My three-year-old daughter has known her upper case letters for six months, and knows most of the lower case. She enjoys playing with little plastic magnetic letters. She can read her name and about ten words. She can also count to 20 in English and Spanish.
She has Down syndorme, so are there any special resources or strategies for learing to read besides what she learns at school?
Try and get her enrolled in the reading tutoring program at Gigi's playhouse. They have a summer session, or one that starts in the fall. It is every other week and only one day per week, but you will get great results!
My gosh what's the rush. She is only 3. My daughter is 6, does not have Down Syndrome & she still can't fully read. I would ask her teachers if there are any additional things you can do at home to help her along, but don't push her too hard.
Hi C.,
I am a special ed. teacher and at her age you should be working on identifying words and letter/sound correspondence. For example, naming words that begin with the leter M, orally and in pictures. Really the words she can read at this point are probably "sight words" and knows them through memory not really being able to "read" them, the way we think about reading a word. Also another important part of reading is comprehension so read to her and ask her obvious and not so obvious question. For example, why do you think the little boy was sad?
The other important aspect of learning at her age is the social aspect of playing with other kids, getting along, sharing, taking turns and following a routine, all of which will be important when she gets to more formalized public school.
Good for you!
K.
Read "Einstein didn't use flash cards" It is great and full of all the research on how a child's brain develops. For most children, 3 is really too early for learning to read, which doesn't mean you can't try but your time with your child may be better spent learning more vocabulary and doing imaginary play and other things. The library has a lot of books on language development and education theories. David Ellkind's "the hurried child" is also interesting but more opinionated rather than rooted in science. Also, the "educational toys" such as "Baby can read" are total garbage when it comes to long term effective learning. Baby can read teaches a whole word method - yes with a lot of time, you can train a child to recognize a series of letters as a particular word but that doesn't mean the child really understands reading and how to really read. The time it takes you to drill this into a child could be better spent doing other fun things. For successful reading, a phonics approach will promote a better success rate. But 3 is still young for this but if you want to try, then teaching her what each letter sounds like phonetically and then looking at words that start with that letter etc will help her get the general concept. If a child has a developmental delay, then the time frames may get pushed back a bit. The most important thing is to let her play and at the youngest age to talk and interact with a child, asking them questions so they can learn orally and develop their language skills. Good luck.
There's a great book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. While the beginning lessons are pretty easy it does get progressively harder, so we've gone super slow with my 5 year old (on lesson 75 after 6 months), but it's a great book because it tells the parent exactly what to say to teach each sound, etc. The book says it is appropriate for 4 & 5 year olds as well as some more advanced 3.5 year olds. That being said, 3 does sound a bit early, but you could just start out super slowly and work from there. The book is on Amazon and is under $20. There are over 400 reviews on the site and most of them are very positive. Check it out...
C.,
I was a nanny for twenty years. I worked for busy professionals who wanted the best for their children and wanted their children to exceed expectations. I was a nanny for nine children and taught five of them letters and reading. Here is what I learned for each case. Some kids just love letters and even if you don't sit and "teach" them, they would have done it on their own. There is nothing wrong with encouraging your child's love of letters or love of reading. Flash cards and “reading” programs are memorizing skills not learning to read. Hooked on phonics is a good program, the only one I would recommend.
If you want to help your daughter, read, read, and read. Use your finger when you read, ask about the story, what happened to the ball? These little things will help. Leap Frog has a Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set. I think any teacher would tell you that right now, at three, social skills are far more important than any early reading skill. I have read research that shows that kids that don’t read at an early level catch up with early readers by third grade. If your daughter loves letters and reading and fill her world with them, but have fun and enjoy this age, it goes by so fast.
K.
C.,
Try writing letters on flashcards. Put up about 10 letters per week and your child's room. Also, use www.starfall.com, it's a wonderful website with reading activities.
All the Best!
I highly rec a web site (free)for your little girl. It's
an interactive, musical, very engaging. Very positive
feedback from parents and students. www.starfall.com
Kindergarten teacher, C.
Wow! Only 3 and already know her letters... good for her. We taught our son and daughter to read before school. We used Frontline Phonics for our son and Jolly Phonics for our daughter. Both did well. They are kind of expensive. Jolly Phonics is what our old school used so that is why we used it with our daughter. I hope this helps.
A.
Our mommy works from home. Ask me how!
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We LOVE the Leap Frog DVDs...Letter Factory helped my daughter learn her letters and how they sound, Talking Word Factory taught her the vowels (super cute sticky vowel song that she loves) and how they stick the consanants together to make words, and Math Circus teaches numbers from 0 to 10 and then addition and subtraction. She is 4 1/2 and still loves watching them which is good as we have an almost 2 year old that can start to benefit from them. They are short (about 30 min), which is nice for kids with a short attention span (my kids!) We bought ours at Costco and I believe they were very reasonably priced. I am sure you could find used on Ebay.
They also have a new Electric Company that we DVR on Friday afternoons on PBS that my daughter loves and teaches letters/reading. It is a modern version of the ELectric Company I grew up on. Check it out!
I am another one who doesn't believe in having little ones cram as much into their brains as possible. Early readers don't turn out happier, more successful, or smarter than everyone else.
