hsing a child w/Down syndrome

[mommy24angels]

We've decided to continue hsing our son (5yo in July) who has Down syndrome. He's doing very well but is more at a pre-k level. Is anyone here hsing a child with DS? I'd love to connect with others in a similar situation and find out what has worked (or not) for you.

[samba]

Hi Emily,

We've been homeschooling our ds9 w/DS from the start. We've tried many things. I'd be happy to share our hits and misses (it's a constant process). Do you have any specific questions to start with...ie. math, reading, phonics, etc?

 

Carolyn

[mommy24angels]

What kinds of things were you working on w/your ds when he was just turning 5yo? Did you use any kind of resource to help you set goals for him? I feel like I need help knowing what to work on next with him. What did you use to teach him to read and write? Matthew is still just scribbling with crayons and doesn't have very good control trying to grasp a pencil with his fingers. Are you working on Horizons K with your son right now? Have you tried other math programs for him? I have Sonlight P3/4 and P4/5 that I will use for Read-Alouds this year and we go to the library A LOT to get other books as well. We had tried to put him in special ed pre-k this past year but he was sick the ENTIRE time. Even though I know that hsing is best for him, I still question whether or not I will be able to teach him all of the things the special ed teachers can (since they have training in that area). Thank you for any help you can offer! It feels a little like being on a cross-country journey with no road map!

[MyBlueLobsters]

Hey Emily! (GREAT name...tee hee) My little guy (6) has Down syndrome and we are planning on HSing him next year. I don't have much time right now, but would LOVE to 'talk'!! Keep an eye out, I'll come back to respond later! :grouphug::grouphug:

[mommy24angels]

Oh great, Emily! I can't wait to hear what your plans are for your little guy for next school year!

[MyBlueLobsters]

Oh great, Emily! I can't wait to hear what your plans are for your little guy for next school year!

 

Well, to be honest, I have no plans! ACK! I am hoping to nail down some curriculum over the summer. We will be starting Logan in Kindergarten curriculum this year (he turned 6 in April). He knows his letters and their sounds and can identify numbers mostly through 20. He does not do well holding a pencil yet. What are you thinking? Maybe we can pick each others brains and come up with something!

[dtsmamtj]

Can I join in the conversation - we too have a DS blessing. She just turned 7. Still working through the basics, but shows success in sight words more than phonics type learning.

T

[lorrainejmc]

Sorry to butt in here:D. There is a free curriculum designed for kids with DS called "see and learn" that teaches kids to sight read, matching words then sentences to pictures. You can buy a printed set of resources but if you want to print your own, then it is free. http://www.seeandlearn.org

[mommy24angels]

Thanks! I'll check out See and Learn. Matthew is doing the "Your Baby Can Read" program right now along w/our 22mo daughter. So far he's learned how to read quite a few words! He's definitely a visual learner and our previous speech therapist encouraged us to use sight word reading programs w/him. I'll still work on phonics too, but I know a lot of children w/DS struggle to "get" phonics.

[mommy24angels]

Can I join in the conversation - we too have a DS blessing. She just turned 7. Still working through the basics, but shows success in sight words more than phonics type learning.

T

 

So far it seems like Matthew is doing better w/ sight words too. Are you using a specific program for her?

[jenncslp]

I hs my dd with DS. She is 10, but I didn't adopt her until she was almost 4 (so that was her first time hearing English too). I use a mix of everything. I use Numicon for math (especially designed for kiddos with DS), See n learn for sight reading, Handwriting without tears, lots of things for phonics, Signing Time for sign language and this year we're going to do a CC tutorial-just to see how she likes it. She has severe apraxia, but can get more out with singing, so we'll see what happens.

 

I would love to chat anytime. I belong to a couple of yahoo groups of home schooling families with children who have DS, and they are also very helpful.

 

Jenn

[samba]

I've found it best, for my ds9 with DS, to follow normal developmental goals (phonemic awareness, writing skills, etc) and just expect that it will take longer and the material will need to be presented in many ways and possibly adapted.

.

There's no all-in-one program that works for my son We've had great success with phonogram cards, ABeCeDarian, I See Sam readers, Horizon readers (now used in Memoria's K program). When he was around the age of your son, I started down the sight word route because that was the one being advocated in my DS circles. I started to see worrisome habits that are sometomes developed with sight reading (guessing, not looking at the whole word from left to right, etc). I decided to back off and just work on phonograms and not worry about how many words he could sight read. It was hard, though, because everyone around was saying, "My ds can read ___ words" and my ds couldn't read any. He did, however, become rock solid on phonograms. :001_smile: He started blending words in ABeCeDarian A and that's when the real reading started. It seemed like it took forever (probably at age 6). I'm thrilled with his reading development and glad that I trusted my instincts for my ds with regard to sight reading vs. phonics. I know sight reading works well for some; it wasn't good for us. My son has always had a wonderful attention span for books; that has been a huge benefit.

