Where to Start?

[BMsam]

I am a soon to be step mom to a 4 almost 5 year old with down syndrome. She is amazing and in the last year has really developed into her own little spunky personality. Our main emphasis with her has been on speech and learning the alphabet, numbers and colors. The thought of her being able to read at this point hadn't even occurred to us until meeting another Mother recently through a DS parents group who recommended this program to us, .  We are amazed at all the videos and testimony’s of other parents of children with DS who are reading at 2 and 3 years of age and worried that we may have missed a window of opportunity during her younger years.

We are eager to try this program and a completely new approach on learning with her but where do we start? What is the best approach?

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Hi! It's never too late to begin right where you are! 

The first thing you should do is download the Little Reader 2 week trial if you have not done so already, and begin to use it twice daily. Present the lessons in a very joyful, loving way. Download the Free Teaching E-Books at the bottom of the page here: http://www.brillbaby.com/

Does she already know her letter *sounds*?  Also, I am going to move this to the Parents of Children with Special Needs board for you. 

[BMsam]

She is struggling with her letter sounds and recognition. She is currently in a half day special needs classroom where they work with her in very small groups and often one on one but we are concerned that the work they are doing isn't enough. We follow up at home every day we have her by playing games with letters, numbers and colors reinforcing what was worked on in the classroom but have been in search for something more we can do. We really want to have her in a mainstream kindergarten class next year but worry she may not be ready.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

My favorite DVD for older kids is LeapFrog's Talking Letter Factory by leapfrog. Let her watch this consistently and use matching flashcards for reinforcement, either bought from Amazon or downloaded from http://projectsbyjess.blogspot.com/2010/09/leap-frog-letter-factory-flash-cards.html.

Another option is Preschool Prep Company and youtube phonics songs/chants. Be consistent and keep a calender whatever you choose to track her exposure, you can see sample clips of all of these programs on youtube. You of course can also use Little Reader to quickly flash the alphabet, some kids respond really well to "character style" cartoon alphabets though like those mentioned above.

[evachong]

I think you could start doing with simple as fun . For me. I have a lot of idea in my mind too like the shichida method, montessori and the doman method. But I am going to combine all for my 2 years baby. She is doing good and she is now love to reading a book. How I teach her is everynight I play fun with her while teach her some dot card and flash card as well.

And recently I found If I could I should start making some booklet for her instead I going to buy alot of book from the bookstore. I found outside preschool book that is no link to build the child mind set and it is very different from each other. So, I decided to build a lapbook for her from now on.

Oh ya! how I start teaching my 2 years baby the schedule how I bring her up is on my blog I will post alot of my totbook for your reference.
I heard Homeschooling and parent is a teacher are best teaching resources for your child. That why even I am full time mother I also keep my promise do what can I give to my little bao bao.

kindly refer to my blog  :http://littlemommy2012.blogspot.com/

[kmum]

Hello, & welcome!

It sounds like our daughter's are very close in age - my daughter will be turning 5 in a couple of months. 

We were lucky to be able to find out about reading when she was really little, so she is reading very well now - her vocabulary was tested in January at a grade 3, 9th month level.

Although we started very early, your daughter is  still very young too & will still get a head start if you start working on reading now.  If it was me, I would start with one of two options.  1. Use the Little Reader curriculum which will fast flash the words for you, or 2, Use the Little Reader print function to print out cards & fast flash them.  Fast flashing is the fastest way that I know of to teach words & if it were me, I would be working more intensively since she is so close to school age.

It is great that you are working with her at home one on one, as she will likely learn faster that way.  Although our dd goes to preschool, we have choosen to put her in a social preschool because we do the academics at home any ways & feel she would be bored when the other kids are learning letters & she is reading.

You may also want to look into neurodevelopmental programs.  That is what got us started on early learning & the results have been wonderful. 

Check out my blog for more details - the link is in my siggy.  My Important Posts page has quite a bit of information, but please feel to ask any questions you may have.

You may also be interested in this board too:

http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a6729133/unlimited_potential

[BMsam]

I just wanted to thank you all for the great replies! We downloaded the trial for Little Readers and she loved it. We did a session before school in the AM and before dinner in the PM and she was very eager to play her "Computer Game" every day and sometimes repeated the lesson a few times in a session .  We also made simple flash cards for items around the house such as window, bathroom, mirror, dresser etc. and after flashing/reading each card while tracing under the word with my finger, I had her find the item and then we taped the card to the item. She really loved doing this and every time she sees the card or item she says the word and traces underneath like I did the first day!!! It’s really amazing to see how much she loves all the new word games and activities!

KMum, I checked out your blog and WOW you have a wealth of information and ideas. I look forward to keeping up with what you’re doing and love your thoughts on "high expectations" and completely agree. The sky's the limit!

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