TEACHING READING: SIMPLIFY THE BRAIN’S TASK!

Simplify, Simplify

So often we make the reading task difficult for young brains. We don’t even realize we’re doing it, but we are. We put preliminary roadblocks, detours, and potholes in the path without even knowing that they’re roadblocks, simply because we just aren’t aware. This article is about how to remove those obstacles and make reading easy for our children with Down syndrome.

What am I talking about? What are some of those detours and obstacles?

Think Like A Kid’s Brain, See With New Eyes

Who wouldn’t,
with clarity like this?

My background as a graphic designer has come in handy both in designing the reading books on this site, as well as 23 years ago when I created reading books for my son Jonathan.

Be like a graphic designer! We are trained to perceive what a client will see when looking at the printed page: where does the eye first go? Then where does it go next? And next? How does it make the viewer feel? What kind of type is easy to read? What’s really hard on the eyes?

The brain and eye are so confused,
the space so cluttered, the brain says,
“Forget it!”

This is what I want YOU to do. I want you to learn to think this way so that you’ll be able to see through your children’s eyes and give them what their brains need.

Obstacles:

1. Cluttered visual space
2. Small type, too much type
3. Serif fonts
4. Tight word spacing

Do This:

1. Give the brain white space. The reading page should have tons of white space surrounding what you want the child to read: type.
   
2. Make the type super large, for heaven’s sake. I’ll be writing a blog next week on that topic specifically, but for now, take my word for it: live large! And match the sentence length to the child.
3. Use a sans serif font. What’s that? It’s a font without curlicues on the ends of the letters. Ideal sans serif fonts are: Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, and Helvetica. Just about every computer on the planet boasts those fonts.
4. Double-space between each word. We don’t want young brains to have to struggle to perceive where one word ends and the next begins; we simply want them to recognize or decode the word. Period. So double-space between each word.
   

   For example, if you’re modifying a book for reading
   purposes, you definitely want something like this!

Let’s remove obstacles 1-4 and get to step 5, simply  LEARNING TO READ. Young brains will love us for it!