Here’s a FREE set of Autumn – themed spelling worksheets for students in grades 2-3. Each season, we take a break from our regular spelling program and use high-interest word lists instead. This gives my son a review of previously learned spelling rules, and sometimes gives a preview of new rules to come. More importantly, it gives him an opportunity to learn words that are meaningful.
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Today I’m sharing with you what my son with Down Syndrome did for second grade.
My kindergarten and first grade curriculum posts align with standard grade-level expectations. But second grade is different. As children with Down Syndrome get older, the academic gap between them and their typically developing peers widens.
So, this “Second Grade Curriculum” I’m sharing with you is not based on the chronological age of typically developing children. Rather, it is a combination of the materials that worked best for my son with T21 at 8 years old and what I think could be appropriate for the other 8 and 9 year old children who came to our Down Syndrome Co-op last year.
Of course, each child learns at his/her own pace, and even within Down Syndrome there is great variability. But I hope this list will help you develop a curriculum that will best suit your child and will reduce the amount of adapting you’ll have to do. I hope you’ll find some things here that will help your child/student succeed in “Second Grade.”
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Here’s a collection of ALL my spelling worksheets made especially for children with Down Syndrome and other special needs. I use them to supplement All About Spelling, but they can be used with any Science of Reading aligned phonics or spelling program.
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When teaching my son with Down Syndrome to spell, I have found spelling frames to be an extremely helpful tool. Spelling can be challenging for children with Down Syndrome who struggle with short term memory and handwriting. There is so much involved in spelling: students need to hold the word that they are supposed to spell in their working memory, segment the word into its phonograms, remember the sequence of those phonograms and hold that sequence in their working memory while recalling how to write each letter.
Spelling frames, accompanied with pictures for each word, are a great visual support. These, along with phonogram tiles, have allowed my son to make progress in spelling with confidence and to become increasingly independent.
Here’s how:
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Today I’m sharing how my son with Down Syndrome is learning to spell. Surprisingly, there is very little information online on how to teach children with T21 to spell, and particularly how to spell beyond the CVC words. So here’s a post about my favorite methods and materials for teaching spelling to children with Down Syndrome.
Is your child ready for phonics? Here’s a free and easy way to try it out!
A year ago, I came across the newly published book Phonics the R-igh-t Way for Children and Adults with Down Syndrome by Judy O’Halloran and Marilee Senior. My son with T21 was already a fluent reader, but I was interested to see if there were any ideas that might help the boys in our Down Syndrome co-op.
What the authors presented, among several great ideas, was a very unique and clever order of teaching the phonograms. Almost all other phonics programs teach the CVC (Consonant-vowel-consonant) words first, such as cat, pig, and dog. However, each of the vowels produce several different sounds. For example, think of the different sounds of A in the words apple, cake, and father.
Judy O’Halloran and Marilee Senior recommend teaching the seven phonograms that make one and only one sound first, to avoid early confusion and frustration. These phonograms are as follows: ay as in say, ai as in rain, ee as in bee, igh as in night, oa as in boat, oe as in toe, and eigh as in eight. Starting with these phonograms also helps a child get used to the idea that multiple letters can make one sound.
Very clever indeed!
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Is your child learning to read and/or spell short vowel words? Here are some tracing and spelling pages to reinforce short vowel words. It’s a perfect complement to Short Vowel Stories, also free on this blog.
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