This is a link to an article by Sarah Rosenfeld Johnson from Talk Tools. I didn't find this article until K was probably 2.5 or 3 years old but luckily, just by chance we did follow most of the techniques that the article suggests. K has never stuck out her tongue & has always had quite good oral tone so I think these techniques & later doing oral motor exercises has really helped.

Here is they article:

http://www.talktools.com/content/The+Oral-Motor+Myths+of+Down+syndrome.pdf

We're Experimenting........

 My Mom & Dad came for a visit back in May. My brothers, especially my younger one & I are concious about buying organic & avoiding artificial ingredients in foods.  While my Mom & Dad generally eat a fair amount of whole foods, they are not nearly as fussy as we are............& Dad likes white bread.

They left this loaf of bread behind.

 

 

It is almost 5 weeks old in this picture, not days, weeks!  It still feels soft & moist - to me, it looks & feels the same as it did when they brought it....................& it has been sitting out on my counter the whole time!  My girls have already stopped complaining that the bread I buy goes bad after 3 or 4 days.

 

So we are experimenting. We are going to leave it out on the counter, in the bag, at room temperature to see when (& if) it starts to deteriorate.  I'll let you know how it goes!

I find the best way for my kids to really realize how unhealthy things are is for them to see it for themselves.  Even pictures work well in this way.  About 4 years ago, I found a picture of a McDonald's burger that was a  number of years old & only the bun was deteriorating - it still looked edible!  My kids have not eaten one since.  I am hoping that this little experiment will deter them from a few other foods!

Simply Smarter Kids Memory APP

 NACD came out with a new app a while & just released an update a few days ago.  This is a really good app for memory & I often use it when working on visual object sequences.

Simply Smarter Kids

Simply Smarter Kids YouTube video

Happy Fathers Day!!!!!

Happy Fathers day to my wonderful husband & to all of you Dads out there who happen to read this.

We had a busy day today.  My oldest 2 girls had baseball playoffs so that kept us busy most of the day.  They were pleased to bring home 2nd place medals.  We had homegrown beef burgers, potatoes & veggies all done on the barbeque & since it was such a beautiful day, we had dinner outside on the back deck.

K gave her Dad a couple of books about Dads & was supposed to read them to him, but I think he got the short,"read as fast as I can" version tonight!

Hope you had a great day too!

Why It's Been so Long Between Posts & What We've Been Doing Lately

I think this has been the longest that I have gone without posting a blog.  Its not that I haven't been wanting to. I've actually got over 73 posts started in my drafts many of which are just a few scribbled down ideas but things have been so busy that I just haven't gotten back to them.

  

We just wrapped up K's first season on T ball. Her 3 older sisters are playing too & I have been running between 3 separate sets of practices.

 

A Trip to the Zoo

  

We've played at different playgrounds a number of times.

 

K's oldest sister JC is graduating from grade 9 so we celebrated at her grade 9 farewell...........& yes, that is her whole grade 9 class believe it or not!  This is an average size class in our kindergarten to grade 9 school.  JC is the girl in the darker dress 2nd from the right.

 

We've attended a few 4-H rodeos.  This is KJ who is K's 9 year old sister.  She is just starting her barrel run.

 

K's older sister JC tried her hand at roping this year & of course K is trying to follow in her footsteps!

 

We went on a road trip to pick up a new holiday trailer.  The dog isn't actually ours - just as we headed out an elderly friend called because she was experiencing some sudden health problems & needed someone to look after her dog. We were on a tight schedule that day so we picked Missy up & continued on our way.

This is the new trailer.  The room straight ahead is the bunk room & K is the proud new owner of the bottom bunk.

We went on a few more road trips - this particular one was to the opthamologist.

I put in a pretty good sized garden this year which took quite a bit of time.  The part closest to the front of the picture is a new area that I just worked up this year.  It wasn't even done when this picture was taken.

  

....................& we camped some more - this particular weekender was for a baseball tournament.

...............& no, I have no idea why she chose to read books under the table!

More roping

 

K made a few new friends too.

We spent a couple of days at track & field meets.  On this particular day K's older sister T came home with 4 1st place & 1 2nd place ribbon in her 5 events! 

.................and here's the biggest event of all - K turned 5!!!!!!!

 

...................and very rarely, K got to spend a few hours in her jammies just hanging out.  Wow, its been a busy couple of months!

Signing Time Sale!

If your child hasn't already outgrown these DVD's  sniff........ sniff..........(choking back tears because my baby is so getting so big) ...........like my big grown up girl has, you may want to check out their sale on June 5 & 6.


