Lily’s Reading Program

Recently I shared a video of Lily reading. I received lots of questions, particularly about how we reached this point, so I’m posting this to answer those questions. This video was taken shortly after she her 4th birthday. It is only within the past few weeks that we have moved from flash cards to reading actual books. This activity was added at our last ND evaluation when Lily’s program was updated. It’s been really exciting for us, and especially for her to realize that those flash cards can be put to use to read actual books! I’m not sure why I didn’t do this sooner.

**Due to recent experience with stolen images, I have removed personal photos and videos.**

She is not yet sounding words out. This is pure memorization of sight words. Nonetheless, as this article explains, early reading is extremely important for kids with Down syndrome, and helps them to overcome speech, language, and cognitive difficulties. We started flash cards with Lily when she was an infant. And, I became more consistent with doing them when it became part of our ND program, which we started in April 2014 when Lily was 2 years old. When Lily was a baby I read the Doman books, including How To Teach Your Baby To Be Physically Superb, What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child, and of course How to Teach Your Baby to Read.

As a sidenote – I thank God that I found a group of non-traditionally-minded moms who motivated me to see Lily’s Unlimited Potential. I found them even before she was born, and started researching things like TNI (Targeted Nutritional Intervention). I took choline while pregnant because of research studies I’d read (more studies have been done since then – pretty cool stuff!)  I was intrigued by all of the alternative therapies I was reading about, and even if I didn’t implement everything, my eyes were opened to all the possibilities. Anyways, my point is simply that I believe we have what some would consider non-traditional results because we have taken a non-traditional path. But I digress. Back to the topic of reading…

Though I read and appreciated the Doman approach, I chose to do things a little differently. Instead of just words, I made flash cards with word on one side and photo on the back. We used the fast flashing technique that shows word, picture, word, partly because that’s how our ND program directed and partly because it was shared by this mom who I totally admire. I printed the free flashcards from the BrillKids forums, and when I ran out, I printed directly from the program (which we got through a special needs scholarship) or I made them myself using the same format. I printed them on our home printer and laminated them with this laminator. We kept the sessions short and fun. The goal is for high frequency, short duration, and stop before the child wants to stop. This way they stay engaged and look forward to each session. We also do the BrillKids Little Reader program on the computer a couple times a week. Both my girls love it.

And it’s always a good idea to get the siblings involved.

After going through our cards, I like to “test” her to see how much she has learned.

I don’t actually have a video of a working session, but essentially we take a stack of about 10 cards and rapidly show/say the word, then picture (repeating the word), then the word again. She is only limited by my ability to keep up. She learns the words shockingly fast. She doesn’t always have perfect retention and we sometimes retire cards before she knows them, but as Doman says, better to know 10% of 1,000 than 100% of 10 (might not be the exact quote, but you get the idea!)

At Lily’s last evaluation our program was revised to include the Dick and Jane storybooks. She has quite a few words memorized at this point, and our therapist said that a lot of kids get really motivated by reading actual books. First, I made flashcards from all of the words in the book. For these I didn’t include photos on the back. There were words that she knew already, but I made cards for any new words. I separate them into small batches for the words in each small story in the book.  As you progress through the book, many of the words are repeated, so I just start adding the new words for the story we are going to begin. After reviewing the new flashcards at least 4 times, we shadow read. I read and then she repeats. She very quickly picked it up and reads it herself. If any of you are interested in doing the Dick and Jane books, you can get the old fashioned treasury on Amazon through third-party sellers. We bought the Yellow Storybook Treasury, because it’s the one our therapist suggested. You can also buy the individual books as paperback, and I picked up a couple as well.

As you can see, Lily loves her flash cards. Below is a sampling from her review box 🙂

**Due to recent experience with stolen images, I have removed personal photos and videos.**

Happy reading!