Parents and teachers of children with Down Syndrome may wonder how to start teaching their students with Down Syndrome. Should they start with sight words or phonics?

Currently, the educational trend is strongly in favor of explicit phonics for children at large. However, many experts, such as Sue Buckley, Natalie Hale, and Terry Brown, and many reading experts in Europe who have extensive experience teaching children with T21 recommend starting with sight words first. This is true even in countries such as Spain, where the rules of phonics and pronunciation of Spanish are much more straight forward than English.

Here are five reasons why you should start with sight words, especially if your child is just starting kindergarten:

1. Many children with T21 are able to start learning sight words as early as two-three years old. This can support speech production, visual discrimination, and vocabulary development.
2. Most children with T21 have speech and language delays as well as short-term and verbal memory delays. Thus, most children with Down Syndrome are not developmentally ready to learn phonics when they begin kindergarten at 5-6 years of age.*
3. Children with T21 are at high risk for developing task-avoidance behaviors if they are not developmentally ready for the work required of them. Thus motivation and early success are key to reading progress. Starting with sight words first makes it easier for children to get “hooked” on reading, as they can go straight from text to meaning without having go the laborious route of sounding out and blending. It sets them on a path of confidence and success in reading.
4. Once children with T21 are reading confidently with a large bank of memorized sight words (50+ words), they will more easily understand how phonics can help them figure out new words by themselves.
5. One U.S. study has shown that children with T21 who memorize a large bank of sight words before starting phonics progress faster in phonics compared to those who don’t.

* Buckley S (2023) Teaching children with Down syndrome to read: phonics or sight words? (Available from the author – a more detailed version will be available on the DSEI website shortly)

It’s helpful to remember that the phonics vs whole word debate dates back to the 16th century with the pendulum swinging back and forth. Currently, in the United States, Science of Reading-based phonics is considered the most effective way to teach reading to all learners, including struggling readers and those with dyslexia. However, to date there is no large-scale, long term research on children with Down Syndrome to indicate this is the best method for children with Down Syndrome in English speaking countries. What we do have are recommendations of highly experienced SLPs and teachers who have taught hundreds of children with Down Syndrome to read. These practitioners are not stuck in the “antiquated” educational philosophies of the 50s, when whole word reading was widely popular in schools. Rather, their experience has shown that when children with Down Syndrome start with sight words first, they learn to read for meaning and are better prepared for phonics. We know children with Down Syndrome have a specific learning profile. Thus, it is necessary for us to teach the way they learn, regardless of the latest educational trends. As the saying goes: If they don’t learn the way we teach, we must teach the way they learn.

Within Down Syndrome, there is a wide spectrum of abilities as well as many mixed diagnoses. Thus, while most children with Down Syndrome can learn to read by sight, not all will be able to understand or use phonics for reading. Some children with dual diagnosis of Down Syndrome and autism have brilliant memories for sight word reading, but cannot make sense of English phonics. Recognizing that children with Down Syndrome are neurodiverse, it is more helpful and compassionate to support them in the way they learn instead of belittling whole-word reading and insisting on the latest educational trend.

At the same time, we shouldn’t stop at sight words. Phonics is important. Learning to decode using phonics is necessary for independent reading. It opens up the door to even more vocabulary. It is also an important tool for working on articulation and increasing the intelligibility of our children’s speech. For individuals with DS who really struggle with intelligibility, that is, the ability enunciate each word clearly, spelling and being able to write out what it is they want to say becomes an important alternative form of communication. Thus, I recommend teaching phonics to children with Down Syndrome after they have learned to read by sight, with the understanding that some children will master phonics while others will strongly prefer sight words.

Forty years ago, it was widely assumed that children with Down Syndrome could not learn how to read. Now, with the right methods and materials, we know they can learn to read using the whole- word method. Perhaps, with a variety of Down Syndrome-friendly materials and methods, phonics will be more accessible to children with Down Syndrome. Perhaps with the discovery and development of appropriate materials, more and more children with Down Syndrome will become fluent independent readers and writers. In the realm of phonics, the work of Judy O’Halloran and Marilee Senior is a great start. But teachers and parents need more options, and they need affordable options in order to find what really works for them and their students. This is why I have spent so much time documenting how I taught my son and his friends with Down Syndrome to read with both the whole word approach and with phonics.

Finally, children with Down Syndrome do best with highly individualized and personalized teaching, especially when it comes to learning to read. This is why I think many parents are in such a strong position to teach their own children to read and/or support their child’s learning at home. Most schools need experts to advise teachers how to teach because in most schools, teachers must teach the class, not the individual. Hence they rely on experts to report what they think works for most children.

As a parent, you know (or can quickly discover) what works best for your child. Of course, consider the recommendations of experts, but feel free to tweak those recommendations based on the individual needs and interests of your child. If your child just isn’t getting sight words, try phonics. If phonics is frustrating, try sight words and return to phonics later. Be flexible and willing to try different approaches. Observe your child carefully and seek to understand the way he/she learns best; trust your intuition. For your child with Down Syndrome, whichever way your child enjoys most and feels successful at, that is the way to start.

Next post, I’ll share all my favorite methods and curricula for teaching children with Down Syndrome to read with both the whole-word approach (sight words) and using phonics.

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