Signing Time Sale

We really enjoyed these videos when K was little & watching these videos helped K to master hundreds of signs before she dropped signing in favour of spoken language.  Besides teaching American Sign Language, the videos have a written word with each sign.  I eventually realized that K was learning sight words from these videos too as she started reading words that we had never taught her & she had only been exposed to through signing time.  I highly recommend them!

Reading Questions - Frequency & Understanding

Here are some more questions from a reader:

 

As you have been using the brillkids software too, and have a child with additional needs, I just thought you would be the perfect one to ask!!

I guess my main questions are: 

-Do I need to repeat things more often than with another child? (A 'normal' child would likely have learned a lot of words from all we have shown, but I don't think that's the case. I actually did go half way into the curriculum on LR, and then started again from scratch because I was worried she just hadn't gained anything from it :S, and I'm sure we are doing it often enough in a day either!)

 

I'm not going to be much help on this question because I'm really not sure if you need to repeat things more often or not.  In the beginning I did because I had the same concerns but as my daughter started to show me that she understood the words, I was able to figure out how quickly she learned & I followed a pretty typical schedule with her. From reading that I have done mainly on the BrillKids Forums, it seems like K has learned to read in a very similar manner compared to typical toddlers. We rarely do flashcards now except on little reader & even that is almost always longer sentences but at the end K was able to learn over 65 words every 3 days.  I got to the point that I had trouble finding word lists as well as time to make that many flashcards especially because I was changing each set twice a week. My biggest caution is not to bore your daughter.  If she starts to seem less interested, try cards more quickly & changing them more often. You are better to show them a little too quickly & have her miss a few of the words than to bore her & have her refuse to learn new words. 

 

We often do Little Reader 2 or 3 times a day, five times a week. Although now that K has figured out how to use the computer by herself she often watches it even more.

-How did you develop your child's understanding? Her understanding of the world, what she was reading, etc?  

 

I think the most important thing that we did to help with understanding was to always show a picture with each word & to explain when necessary. Another thing that probably helped was to try to relate things we were reading to everyday life.  For example, if we went swimming, I would read a story about swimming.  We made books for K to read about real life situations such as family holidays, a book on our farm animals, a book about preschool, etc.

Did you do games with her to emphasize the meaning of the words, or to see if she understood them/could read them (before she was verbal)?

Not really.  We mainly just made sure she received lots of input & never asked her for output or did any sort of testing until she was reading well.  At times it was hard to patiently wait for K to show us that she was learning, but in the end I am glad we didn't push her or test in any way.  She truly loves reading now. It was a huge leap of faith in the beginning but it paid off in the end.

-What did you find was the most practical/successful way of teaching your daughter? You mention that you printed all the flashcards from LR. Did you do a few categories a day, pulling out an old card and putting in a new one, every day? Did you still use the computer in the same time? 

 

I think that the most important thing is to find a method that is easy for you to implement & be consistent with.  I found it too hard to keep track of all the words to add & retire so I just used a new set of words for 5 days at a time, took a couple of days off & then started a fresh set of cards for the next week. As K showed me she could learn very quickly, I shortened up the time until she was learning a new set about every 3 days. At this time I used the computer more sporadically & mainly just for fun.  K didn't seem to learn as well from the computer in the beginning so it is only since she turned 4.5 or so that we finally switched to Little Reader only.

Just remember to start slow & add new things gradually so it is not overwhelming. 

 

 Sorry if these are too many questions! I'm desperately looking for the info, and you seemed like the ideal experienced mother/teacher to ask! 

I know you must be very busy too, so please don't feel like you need to answer all of these. I would be grateful for whatever piece of advice you would have :) 

Have you ever looked into neurodevelopmental programs?  I think one of the reasons that my daughter was able to learn so well is because of her program. It has helped organize her brain so that she learns more easily.

If you want to learn more, I have a neurodevelopment  (ND)category on the right hand side of my blog.  There are a number of blogs posts where I talk about ND.

You can also check out Down syndrome:  a day to day guide which is another blog that has a post entitled How to Find a Neurodevelopmentalist. This blog has tons of other great info too.  Some is specific to Down syndrome but lots of it is more general & you may find it very helpful.

You may also find this forum helpful too. If you use the search bar that is 1/2 way down on the right side of the page you will find lots of posts on early reading & lots of other subjects.

I hope this is helpful.  Please feel free to ask any questions you like & good luck teaching your little girl :)