Encouraging passage from great book!

[Jenifer]

Joy has done great learning the alphabet this school year, so as summer approaches, I've set a goal to help her begin sight reading. I'm reading the book "Teaching Reading to Children with Down Syndrome" (Patricia Oelwein), and I loved the following passage. I hope it will encourage some of you to keep on keeping on!

"Parents are usually the most consistent educators in their child's life and face the challenges of meeting their child's educational needs throughout his lifetime. It is parents, in most cases, who provide continually as the only consistent member of the IEP team, year to year. Their involvement is ongoing, whereas individual teachers have relatively limited time with the child. (If the child did not learn to read this year, then it is someone else's problem next year.)"

This was so profound to me because it made me realize that I am the one who knows Joy's needs best and will be with her throughout this process, so I have to advocate for her as she enters school. I know how she learns, what challenges her, what frustrates her, and how to motivate her. The teaching team changes every year and as the baton (or buck in some instances) is passed, it's my job to keep everyone on track to understand who Joy is and what she needs.

I am only on page 22 and I am loving this book...you guys really have to check it out!

Happy weekend!
Jenifer, mom to Joy Daisy

[Emilysmom]

Jenifer~
That passage is SO true!!! I love that book, and have gone to a workshop with that author a few years ago........it was VERY helpful. She also gave us pages and pages of things to work on to help with MATH skills. She set out to write a "Teaching MATH to Children with Down syndrome" book and it got so involved and the publishers were rushing her a bit, so I think it never got completely finished. She said she just had tooo much to put into a book like that! I really highly recommend the reading book.

Susan

[andrewsmom]

I also have this book. I only flipped through it so far because time is limited. To be honest with you, I am very impressed with what I have read so far and it's funny that this one passage you picked happens to be one that I remember well also! I'll have to get going on reading it so I can talk to you more about it.

-Trisha

[Jackie]

Pat is an awesome woman. Years ago when Em was quite young, I read about her work in a Woman's Day article...long before her book. I talked our local speech and hearing center to bring her to town for a workshop. She spent the weekend with us at our home and we had delightful chats. Every now and then we run into her at workshops and she has fun seeing how Emily has matured. But sadly I have lost her contact info...so if anyone has it...I would love to get it.

She even spent several years starting a DS program in Saudi Arabia.

I AM sorry she never got her math book finished. She discussed parts of it with us and it sounded sooo good and practical...but I can see how it probably did get out of hand.

Jackie mom to Emily 26

[chasesmom]

THAT is the book I used to teach my Chaseman to read as well as he does!!!!!!! I broguth it to school with me the day he started preschool/PPI class and said to his awesome teacher,... that I wanted it included in his IFSP and used every day as we did at home. She jumped at the book, brought her own and used it with the entire class. And my son is reading at a better then 4th grade level now! His biggest joy in the world I think is his reading! It makes my heart sing as I too love to read. What a great place to hie when the world is getting me down, in a big fat book.
hugs, Robin