 

He was a reluctant writer for longer. It was a real struggle. Holding the pencil was tiring, fine motor skills poor. He never enjoyed coloring. His letters were too big for every writing paper. I gave up on a formal handwriting program and had him write on plain white copy paper with just a baseline that I drew on it and didn't worry about how big the letters were initially, as long as they were formed correctly. I used Zaner-Bloser stroke descriptions and modified a few of them to suit ds' understanding. His writing eventually got smaller and neater. I watched every stroke to make sure he did it correctly and didn't start developing bad habits. I did buy HWT first; it had so many stroke descriptions that confused ds (similar letters w/ quite different descriptions). Again, I know many people use HWT and it works well for them; not us. I will try to post a picture of N's writing. It's quite nice. I've come up with my own writing program for ds w/ dictation and copywork based on his phonics development. I just bought AAS 1 and ds is already beyond it; I should have started with AAS 2. One thing we found helpful was for ds to use a small golf pencil for writing. His hand almost automatically went into the proper position; no struggling with holding too high. We never used the fat pencils or pencil grips. I tried them but they didn't seem to imprive anything.

 

Science and History are mostly read-alouds, audiobooks and videos. Phew! I need a break by this point because everything we do is so intensive and he likes it this way. It would be an understatement to say that he loves videos. :tongue_smilie: We do limit all screen time because he gets obsessed with it.

 

Math has been the hardest area to find appropriate materials. We've used some of MUS Primer and Horizons K and parts of many other resources (Numicon and others). He is doing well in some math concepts (skip counting, money, time, patterns, etc) but other key math concepts are weak and have held him back from progressing as he has in other areas. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas to try to reinforce math skills.

 

My ds enjoyed doing the Rod and Staff preschool books. These were his "fun books" but they worked on skills that were important.

 

I hope some of this has been helpful. I know my ds is older but I still like/need to hear what is working for others. It's always changing.

 

Carolyn

Edited May 21, 2011 by samba

[mommy24angels]

I hs my dd with DS. She is 10, but I didn't adopt her until she was almost 4 (so that was her first time hearing English too). I use a mix of everything. I use Numicon for math (especially designed for kiddos with DS), See n learn for sight reading, Handwriting without tears, lots of things for phonics, Signing Time for sign language and this year we're going to do a CC tutorial-just to see how she likes it. She has severe apraxia, but can get more out with singing, so we'll see what happens.

 

I would love to chat anytime. I belong to a couple of yahoo groups of home schooling families with children who have DS, and they are also very helpful.

 

Jenn

 

My little guy LOVES signing time!!! He's learned so many signs and tries to sing along w/the songs- it's great!

 

Which Numicon kit did you start out with? Is it user friendly? I thought about trying it for him.

 

Also, did you use the pre-k materials from HWT? I think my ds is going to need a lot of prewriting activities to work on his motor skills before we're ready to progress to actual letter formation. I joined one of the yahoo groups a little while ago but haven't posted much.

[mommy24angels]

I've found it best, for my ds9 with DS, to follow normal developmental goals (phonemic awareness, writing skills, etc) and just expect that it will take longer and the material will need to be presented in many ways and possibly adapted.

 

I hope some of this has been helpful. I know my ds is older but I still like/need to hear what is working for others. It's always changing.

 

Carolyn

 

 

Thank you so much for all the info and sharing your personal experiences! I agree, the most important thing is finding what works for our own kids- which is different for everyone ;). It's always helpful getting ideas to try out! My ds is crazy about watching videos too! Sometimes he pouts or throws a little tantrum when we say no- I'm sure he'd watch it all day if we let him!

 

At what age did your son use the R&S pre-k books? I used them for my 6yo when he was 4yo but I know Matthew doesn't have the fine motor skills for them right now. I wonder how I'll EVER teach him to cut w/scissors and write but I'm sure we'll find a way eventually (hopefully). Thanks again!

[Shifra]

In the children's hospital where I volunteer, they have a book Teaching Reading to Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Teachers by Patricia Logan Oelwein, which may be helpful to you. :grouphug:

Edited May 22, 2011 by Shifra

[Cortana]

I have an 11yo son w/DS, this is our 2nd year homeschooling him and we're still working out the kinks. An all-in-one curriculum doesn't work for him, he has different skill levels with different subjects. I tried out Heart of Dakota with him the first year, we had to quit a few months in, he just struggled so much. I switched to Rod and Staff preschool books and he did great! He loved his books and he cruised through them. But, going to the grade 1 R&S didn't work so well, he was very lost.

