My 3.5 year old with Down syndrome can read books!

[kmum]

We have been working on sight reading since my dd was less than a year old.  We weren't real dedicated at the start, but have gradually gotten into a routine of showing sight words 4 or 5 days a week. Everything has really come together in the last few months & she is reading at a kindergarten to grade 1 level now.  We are borrowing books from our local school & she is reading a couple grade 1 or kindergarten level books each day on top of new words that we are reading.  I have to admit that 3 years ago when I started showing ( in private  ) my little one giant word cards of the members of our family, I really didn't think it was possible.  I had never heard of teaching a baby to read regardless of the number of chromosomes they have.  Somewhere along the way, my little one has made me a huge believer & amazed me in the process!  I am so excited to share this with everyone, but especially other parents of kids with Down syndrome or other SN.  I am so in awe of my little girl!

If you would like to see it for yourself, check out my new blog.  I have a couple of videos at  her reading at 2 & 3 & will try to post a more recent one in the next week:

http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.com/

[nhockaday]

That is so great! What an inspiration to all of us!

[linzy]

How awsome! You must be so proud, what a great gift you have given her by not limiting your expectations and instead letting her show you what she can do.

[TracyR4]

How awesome! That reminds me of the site Love and Learning. Its a reading program that teaches young children with learing differences how to read.  I love to see parents who will not let anything stop their special children :>) 

[kmum]

Thanks everyone!

not limiting your expectations and instead letting her show you what she can do

   This is exactly  how I feel.  We have tried so hard never to limit her.  Sometimes my high expectation are probably considered unrealistic, but if I don't believe in her, who will?

TracyR4 - That was the first ready made kit that we started with. I started with LR while it  was still in the beta testing stage, but that was a little later.  It works, but is not nearly as flexible as LR.

edited to fix a typo!

[shaman]

Awesome!    Congratulations to both of you!   

[akalori]

That is amazing.  People must be stunned.  What does her doctor say about it?  I bet that reading is giving her a huge IQ boost.  She could have IQ in the superior range.  I'm so impressed.  Keep telling us about her progress.  I've got to check out your blog once the kids are asleep.

I have an older child age 8 with a learning disability, word recall issues, a tic disorder, fine motor issues, and gross motor issues.  He has also been dx'd Attention Deficit Disorder Inattentive Type.  I did alot with him but not the right stuff because I didn't know about very early education.  I just wish someone had mentioned Glenn Doman, flashcards, early reading, etc.  It annoys me because the professionals must know about very early education and are just too skeptical to even investigate it.  It should be their responsibility to mention it to parents even if they don't believe in it.  I always asked doctors and educators what should I do and what would they do if it was their child.  Some even discouraged me from doing anything at all.  The child study team (education professionals) recommended more time to play and just be a boy.  If someone had mentioned early education, I would have done it.  I tried to do phonics with him for about 1 yr from age 4 to age 5.  At the end, he was frustrated and only had a loose grasp on the sound of some letters.  It was just too little, too late.  I'm so glad that you are blogging about her progress so others parents can learn from it.

Anyway I'm so glad for your daughter.  I must go because my almost 4 yr old daughter is crying for me to read with her.  It is so bittersweet because she is reading on a kindergarten level while my son is reading on a first grade level.  But he works so hard and I'm very proud of the progress he has made.  I just wish I could make his journey through life easier.

Karma, Lori

[kmum]

What does her doctor say about it?

She has been quite healthy, so we haven't been to the Dr. in a long time.  He was excited to learn that she was reading words, but I really didn't go into details at the time as to how many.  I'll have to mention it at her next appointment in a couple of months.

akalori - I wish I had known about early learning for my older kids too.  Just curious - did you ever try sight words rather than phonics with your son?

[akalori]

Kmum,

No. I never tried sight words with my son.  I did the Baby Einstein Videos, a toddler art class, gymboree classes, yoga, kumon workbooks, the Hooked On Phonics (a preschool and kindergarten version), and lots of science stuff.  Actually he is ahead of his peers in science and vocabulary.  Finally in desperation, I had him classified and enrolled him in a special education preschool designed to catch him up.  I also sent him to a very expensive day camp for kids with mild learning disabilities. However despite a verbal IQ in the superior range and an avg math IQ, he is still 1 yr behind in reading and math.  He was 2 yrs behind at age 5 so I guess he is catching up a little bit.   If I had any knowledge of flashcards and sight reading, I would have done it.  I became aware of very early education through a Your Baby Can Read commercial when my daughter was 23 months and he was 6 yrs old.  I had them both watch the YBCR videos.  I told him that I needed his help to make it exciting for his sister.  The videos were too babyish to be cool for him, so he watched under the guise of being a good big brother.  The YBCR videos started my daughter reading ( but did nothing for my son).  Then we switched to the Little Reader because she didn't like the videos.  This was much better for him.  I used Little Reader for them both.  I flashed his kindergarten and first grade sight words.  We still do it sometimes.  At this point he prefers to read sight word books.  I also use Little Math to just flash numbers at him because sometimes he reads numbers upside down and backwards.  Anyway I think that if I had used Little Reader with him when he was a toddler that he would have had a much better outcome.  I'm so disappointed in myself that I didn't find Brillkids earlier.  We read together almost everyday, and he says he loves to read.  I'm grateful and hopeful that at least I've managed to instill a love for learning in him.  He also tries to play chess and watches lots of science documentaries.  He likes science geek stuff.  His favorite stuffed animal is the flu virus ( yep - a stuffed microbe).  He is hard to explain because he is an intellectual kid who learns much slower than average.  While the other boys are playing football right in our backyard he is wandering around them looking for rocks with his rock classification book in hand.  I'm hoping his interests lead him to catch up when others languish due to adolescent distractions.  Anyway It is late and I've hijacked your thread, so I'm going to go and check out your website.  Sorry I've rambled so much.  I rarely write about him because some part of me is always paranoid that somehow he might find this post and feel ashamed.   He is such a great kid, but I worry that he might have a tough journey through life.

