_________________
Naomi
Mum to Callum (DS) 3/03 and Kieran 8/04
Read all about us
Our Photo's
Our Video's
Our You Tube Channel

South Manchester Down Syndrome Group

Adens mummy · Posted: November 11 2009, 5:24 PM Post subject:

Not there yet, but thanks for the great thread. here in Australia we use Jolly Phonics, that will be the way we go with Aden.

_________________

mary c · Posted: November 11 2009, 6:02 PM Post subject:

Anna started reading on her own at age 3. We had started to teach her sight reading by showing her cards with words on them but she and we got bored with that. She knew the sounds the letters made from obsessively playing with Leapfrog Letterpal and she just, out of the blue, started sounding them out. This must be some kind of quirk in her brain because she was recently tested at school and found to have a better phonetic awareness than 99% of all kids (without DS) of her age. Now at age 5 3/4 she is reading 2nd and 3rd grade level material with no problem. Her favorite game is to read the dictionary and sound out the syllables. I think her skill is a combination of great phonetic awareness and a remarkable visual memory.

My son, who does not have DS, is quite dyslexic and has little phonetic awareness. We sent him to a school for kids with language based learning disabilities where they taught him using the Orton-Gillingham method which was very helpful. It is entirely phonetic based and is really great.

_________________
Mary
Mom to Libby 6/92, Alex 9/93, Anna (DS)12/12/03

Please support the Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q284/maryc_010/a13-1.jpg[/img]

[img]
[IMG]

KT's Mom · Posted: November 23 2009, 7:08 PM Post subject:

Katie started reading at 3 years old. We found that the Love and Learning series was great. In preschool school they paired sentences with pictures of her doing actions and made books for her to read. In kindergarten she was assessed at reading at an end of grade 1 level but each year after that her different teachers assessed her reading at different levels using different tests. In grade 1 she was assessed at a beginning kindergarten level. Now she is 7 and in grade 2 they say she is at a beginning grade 1 level.

_________________
Laurie
Katie 03/23/02 (DS)
Allie 12/29/05

pmjc48 · Posted: November 24 2009, 1:54 AM Post subject:

Nicky can't read a word and now never will Sad

_________________
Mum of Nicky 25, and Connor14 who is severely autistic, and five older siblings

EAS1971 · Posted: December 15 2009, 2:04 PM Post subject:

Oliver is 5. We have NEVER worked on reading with him. I have always wanted to, but his behavior is such that it's impossible to sit down with him and work on something that he doesn't find interesting. He does like the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD and the Hooked on Phonics DVD. A couple of weeks ago, he was playing with some blocks. We took the blocks and spelled "pig." He signed "pig." We were surprised but thought that it was a fluke. So we tried more. We then took the blocks and spelled "cat." Oliver pointed to each letter and sounded it out and then said "cat." We were shocked!! He did the same thing with "dog."

That was the first time we saw him do that and he didn't do it again until yesterday. I was wearing a shirt that said "Rural King." He was sitting on my lap, pointing to each letter and making the letter sounds. Then, he slowly sounded out the word "rural." I was again shocked!!

Oliver rarely shows what he's capable of. I'd love to know all that he knows!!! But I'm thrilled to see his understanding of letters!!!

_________________
--Beth
Mom to Oliver, 5 (DS, ADHD)
and Sebastian, 4

Abigail's mom · Posted: December 22 2009, 3:10 PM Post subject:

Abigail learned to read when she was in third grade which means she was 8 years old. She was doing a little sight reading before that. The program they used was called SRA. Amazing!!!!!

Nancy
Mom to Elizabeth 13 and Abigail 10(DS)

hannah · Posted: January 09 2010, 1:59 PM Post subject:

Hannah is beginning to sight read. She initiated by bringing us letter tiles and telling us to spell out words. From there I wrote out her favorite words including some Dolch words on cards and we go through these once a day. She also loves to watch the show Super Why on PBS.

_________________
Hannah DS 1:19:05
Olivia 6:20:07

Joey'sMom · Posted: January 20 2010, 2:12 PM Post subject:

Joey is in kindergarten and has learned the letters taught and some of the sight words for kindergarten. From what I know from colleagues and experience, typically, children with Ds strengths are that they are visual learners, so beginning with a sight word approach is a great way to start. Once they have a foundation, a phonics approach, like the Wilson Reading program is great. Typically Wilson's is for upper elementary students but they do have a program called Fundations for primary elementary students. Teachers need to be trained in this program. I had a 3 day training to use it in my classroom.

