SUCCESS STEP 11: THE MAGIC OF PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE!!!!!

Jacob says, “I DID IT!”

If you want the pleasure of working with children who joyfully congratulate themselves, then you’re going to have to teach someone with Down syndrome.

My teaching sessions are filled with my own sound bites of “Good job!!! Awesome!!! You rock!!!” and so on and so on until the session’s over, at which point I deliver my last thumbs up  to the student: “WHO did a good job today???” And of course they give the correct answer.

What You Say, They Say

This then becomes part of their DNA, so you’re going to hear it coming back the other way when they congratulate themselves as they learn: “Good job, Makenna! Good job, Blair!” I love it. Sometimes they even turn it around the other way; Makenna, who couldn’t pronounce my name yet, would occasionally chirp, “Good job, Mal-la-lee!” Nothing like a little sincere encouragement for the teacher.

Honey Works

Which brings us to the next important Success Step: Praise, encourage, and affirm every little bit of cooperation or progress. Celebrate over the top. Do a Joy Dance. High-ten. Stand on your head, whatever works.

This is MAGIC. If you’re not already doing this, add it to your teaching tool kit.

Failure Doesn’t

The second part of this magic formula is to teach and test in such a way that you avoid triggering that hidden Down-syndrome related syndrome, which I call FOF, Fear of Failure. Nothing will turn your little would-be reader off faster than the looming specter of the failure boogeyman. “It’s too hard! I can’t!” is a tell-tale symptom that FOF has already kicked in, so do some backpedaling and regroup.

Errorless Testing Techniques are super important, so if you need a refresher, go back and read that blog. These techniques were first published by Pat Oelwein decades ago, and they are still 100% effective. Our kids thrive on this kind of testing.

Speaking of Praise…

I ended my last blog with the following message to you; in case you missed it, here it is again:

You Rock!

My hat’s off to every single one of you who are trying so determinedly to teach your child to read, while subtly encouraging your child’s educators to stay on track with Best Practice and Basic Teaching Guidelines for our kids with Down syndrome.

High tens all around,

P.S. If you missed the first 10 Steps, just type “Success Step” in the blog search box to the right. It will pull them all up for you.