Lori

[akalori]

Your kids are adorable.  It so great that they help with her lessons.  I love the pics of all the flash cards all over the house.  Your blog is really good.  It's informative, interesting, and even visually pleasing.  Great job.

[shaman]

Akalori,

I just read your post- you've put in a lot of effort in teaching your children- and it is very inspiring

Your son is doing a very good job- it may take him a little longer to get to where the other kids are (with reading and math), but he will definitely get there.

And in case he finds this post- I want him to know that he is doing a great job-  not everyone is good in everything, all of us have something that we have to work on more than the others. He seems to like science more and that is great! I know some kids tend to shy away from it. It would be a very uninteresting world if all of us were the same

I love the stuffed 'flu virus' toy 

Also, on another note- I would think that pediatricians would discuss more about early education. I am an internist and feel sad informing you that not a lot of internists are aware of early education methods    Even we learn about the brain development etc, but somehow, very few of them seem to interested in this topic. In fact, I have not mentioned the fact that I am doing early education with my son to most of my peers- not for the fear of being judged about what I am doing with my son (because I don't care what anybody thinks about that and my son and I are enjoying it) but for the fear that I may be perceived as someone who just wants to rub in the fact that I spend more time with my son compared to my peers. That makes me think that Internists are not into early education because they are too busy to spend time with their kids and hence have not been able to look it up or don't have the enthusiasm to do it when they do get some time with their kids.....I'm just thinking out loud....this will be an interesting topic for discussion with my peers.

Take care,
Shaman

[kmum]

akalori - Sounds like you have been very dedicated in helping your son, & it sounds like he is progressing, even if he hasn't quite caught up yet.  Kudos to you both for your hard work, & like shaman says, he really is doing a great job.  I really respect our kids for working so hard to do things that come so easily to others.

[ak1978a]

Hi Kmum, I am so glad to hear about your daughter's progress. It is big inspiration for me because i have a son with Downs Syndrom 2,5 and we just starting LR. He had a health problems so i think we lost about 2 years. We start with flash card quite early and try to use sign language - Singalong, which he loves. I think he does well but sometimes i feel that i do not do enough with him.Speach therapist see him once a month and  problem with him is that he needs lots of time to warm up so till he wants to do something with her she needs to go. By the way you inspire me to work harder with him. All the best. Regards. Agnieszka

[kmum]

ak1978a - It's so nice to hear from you!

He had a health problems so i think we lost about 2 years.

  We were very fortunate that K has been quite healthy.  The good news for you is that your son is still very young & you have lots of time to teach him. 

Speach therapist see him once a month and  problem with him is that he needs lots of time to warm up so till he wants to do something with her she needs to go.

  We have that problem too.  We have only ever gotten OT, PT & speech about once every 6 weeks & it has been almost 6 months since K has seen a speech therapist.  Thank goodness for the internet!  I  have really given up on having others help out a lot.  I do try to get as many ideas as I can & try do my best to help her to speak.  As your son learns to read more words he will likely speak better too.  When K was just learning to talk, it was very obvious as to which words she could sight read, as she could speak those words much more clearly.  Most kids with DS are visual learners & I really believe that one of the best things you can do to aid speech is to teach sight words so they can have a visual way to learn new words.

By the way you inspire me to work harder with him.

  Thank you so much!  That is one of the main reasons why I decided to start blogging about our experiences.   

[mko]

Congratulations to both you and K for reading!  It really is inspiring to hear about other positive parents raising genetically enhanced kids.  I only hope my 22mth old son (with DS) will do as well.  I love your blog too and will be passing the info along to some of my friends in the same situation. 

BTW, I am sure you probably know about it, but the site below is a fantastic source of info about DS and one of the main reasearachers is adamant that kids with DS should be taught to read as early as possible. 

http://www.down-syndrome.org/

Thanks again for sharing and inspiring!

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