Last fall Junior started kindergarten, so I’ve been doing a lot of reading about how best to teach a child with Down Syndrome. There isn’t a whole lot of information and advice available on how to homeschool children with Down Syndrome (compared to the overwhelming plethora of blogs, books, videos, and conferences on homeschooling in general). However, there are some very helpful educational resources for parents of children with Down Syndrome. Today I’m sharing my favorite ones:
Speech Therapy Resources
Learning to talk is the most important thing that children do. It is central to all other aspects of their development. It is critically important for social and emotional development and for the development of cognitive or mental abilities, so progress with learning to talk will benefit every aspect of a child’s life.
Buckley, Sue. Speech and Language Development for Children with Down Syndrome (5-11 yrs).
Like all of Buckley’s research-based books, this is very informative and gives plenty of practical ideas on how to improve speech in the areas of vocabulary, grammar, articulation, and interactive communication skills.
This is a thorough compilation of over 100 different goals children with speech delays may be given on their IEPs ((Individualized Educational Plans) along with step-by-step instructions for speech therapists, teachers, and parents on how to help children achieve these goals. Some examples of goals are using prepositions, verbs, nouns and pronouns, and adjectives, building sentences, sequencing a story, and developing listening skills.
What is extremely helpful to parents are the carryover activities which help students generalize what they have learned into their daily lives.
Reading and Writing
The reading achievements of children with Down Syndrome have been steadily increasing during the last 20 years. Research studies have shown that learning to read and the activity of reading accelerates children’s development of memory skills and the acquisition of language knowledge. Many children with Down Syndrome excel at reading and perform within the range of their typically developing peers at school in this skill area.
Buckley, Sue et all. Reading and Writing for Children with Down Syndrome (5-11 years).
This is an excellent manual on how to teach children with T21 to read, spell, and write. It is full of practical ideas and samples of student work.
This is my favorite book on teaching children with T21 to read. It’s short, sweet, and not at all overwhelming. I have used Natalie Hale’s recommendations for adapting books in many of the materials I have made for Junior (and shared on this blog).
Math
By definition, students who are concrete learners learn by manipulating objects and working out solutions with hands-on activities. Some materials are left out for the students to discover their properties, but more commonly the parent or teacher demonstrates the actions and the student reproduces the activity with his own materials. These hands-on activities may be more difficult for the parent or teacher to orchestrate, but the student’s learning is usually greater and longer lasting.
Horstmeier, DeAnna. Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome and Other Hands-On Learners.
Here is another great teaching manual by Sue Buckley and Gillian Bird. It covers all the topics students should learn in math during the primary grades and describes methods for teaching the different topics to children with T21.
Horstmeier presents a hands-on, game-based curricula for teaching math to children and adults with T21. Some of the activities are more geared towards older students but many are appropriate for all ages. Every activity/lesson begins with a success step (an easy activity that encourages the student to get started) and ends with ideas for generalizing the concept into daily life.
I highly recommend the chapters on Characteristics of Concrete Learners and Teaching Strategies to all parents of children who have T21 and especially those who are thinking of homeschooling.
Katrina’s progress with learning mathematics is an article from the DSE Library. It is written by Katrina’s parents, who recount how their daughter learned math over several years. They attribute Katrina’s remarkable progress in math to the establishment of excellent work habits in the early years, the use of Numicon shapes and Kumon math, as well as consistent practice and perseverance.
Montessori at Home
If you are homeschooling a young child with T21, you might consider using a Montessori approach. This approach gives children a lot of freedom within structure. Furthermore, it is very appropriate for kinesthetic and visual learners. John Bowman’s Montessori at Home is a very easy-to-read practical manual on how to give your child a Montessori education at home. Montessori materials tend to be pricey, but Bowman gives instructions on how to make them at home. There are so many great ideas for home-made fine motor activities.
A Ready-made Curriculum for Children with Down Syndrome
Piecing together your own curriculum or adapting one can be very overwhelming. I have not used this curriculum myself, but for those who are looking for a pre-made curriculum designed for teaching children with Down Syndrome at home, Mrs. Brown’s program, So Happy to Learn at Home, might be of interest to you. Many homeschooling families with children who have T21 really benefit from it. Visit her website to look at sample content and watch some teaching videos.
Behavior and Motivation
It may take some time and effort, but I very rarely find that problem behaviors and “unfixable”. This is particularly true for the majority of people with DS, who are often quite sociable and eager to interact with and please others. Because most people with DS want to be successful behaviorally and make other people happy (what a wonderful trait!), this gives us a big head start when we are tackling challenging behaviors.
Stein, David. Supporting Positive Behavior in Children and Teens with Down Syndrome.
Fundamental to any homeschool is garnering the cooperation of our children. Knowing how to handle behavioral issues typical to children with DS is the first step to successful homeschooling.
David Stein’s book is optimistic, highly practical, and full of real-life situations.
The Down Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area offers an Educator Manual, which you can download for free. The chapter on Positive Behavior Supports is succinct but extremely helpful. I have found it helpful in identifying the (probable) causes of typical behavior problems and how to handle them.
This is an inspiring account of how a father helped his son with Down Sydnrome to complete the IRONMAN Triathalon. How he encouraged and motivated his son to develop the habit of excellence and endurance is a lesson of hope for all of us. We have already used Nik Nikic’s technique of incremental improvement with our son and found it very effective.
On Education in General
Guidelines for Inclusive Education by the National Down Syndrome Society and Down Syndrome Education International was just published in Dec. 2021. This is a valuable document for parents who want to educate their children with T21 at home because it gives details about the learning profile of children with Down Syndrome. Children with Down Syndrome do have a unique learning profile, and understanding that profile will have implications on how best to teach our kids. There is also a section on recommended best practices for different age groups.
The Down Syndrome Foundation of Orange County offers many resources for families, including an archive of free printables for math and literacy. You will need to register to access these printables, but registration is free.
A Classical Curriculum?
The humanity of the child with special needs — the humanity of any child — must determine the education he receives… each of these children is a human being, created in the image of God. Shall we assign all of these students to a menial, servile education and deny them the riches of a beautiful, humane, liberating education? …
Classical education can address any child’s challenges and cultivate in him a lifelong appreciation for lasting truth, beauty, and goodness.
Swope, Cheryl. Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child.
Lastly, here’s some inspirational and thought-provoking reading: Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child by Cheryl Swope. I was captivated and challenged by this book, which is both autobiographical and instructional. Swope, who was trained as a special ed. teacher and is a mother to two children with special needs, makes a compelling case for giving all children, including those with special needs, a classical education. She then shows how to adapt and modify curricula to give children with special needs a classical education.
As I read this book, I wondered to what extent I will be able to give Junior a classical education. Teach a child with Down Syndrome Latin, Greek, and Logic? Perhaps we will not get beyond amo, amas, amat (although Junior does sing the Agnus Dei at mass!). But one thing is for certain: I can fill his mind with beautiful poetry, expose him to the great masterpieces of art, and play classical music for him. We can read picture books of the highest quality together and marvel at magnificence of nature.
I found Swope’s book an important reminder that my son with T21 deserves so much more than a “functional education”. Often times, it seems like we’re focusing so much on speech, fine motor skills, and independence in getting dressed. But I need to remember that he, like all my other children, needs to be “educated for eternity”, and that means not only attending to his mind and body, but nurturing his heart and soul as well.
Next post, I’ll share my favorite kindergarten curricula for children with T21.
