Teaching Reading: STAMP OUT BORING

What’s Boring?

Here are two common mistakes that we make which cause our learner’s eyelids to droop and their little resistant wills to harden:

• Repeating the same material for weeks
  
• Teaching material that is of zero/low interest to the child

Pretend you are your child and I’m the teacher. I’m going to try to teach you five words. I will show them to you repeatedly, which is good, but I’ll show them so slowly that you fall asleep, which is not good. Ready? Okay, here they are.

a  the  an  in  to a  the  an  in  to a  the  an  in  to a  the  an  in  to a  the  an  in  to a  the  an  in  to a  the  an  in  to

Are you still with me? Of course not. You could care less about those abstract but necessary words, so you’re “outta here” and I’m toast. Now what happens if I do this to you twice a day for 4 weeks? Oy. So that brings me to Two Essential Things.

Thing One: Hot Topics

The material (books, sentences, word cards, etc.) that you put in front of your would-be reader must be of HIGH INTEREST to the child. Especially in the early stages of learning to read, the words must tightly orbit around the core of the child’s life. (Review my blog on Creating Personal Books.) Are there any other effective options in the beginning of this learning process? No.

I find that this is profoundly true when you are teaching a child/teen/adult with Down syndrome. Even standard texts on “how to teach typical learners” emphasize beginning with high interest topics. For our kids, this approach is critical to get buy-in (a.k.a. cooperation).

Thing Two: Fresh Blood, Juicy Meat

I realize that vegetarians (my son with DS included) are not going to be attracted to reading about fresh blood and juicy meat. But here’s what I mean by that: new, fresh, interesting, cool, awesome, radical, varied materials continually flowing in and out of your daily “teach reading” routine. Think of it as colorful, exotic fish swimming randomly, rapidly in front of your eyes as you watch an aquarium. You never know what will swim in front of your nose next. We want learning to read to be like that: unexpected, interesting, and varied. (Remember, if you’re teaching with flash cards, to move them at least as fast as one per second. Review my blog on Fast Flash if you need a refresher.)

But He Hasn’t Learned Those Words Yet!

Not to worry. He will. But give those words a rest for a bit or at LEAST cut the deck in half with an equal amount of High Interest words. Retire some words, reinsert them later, use them in an unexpected way, teach them “accidentally” by coupling that word with a totally awesome word (Super Heroes, Wiggles, you name it.) MAKE IT MEANINGFUL to your child. Amen.

I hope you’re off and running now, and never have to face droopy eyelids again.

Cheers,