Teaching Down syndrome

“No!” Jonathan was 18 months old (with Down syndrome) and now refused to learn anything. He stimmed and mentally “went away.” He was not autistic, but he was trying hard [...]

PERSONAL PAGES You know I’m a serious soap-box champion of personal books, right? Yes. Forever. But here’s an alternative I use at nearly all of my teaching sessions: PERSONAL PAGES. [...]

PETE AND REPEAT I know I’ve talked about this forever, and here it comes again!!!! Why am I writing about personal books again? Because it is so incredibly important to an emerging reader. [...]

Why aren’t flash cards working for my child? Flash cards as they are traditionally used are the slow boat to China. Boring. It can take forever to get that information into the [...]

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 [...]

“We go in through the heart and teach to the brain.” “How DO you teach reading to a child with Down syndrome?” asked the Mensan. I was flying across country to give workshops when a [...]

Did you know this? I didn’t. Maria formulated her ingenious teaching methods in 2 years of WORKING EXCLUSIVELY with kids like ours, children with developmental delays. She taught them daily [...]

Leading The Charge! I so often wave one of my most passionate flags, which reads, “Let’s teach our children that reading is fun, reading is magic, reading is about understanding! [...]

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 [...]