There are so many things you can do with her that will help her become a good decision maker, or more confident with new situations, or a good friend, etc.
Play board games, take a nature book on walks and match up leaves and bugs, grocery shopping is a haven for lessons. Just teach her about life and the "book learning" will have it's time. She will be in school for so many years to come, don't make home like school too. Relax and enjoy her.
C.:
I found a lot of products in Spanish and English to use with my son on the Learning Resources website (learningresources.com). He learned his letters at 3, began to read at 4, and at 5 we are really having fun finding different types of books for him to read, everything from knock-knock jokes to Dr. Suess - in two languages!
Learning Resources has many items that are reasonably priced and fun (which I think was a key factor in my son learning as quickly he did) such as Bingo games, alphabet puzzles, magnetic letters, all available in English or Spanish. There is a special needs section of the website that may give you ideas as well. Have fun!
Firstly your child must learn the letter sounds. Kids enjoy singing so be creative and make a song out of the letters and their sounds(try A,A,A,A, A,A,A,A,sounds what way, sounds what way,*make the short a sound*a-a-a-a-a-a,a-a-a-a-a-a, A,A,A, A,A,A) Also show her the letter and give her examples of at least two or three words that starts with the letter.Start out with age appropriate sight words. Since she is familiar with the alphabet the two of you can make an alphabet picture book which focuses on simple words that starts with each letter. A-apple(make the apple red, green or yellow that way you could also incorporate colors as well). Another thing that you could do is post words on sentence strips of different things that she is familiar with. Simple things as door, clock, chair, can make a big difference. Include a picture on the sentence strip as well and use those as flash cards sometimes. That way when they are not posted she can associate the words with its's picture. Finally make sure that you read to her and with her. If you use these tactics and continue to be creative with your own, she should be reading in no time. GOOD LUCK!
Our library, in Lake Villa, has MANY resources that you can check out for free including Hooked on Phonics kits! There are DVD's like The Letter Factory(Leap Frog) and many others. Good luck. It seems like you are already on the right track!
Go to your library's children's section, and most likely they have books grouped in categories for reading mastery. Pre-readers are great...They are books that have pictures of some words interjected. My almost-4 year-old loves to read these with me.
All good ideas, but don't push your child to read so young. The best thing is to read with her and instill a joy of reading. She will have to sit through reading class in school one way or another. There is a reason why schools reach reading at the age they do. On the other hand, it is fine to help her reading as long as you aren't stressing out or stressing her out over it.
I second the website starfall.com. Both my girls love it! My 15 month old even has a favorite letter-D.
Plus, at this age, do whatever you can to teach her the love of books. You should be doing a lot of reading and making books, words, learning, fun.
Just a word of caution in using the your baby can read program...I have heard from educators that it is not a good idea b/c it does teach phonics...I heard thatin some cases it set the child back b/c they had to un"teach" and reteach phonics.
Good luck
I agree with the last poster's suggestions, right on! We play games like, "let's see how many "B" things we can find in our house" and go around finding buckets, balls, babies, etc. You can do this first in Spanish, then in English! Collect the things in a basket and go through them. Then, onto another letter.
Are you already familiar with Gigi's Playhouse? I have been to the one on Irving Park in Chicago. It is a wonderful community of parents and children with Down syndrome. They offer a wide range of programs, all for kids with Down syndrome, their siblings and parents. Free! The support and information is fantastic!
http://www.gigisplayhouse.com/
I have heard that the other locations are equally awesome. I know there is a language group and I believe there is also a literacy (reading) group once a week.
Congratulations on your beautiful daughter!
It sounds like your daughter may be a natural early reader. So hopefully your question is based on wanting to support this interest, rather than rushing her. My son had a speech delay and I bought him a Leapster and a couple of cartridges to help encourage his speech. (The alphabet one and phonics one). They are gentle and simple and really teach about sounds without being relentless some phonics programs. We also totally loved the BRAND NEW READER series, especially the "worm" books. Your library should have these. I prefer the hardcover versions because they have 4 related stories that use the same characters and repeat many of the same words. Let us know how this goes.
That is awesome. My son is 5 & just started to read . He knows 10 words. And yes they are sight words but that is how any child begins to read> And with DS these kids are visual learners so learning by memory for them works! Check out http://www.yourbabycanread.com/ & http://www.dsfoc.org/lp_online_literacy_overview.htm
The second link is the Orange COunty Ca website. They have teaching materials for reading & other subjects. They have books that you can print. It is the same as if you were to go to the Playhouse for their reading program.
Best of luck to you.
R. (mom to Ryan age 5)
President
Celebrate Differences
www.celebratedifferences.org
I used Hooked on Phonics for my girls. My son just turned two and I have just started the flash cards with him. This teaches letters and sounds. It really is an easy system that you can do at your own pace. I bought mine on e-bay for half of what you would pay in the store. Just look for the deluxe package, which is pre-K to 3rd grade in one box. They even have a Hooked on Math, but I haven't tried that yet. Sounds like your daughter is ready for the pre-k part.
I'm not really familiar with Down's Syndrome, but I used Starfall.com to begin the learn-to-read process with both of my children. The site is very basic, but kids love it. It was a great intro and then I began teaching the Dolch sight words that can be found using google. Good luck.