 

I've found Math U See to be a wonderful blessing, ds doesn't fight me on doing his math at all now, he really enjoys it. I'm not sure if it's the blocks or the short lessons or how they are written, he just does really well with it.

 

Even though he doesn't get phonics, we are still working on them using Explode The Code. He enjoys it so we keep working at it. We are doing more sight reading. We are seriously considering doing Your Baby Can Read. In the meantime, Dick and Jane books have worked pretty well for him.

 

Handwriting w/o Tears is the only writing program that has worked well for him. I sorta skip the instructions they give for writing the letters and just come up with my own, lol! Their instructions confuse me, too.

 

Ds really enjoys educational videos and anything with music, I've gotten a few of the Rock N' Learn videos and he likes them a lot. I borrowed a Preschool Prep video from the library and ds REALLY like it, he was still singing the songs after we returned it. We're going to try to get some for home.

 

As for science/history/etc, he does the same lessons his brother does, I just tweak them to his level.

 

I'm reading through the book that Shifra mentioned. There is also a book on teaching math (though it was geared more for classroom teaching). Woodbine House publishers have a large selection of books covering everything from fine motor skills to reading.

[mommy24angels]

I have an 11yo son w/DS, this is our 2nd year homeschooling him and we're still working out the kinks. An all-in-one curriculum doesn't work for him, he has different skill levels with different subjects. I tried out Heart of Dakota with him the first year, we had to quit a few months in, he just struggled so much. I switched to Rod and Staff preschool books and he did great! He loved his books and he cruised through them. But, going to the grade 1 R&S didn't work so well, he was very lost.

 

I've found Math U See to be a wonderful blessing, ds doesn't fight me on doing his math at all now, he really enjoys it. I'm not sure if it's the blocks or the short lessons or how they are written, he just does really well with it.

 

Even though he doesn't get phonics, we are still working on them using Explode The Code. He enjoys it so we keep working at it. We are doing more sight reading. We are seriously considering doing Your Baby Can Read. In the meantime, Dick and Jane books have worked pretty well for him.

 

Handwriting w/o Tears is the only writing program that has worked well for him. I sorta skip the instructions they give for writing the letters and just come up with my own, lol! Their instructions confuse me, too.

 

Ds really enjoys educational videos and anything with music, I've gotten a few of the Rock N' Learn videos and he likes them a lot. I borrowed a Preschool Prep video from the library and ds REALLY like it, he was still singing the songs after we returned it. We're going to try to get some for home.

 

As for science/history/etc, he does the same lessons his brother does, I just tweak them to his level.

 

I'm reading through the book that Shifra mentioned. There is also a book on teaching math (though it was geared more for classroom teaching). Woodbine House publishers have a large selection of books covering everything from fine motor skills to reading.

 

Thanks so much for sharing what has worked for you! I do have the book that Shifra mentioned. I've started reading it a couple of times but haven't finished it. It seems to me that the program outlined in the book is very similar to the See and Learn reading program w/the lotto games and sight words. I like the See and Learn program (after checking out their website) because I could buy the program already made since I'm short on time w/the new baby and 3 littles in diapers.

 

Is your son doing the first level of Math U See right now?

[Cortana]

 

Is your son doing the first level of Math U See right now?

 

Yes, he's doing the Primer level right now. I decided to start from the beginning to get him used to the new way of doing things and to give him something he could do pretty easily and have a sense of accomplishement rather than jumping into the harder stuff right off the bat. It's the only math I've done with him that he gets excited when it's time to get his workbook. :001_smile: It makes my heart so light to see him enjoying a subject!

[dsmama]

Just wanted to say how cool this is for me to read! I have a 2.5 yo son w/DS, and I've been unsure about whether homeschooling will be something I can tackle. I love reading your posts. Thank you!

[Guest Gorgeous636]

My son, Jack, is 8 years old and has Downs. We've been homeschooling him forever but we are mostly unschoolers. The trick is finding ways to keep him interested in learning. My friend who has an 8 year old daughter with DS sends her to school and she is reading and doing math at the same level as her non-ds peers. Sadly for my son I am not as good at reinforcing the reading and math as a para at school would be. :glare: Having said that he manages to learn an amazing amount by osmosis! We walked around a lake the other day talking about erosion as we stalked frogs on the water's edge!

 

So I haven't actually said anything to HELP you yet, have I :confused: but at least take from me that you should enjoy yourselves and the process and don't worry too much. :001_smile: