Down Syndrome Reading

Well, have you ever tried to start a car without turning on the ignition? Aha! You see my point. Long ago and far away, in 1989 when I taught my son to read, no materials existed that suited his [...]

Let me say at the outset, as I wrote in my last blog, that it’s never too late to learn to read if you have Down syndrome! Never. With older nonreaders, we’re even more careful to use [...]

My child/teen/adult with DS can’t read yet…is it too late? No, it’s not too late.  My oldest “starting student” with Down syndrome was 33 and legally blind. He is learning to read. This is [...]

A mom messaged me recently on Facebook. Her 10-year old daughter with DS, in a fully inclusive setting, has had great teams for several years and her reading level was assessed at Level O (on the [...]

the gift that gives twice We all know that we open the world to our children when we teach them to read. I felt that wonder first-hand when I taught my son Jonathan to read 29 years ago. And I [...]

I’ve been where you are. When my son Jonathan was 5, I was busy with PT, OT, ST, and a 3-year-old daughter with severe asthma. The idea of me teaching reading to my 5-year-old with Down [...]

Speaking of Boxing… At the NDSC Conference in Pittsburg last month, the Phonics Or Whole Word (POWW!) issue attacked me personally in the form of one attendee who voiced the opinion that, [...]

What’s the Sandwich? “Sandwich Style Teaching” is simple. It means making a reading sandwich where Fast Flash are the two pieces of bread and the middle, the PBJ layer, is the [...]

Part 2 Note: If you read last week’s article, skip down to *Undiagnosed Vision Issues. If you didn’t, keep reading because you need this initial information! Parents often ask me, [...]

Parents often ask me, when they use my Special Reads curriculum, “How long will it take for my child/teen to master this? And can he learn to read?” The answer is twofold: that [...]