Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Special exposure Wednesday- Down syndrome reading

As Ricki's reading improves, so does her amount of real reading. She used to usually browse pictures when "reading". Nowadays she's likely to be reading the text.
One company here has started publishing books for teens with intellectual disabilities. I have only bought one (the other two being romance novels, and while I hope that Ricki finds love in her life, I don't expect her to meet her love on the street!) (Here we do "arranged" meetings, which works very well....).
I hope this publishing of special books continues. (This is extra important in Israel, bacause literary Hebrew is almost a different language from spoken Hebrew, and books for adults are a mile away from those for 3rd or 4th graders...) I know that in the US, Woodbine was once considering publishing such things. I am amazed that we beat them to it. Usually Israel is WAY behind the US in this type of thing.
By the way, studies have shown that reading/memory/reading are all linked, each reinforcing and affecting the others. So it is worth working on reading, even in our visually orientated entertainment society.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So great to see her enjoying reading! She is lovely :-)

Debbie @ Three Weddings said...

I hadn't really given this much thought since Peanut is only 4, but what an important point. Our children will not always be content with children's books. I hope the U.S. will follow suit soon.

I love the picture and seeing Ricki enjoying her book.

Batya said...

That's wonderful. My sons are MLD, l'havdil, and now as adults, gevalt, are my babies really grown-ups? they have begun reading real books. OK, not in the quantity as the rest of the family, but certainly more than any of the "experts" could have predicted when they were in school.

MLD-mild learning disabilities, like dysgraphic, dyslectic etc. Not IQ problems.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing! That is so encouraging to see! Be blessed!