TEACHING GEMS from the DSEI CONFERENCE: Part 1

Bringing the Best of the Conference to You

If you couldn’t attend the DSEI Conference in California this month–or even if you did!–here are some teaching gems from my notes. I love, love, love the wisdom the UK’s Down Syndrome Education International brings to us in the US.

Today is Part 1: Comprehension and Working Memory. Over the next few weeks, these blogs will be in sound bytes, which should suit your crammed schedule perfectly…

Part 1:

Comprehension and Working Memory

• Great tip: After a child reads a sentence aloud (which we know is likely to be halting and difficult), have him read the sentence silently to himself several more times. Why does this help his comprehension? Because he is allowed in that way to focus on only one task at a time. Then ask your comprehension questions.
• What’s delaying comprehension? In answering questions about a story, for example, the ability to infer is expected, but this is a challenge for DS because of more limited life experiences, grammar delays, and working memory issues. Because our learners with DS have deficits in working memory, the working memory can’t simultaneously hold all the pieces of information required to answer the question. What to do? Develop working memory (see the picture card game below; and use simple, clear memory game apps!) and keep training comprehension.
• Re-read the story over and over again so the story is known. 
• Grammar can defeat our learners with DS, as in embedded clauses. Example: if the sentence is “The dog chasing the cat is black,” and you ask, “Which animal is black?” you’re going to get the answer as, “The cat,” because the last thing working memory heard linked together were “cat” and “black.” But if the sentence reads, “The dog is chasing the cat; the dog is black,” and you ask, “What color is the dog?” you’ll get the correct answer: “Black.” What the child hears last is going to be in their working memory and retrievable. Simplifying the grammar and asking the right questions are important elements in comprehension.
• How else to help working memory? Simple memory games such as using 2 to 7 picture cards face down.The child learns to remember first 1 image, then 2, 3, 4. Here’s a slide from my Reading Workshops powerpoint that shows a sample of that progression:

See you next week for Part 2!