Category: A Down Syndrome Adventure

Teaching Children with Down Syndrome to Read: A Parent’s Step-by-step Guide

Published on by Mary Cooney2 Comments

Teaching children with Down Syndrome to read is not rocket science. You just need patience, consistency, and the right materials. I’ve written many posts on teaching children (with or without Down Syndrome) to read, and I’ve shared many free resources. However, here I want to put everything in one place in a step-by-step guide. I want to make teaching as easy as possible for parents or anyone who wishes to undertake this seemingly daunting task of teaching a child with Down Syndrome to read.

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Teaching Children with Down Syndrome to Read: Phonics or Sight Words?

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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:

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Poems for First Grade

Published on by Mary Cooney2 Comments

Here’s a FREE book for poems for first grade that I compiled for my son with Down Syndrome. All my children have copied, memorized, and recited poems throughout their homeschooling years. So I certainly wasn’t going to let my youngest off the hook just because he has T21! Especially because memorizing and reciting poetry is so great for developing memory skills and working on articulation and pacing in speech. But most importantly, poetry fills the mind with beautiful imagery.

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Ten Tricks for Motivating and Engaging Children with Down Syndrome

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How many times have you called your child/student with Down Syndrome to come and do some school work and that child balked or refused to co-operate? Sigh. Yes, in our little homeschool and co-op it’s a common occurrence. But necessity is the mother of invention, so I’ve learned many ways to motivate my son and his little friends. I really believe that what most hinders our children with DS from learning is not intellectual delay/disability, but non-compliant behaviors. So to help elicit co-operation, here are my latest tricks for motivating and engaging children with Down Syndrome:

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Get Down to It! A New Podcast About Down Syndrome

Published on by Mary Cooney4 Comments

I’m so excited to share the news about a newly released podcast: Get Down to It! by Tara Boogaerts. In two episodes I talk to her about the Homeschooling Option for Children with Down Syndrome and Teaching Reading and Learning Phonics.

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See and Learn Phrases 1 Practice Workbook

Published on by Mary Cooney3 Comments

Are you looking to teach your child with (or without) Down Syndrome to read? Or looking to build your child’s expressive vocabulary?

As many of you know, I’m a great fan of the See and Learn Kits from Down Syndrome Education. It was the See and Learn Phrases 1 Kit that launched my son with Down Syndrome into the wonderful world of reading. I began using See and Learn with my son when he 3.5 years old and discovered that 1) learning to read sight words was a great way to build his expressive vocabulary and 2) reading was a very enjoyable activity for him. To see videos of how we used See and Learn, check out this post: Teaching Preschoolers with Down Syndrome to Read with See and Learn.

Naturally, we also used this with the boys in our Down Syndrome co-op. So, to help the busy moms practice See and Learn daily with their kids, I made this homework packet/workbook. And now, with the generous permission of Down Syndrome Education, I’m sharing it with you for FREE.

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“Bear Wants More” Three-Part Cards

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My son loves the picture book Bear Wants More by Wilson Karma and all the books in the series. We have borrowed them from the library again and again. So, I made him these Montessori-inspired three-part cards to help him read the names of the animals.

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Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for Children with Down Syndrome

Published on by Mary Cooney8 Comments

One of my goals this year was to prepare Junior and the boys in our Down Syndrome co-op to receive their First Holy Communion. To help with that, we were blessed to find a catechist who was trained to teach Catechesis of the Good Shepherd classes. Maria, our catechist, had never worked with children with T21, but it quickly became evident to all of us that she had a loving heart for them. And the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd was so appropriate for the four boys in our co-op. The highly visual and hands on approach, the one-on-one presentations, the boys’ freedom to choose which materials to work with, and the (mostly) peaceful environment allowed the boys to ponder and learn about our faith. It was a beautiful thing to behold.

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A Life Worth Living: One Family Embraces Four Children with Down Syndrome

Published on by Mary Cooney1 Comment

A few months ago, my oldest son told me he has a friend who has seven siblings, four with Down Syndrome. As a mother of a large family who has one child with Down Syndrome, I was astounded. Five biological children, three adopted, four with Down Syndrome and homeschooling? “Peter,” I said to my son, “Please get me her number. I need to talk to that mom and tap into her wisdom.”

It took us a while to connect — Sonia McGarrity is, after all, a little busy. But once we did, we could have talked for hours about family life, homeschooling, and Trisomy 21. As we spoke, I realized that the story of this extraordinary family needed to be shared. So I asked Sonia if she would do an interview for Mercator. She graciously and generously agreed.

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Our Favorite Toys for Young Children with Down Syndrome

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With Christmas around the corner, I know many of you are thinking what to get your kids for Christmas. So today I’m sharing with you some of our favorite toys with a focus on building problem solving skills, fine motor skills, and independent play. Helping our children develop problem solving skills and teaching them to persist at a task is so important. Many of our kids need extra practice with fine motor skills, and doing so in the context of play is always the most fun way! And finally sometimes we just need our kids to entertain themselves. Since I don’t give Junior any screen time at all, finding the right toys that will keep him independently occupied is such a big help.

So, here are some of our favorite toys for problem solving, fine motor skills, and independent play:

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