Reading in the classroom

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 [...]

What is “best practice” now for our kids in inclusive classrooms? Stay in for reading instruction or get pulled out? Here’s valuable input… In or Out? One mother recently [...]

If a child or teen hasn’t caught on to reading, is totally uninterested, or shuts down when a parent or a teacher tries to teach reading, we need to ask ourselves: “What are we [...]

Awesome (and arguable) question. I’ll begin my answer with a history lesson: Historically, insisting on phonics training as the primary means to learning to read is only a [...]

The Reading Railroad is Rolling Again! My post-NDSC-conference wrap-up is finally over, and the reading train is moving again. So here we are at Success Step 8. This is what you have going so [...]

Classroom Woes One mom recently wrote me about her teenage daughter, whose special ed teacher, though a good egg, is teaching reading materials not only ‘way above the teen’s head, [...]

7 More Essentials for Best Practice in the Classroom Last week, I invited you to dream with me and imagine ideal classroom support for our emergent readers with Down syndrome. I gave you 7 [...]

Let’s Dream: The Ideal Reading Support I’m going to dream here for a minute. I hope you can take this dream and morph it into a reality for your child, or as close to it as possible. [...]

Last weekend I had the fun of giving reading workshops for The 21 Club in New Hartford, NY, and as usual I ended the day with a hands-on workshop for modifying trade books. I can’t [...]