_________________
~Melissa~ Mom to David (11) and Joey~Ds(6) and wife to Michael

Abigail'sMom · Posted: January 20 2010, 2:26 PM Post subject:

Amy, just seeing this thread.

Abby started to go to a 'reading' teacher once a week when she was 4. She uses Edmark. We are up to about 75 sight words now and just recently she is beginning to use phonics in sounding out words. She is now 6.

Hope this helps.

_________________
Eli
Mom to Abby (DS 10/21/03), James Thomas (01/31/06), Katie (08/12/08.)

Tigger · Posted: September 02 2011, 5:09 AM Post subject:

Talitha isn't reading but can recognise most of the letters and some words. Her language skills are way behind and she has some behavioural issues so it can be really hard to know what she can read and/or understand.

I have just finished the bulk of my cancer treatment so hoping that once I recover I can spend some more time with her.

_________________
Karyn
Mum to Nikki (Jul 89), Stefanie (Sep 96), Joel [June 98] and Talitha (DS) (Nov 05) AVSD/PDA repaired 23 March 06

"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well." Psalm 139:14

lespring · Posted: September 02 2011, 9:00 AM Post subject:

Well, it won't let me answer again. LOL Axel is 11, but has only been in the US for 8 1/2 months. He's been able to identify his upper and lower case letters for about 2 months now, and can tell you the sounds they all make. Now he's sight reading about 30 words, and we've just introduced phonics, starting with the "at" words. So he can ready sentences such as "the fat rat sat on a mat".

_________________
~Leah~

My mom's blog
http://gardenofeagan.blogspot.com/

And don't forget to visit MINE!
http://itsmylifemom.blogspot.com/

mom to Rob 26, Noah 25, Tyler 23, Bryon 23, Angela 16 (DS), Axel 12 (DS, adopted from Serbia 12/2012, AAI w/fusion) Asher 7 (DS adopted from Serbia 12/2011, AAI non-fusion)

jtkkmom · Posted: June 17 2012, 11:20 PM Post subject:

We started teaching our daughter at home when she was very little. We used sight words & she starting reading them before she was 2 & had also taught herself the alphabet using a Leapfrog toy by the same time. She had a ravenous appetite for words & by the time she was 3.5, she could read simple stories that she hadn't seen before. In the following year, we have been using a sight word approach to teach her word families. She has learned to intuit the rules of phonics & is now sounding out words. We still plan to formally teach phonics later although she is doing so well that I'm not sure it will be necessary. Our original goal had been to have her starting to read by grade one but she has far exceeded our expectations.

_________________
Laura - proud mom to my 4 girls

http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/

http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a6729133/unlimited_potential

Will · Posted: October 15 2012, 9:54 PM Post subject:

Gosh. What a lot of early reading (earlier than I expected).

When your child started reading, was he/she speaking yet? One word utterances or sentences?

Our boy can say some words, single-word utterances. He recognizes more than he says. It hadn't even occurred to us to start with letters before he was talking more.

_________________
Father of Liam (DS, '08 ) and Charles ('10).

jtkkmom · Posted: October 18 2012, 4:09 PM Post subject:

Will- my daughter stated to read a few words just after her 1st birthday so her reading has always been ahead of her speech. She could read unfamiliar stories ( ones we had not taught her) by age 3 .5 so agdin her reading was ahead. Now at age 5 she uses sentences & has a very large vocabulary it even so her reading is still ahead.

Your son does. It have to have speech to read & in fact reading will help develop his speech reading is the reason why my dd has such a wide vocabulary. Seeing the way a word is formed also helps her to be Anne to say a word more clearly.

I would suggest teaching sight words before the alphabet. ABC's are pretty abstract so it is usually much more fun to learn sight words - familiar people, pets names & toys are a great place to start. You can also label objects in your home.

Good luck!

_________________
Laura - proud mom to my 4 girls

http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/

http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a6729133/unlimited_potential

Tigger · Posted: October 18 2012, 8:18 PM Post subject:

Talitha is almost 7 and now has around 30 consistent sight words and she is reading simple readers. She started reading at the beginning of this year when she started school, ie Feb 2012 and is progressing slowly but surely.

_________________
Karyn
Mum to Nikki (Jul 89), Stefanie (Sep 96), Joel [June 98] and Talitha (DS) (Nov 05) AVSD/PDA repaired 23 March 06

"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well." Psalm 139:14