Teaching reading to preschoolers w/ Ds?

[Kaylis]

My 3 1/2 year old Mikah (with Ds) has been very interested in books and pretending to read them for quite a while. I think he's starting to associate the words posted around his preschool with what they mean and I want to expand on this. Any suggestions or personal stories about teaching young kids with Ds to read?

Thanks,
Karen

[Emilysmom]

I can't say enough about the "Love and Learning" program! ! !
My daughter was reading sight words and knew every lower case letter of the alphabet by age 3 because of this program. She loved it, and WE loved the fact that she was successful with it at such an early age. That has helped her to want to continue reading for FUN. I'm almost sure the website is www.loveandlearning.com

I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Susan

[jessjetland]

I just took a class on how to read to preschool age children. We learned about a program called the 5 day read aloud basically you read the same book five nights in a row and as your reading you ask questions about the story. I do this with Sam but instead of asking open ended sentences like you would with a typical child you ask close ended questions like do you see the red blanket? It really does make a difference and Sam has really responded well to this, he tells me the story and points things out.
I dont know if this helps but you want more information let me know.
I am volunteering with the Minnesota literacy council this year and will be working in a preschool room all year with children on early literacy skills.
Jessica

[chasesmom]

LOL, I didnt know anything about Love and learning so I did it the hard way but from what Susan told me it was the same basic concept. Chase was reading at age three and by age four had over a hundred sight words he knew and could read preschool books. His preschool teacher was amazing, she made books to help expand his reading and when I presented her with the "teaching your child with DS to read " book, she took it on and taught Chase's whole class to read. By the time Chase went into kdg he had over 200 sight words. It is his greatest love and was so simple to teach him. I used recipe cards, that's it. I started with five and we went over and over them. It took him all of about two days to know them and we moved on to ten and when he knew them I added five more and so on and so on. I dont know who had more fun, Chase or I. Let me add that I used words he would want to know...mama, dad, Chase, dog, Bailey, Barney, popcorn, juice, things he loved or would want to know and when he had about 25, I added the, is and we us I, etc so we could make sentences and he could READ. He was so excited as was I !!!!! Have fun mom!!!!!!
hugs, Robin
PS. those are my fondest memories....Chase and I down on the floor "reading" his cards and btw....he took those things every where and did them over and over for years, we had a huge gallon size bag of them we carted all over

[victoriasdad]

wow! victoria pretends to read, she cant speak coherently, did i spell that right?, anyway she can recognize her name , and she can recognize all her favorite movies by the name, :shrek,aristocats, mermaid ect... today i had this talk with her new kinder teacher, she said we are going to start tori and writing on the chalk board and work our way up to using a pencil.........victoria has been righting with a pen since she was three..... and we have our own chalk board for her to write on, she writes all these long letters and speaches and then she reads them out loud (in her own language)

[meghans_mom]

a little late here, but we also used L&L at an early age. Meghan could read, write and speak the alphabet at a very young age (2?) and also was reading sight words by 2 1/2. at 4 she was reading simple sentences.
now we're using the How to teach children w/ DS to read, and the teach your child to read in 100 days book, or whatever its called. it has been a hectic year and we've fallen off a little bit on both - but for a child your sons age - L&L is great!!

good luck - laurie

[laurasmom]

We didn't hear about Love and Learning until after Laura was in school. She loves to read, and we read to her frequently. Her favorite books to read when she was preschool age were my mother's readers she had kept from her grammar school days. It sounds strange, but each page had a simple sentence on it, with the associated picture above it. When Laura reached elementary school, I showed the books to the reading specialist, and she raved about them. We also did cards like Robin and Chase did. I also used post it notes on lots of things around the house - cabinets, stove, dresser, drawer (labeled with contents), etc. When she reached elementary school, they used the Edmark program and the SRA program. For Laura, out of those 2 programs, the Edmark was the one that really worked for her. SRA tended to be too confusing, a little abstract for her.

To this day Laura loves to read. Tonight, it was wonderful. The girls have reading time from 9-9:30 in their rooms, every night. They sit in their bed, or chair, and read quietly, with just music on. Tonight, Laura was reading one of the Little House on the Prairie books. She came running downstairs, shouting "Mom, guess what happened in this book. The mother hurt her foot, and she soak it, and its better. You soak your foot". What was wonderful, is she read it, comprehended it, and related it to the fact that I hurt my foot.

So I had a "moment" after she went upstairs, and after I composed myself, I went upstairs for prayers and good night kisses and hugs. Sure made my night better!

Sharon

[rickismom]

Basically, once a child :
1 ) can play lotto type games
2) recognizes 50 words (he may not SAY them, but if asked "Where is the "dog"?, will point to a picture of a dog, then he knows the word......)

... Then they are able to start learning "sight" vocabulary. Once they have about 50 "sight" words, they can start learning phonics. Se "Teaching DS children to read " by woodbine house, and the Downs Ed booklets on reading.

We started with Ricki when she was 3 years old,; at age 8 she was reading at First grade level.

[Kaylis]

Thank you all so much! I just got a chance to login again, but in the meantime I decided to start with the card sets from Signing Time. Each pack has cards with an illustration from a specific dvd (one of the first 3) on one side with the word typed out, and a picture of the sign on the back. I thought he might like them since he's become particularly fond of some board books we have that show how to sign common words along with an illustration. He even will look at the card (or book page) then look at the sign and use that to remind him how it goes. When I get a chance I plan on making word cards that match the sign cards and see if he will sign what they say. I will also check out all the resources you have given me.

Thanks again!
Kaylis

[Kaylis]

I went to a conference in Roanoke, VA this Spring and was introduced to another way of teaching sight words to kids with Ds. I'm not at home (out of town), but here's a brief bit. The method started with getting blank cards on which you write (in LOWER case only) words like sit, stand, stop, go. Then you play the "game" with someone else while your Ds kid watches until they insist on joining in. The game is one person shows a flash card, and the other does what it says. Make sure all the words to start with don't have weird spellings or silent e. Only let the cards be used for the game, and put them away between times so they are something fun and special. Take turns with, preferably, your child and at least one other person, controlling the cards. Start with two cards, then slowly add more adding in more actions. Eventually you will start adding other types of words and pairing cards so you have phrases like "hug Sam" then "mom pat cat" and "Mary on chair", etc.

Mikah got the point almost immediately and loves playing. He is obviously learning to recognize the words too. The presenter also had a method for teaching math in a very concrete way too. I wish I remembered more so I could describe it better. I also wish I had more time to implement it all .