TEACHING READING: BEGIN BIG
Big Type, Big Books, Big Results
The red pen is there for perspective, so you’ll see the size of the type I began with. (Yes, I saved some of those books!)
My son Jonathan is smack in the middle of that broad spectrum of abilities which cover the Down syndrome chart. He’s not a super star; he weighs in as average on that spectrum (never mind that I think he’s sometimes brilliant.) So why did this kid learn to read at age 5, and that twenty-four years ago, when folks weren’t doing this sort of thing? Why was he reading at grade level by first grade, and continued to progress to seventh grade reading level by high school? Why did he learn so well that I didn’t have to teach him reading after age 8? Because, for one thing…
Yes, we have.
Size Matters!
24 years ago, I took Glen Doman’s book seriously. “How to Teach Your Baby to Read” may be controversial, but it’s also been in publication for over 40 years and translated into a gazillion languages. That doesn’t happen if a method doesn’t work. Fortunately, I believed Doman, and my five-year-old with Down syndrome, severe ADHD, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) was an independent reader by the time he was eight. After teaching him to read every day for about 2 & 1/2 years, he was launched as a reader and my job was over.
As far as size goes, I overdid it. Thank heavens. I didn’t realize what an accelerator that would be for learning. You see, I didn’t know that only the flash cards needed to be huge (2″ high for a baby.) I didn’t know the homemade books could have much smaller type, maybe a half inch or so. Instead, In the beginning, I created oversized books with 2″ high type. The result? Jonathan ripped through those books at high speed. Within two years, he was reading very small type. Looking back, I wonder if my “mistake” was partly responsible for his unusually fast progress.
At First, Go For Humongous
Take a look at the book 5-year-old Jonathan is reading to Grandma. It was his first book. The “gutter” (as graphic designers call it), the middle of the book’s two pages, is to Jonathan’s left (see the arrow). You can’t even see the left hand page! The book is much bigger than his lap. The type was in red marker and two inches high. The words on the flash cards I made were also two inches high. He learned to read the book in less than two weeks, and the rest—for him—is history.
The Underdeveloped Visual Pathway
Flip through Doman’s book to get to the juicy parts, as when Doman and his team first learned from a parent that type size mattered for the underdeveloped visual pathway, which is the visual pathway our non-readers with Down syndrome have, whether they’re babies or teens. The researchers finally realized that, in Doman’s words, “It is almost impossible to make the print too big to read.” “But,” he continues, “it is possible to make it too small, and that’s just what we’ve done…the underdeveloped visual pathway of the one-, two-, or three-year-old just can’t differentiate one word from another.” The same is true for our older non-readers with Down syndrome, because their visual pathways are also underdeveloped. Learning to read matures that pathway!
Don’t Forget Fast Flash
So make it big and don’t forget to use the Fast Flash method for teaching sight words. And begin teaching letter sounds (this is new information from Downs Ed International: teach the sounds first) and then letters as early as age two. New research tells us that kids can learn the sounds more easily than the letter names, so teach little tykes sounds first.
Head for the teacher’s supply store and buy “tagboard” paper, book rings to hold it together, and some broad red markers. Then let your imagination create some awesome personal books!
Cheers,
