Reading SOUND BITE: DECODING HELP in a 2-MINUTE BLOG

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In Down Syndrome Reading, Early Reading, Education, Phonics, Reading Resources, Teaching Down syndrome
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toolboxYour New Tool

I believe that we can pull teaching tips from many sources not originally intended for special needs; here’s a decoding tidbit to add to your Teaching Toolbox.

The Source

This is a modification of the initial technique taught in Siegfried Engelmann’s book, “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.” The book is designed for a typically developing child, to be done in 100 days (!) I don’t recommend doing the entire program for our children with Down syndrome, as it’s quite complex and would take much longer than 100 days to master, but I do recommend dipping into it for tips and techniques.Teach your child to read book

This technique can work well with our kids who are verbal, and has the added benefit of being kinesthetic, since it’s hands-on. For children who are nonverbal, it’s still useful to model it for them, because it will help them decode. Some of my nonverbal students are the best observers!

The Modified Technique

You’ll model this first; then do hand-over-hand with your child, eventually moving toward the child doing it solo:

You can make these cards quickly with marker on 5 x 8 index cards.

You can make these cards quickly with marker on 5 x 8 index cards.

Touch your finger to the starting dot, left. Move quickly to the dot under the “m”, sounding out mmmmm.

Without stopping your voice, move your finger to the “e” and continue vocalizing eeeeeeee. Then move your finger to the end arrow and stop.

Don’tstopthesound!

The most important point: don’t pause between sounds, as in “mmmm (pause) eeeee”. You want to model the continuous sound, mmmmeeeee. Enough repetition of this technique will seriously help your child to get it: connecting letter sounds makes words that he understands. End the lesson with repetitions of, “Now say it fast!”

Starting initially with words like “see,” “run,” or “am” is ideal; but you can expand to many words quickly. To get the idea of making a continuous sound across to our learners can be challenging; they naturally want to separate the sounds.

Sing It!

You’ll figure out a verbal prompt that works for your child, and here’s one prompt that I’ve found helpful: “Let’s sing it.” Children associate singing with a sustained sound, so this can help bring the idea home.

Have fun with this and be sure to sound out some goofy words to keep interest high!

Cheers,

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