Behind My Back, When I Wasn’t Looking

I’ve noticed lately that Ricki’s reading has improved. How? When she reads to her dolls, playing teacher, she reads with the right inflection...you can HEAR that she understands. I had also noticed that she was READING more, as opposed to just looking at the pictures in books.
But I hadn’t realized just how much better her reading had become, somehow. Behind my back, when I wasn’t looking....her reading has improved tremendously.
Saturday morning I picked up a book Ricki and I had last looked at about a year ago. At that time Ricki had mainly done “avoidance” techniques. She insisted that I read half; she opted for very short sessions. And the whole process had been slow and difficult. It was no surprise that we only finished half of the book. And it has been waiting on the shelf ever since, as school-related texts took precedence. [It isn’t that I haven’t been reading with her. ..but almost all of our reading together has involved texts connected to her schoolwork, texts which needed explanations of new material, texts with words that she was seeing for the first time.] Since school is finishing soon, homework assignments have become less frequent, and we decided to read that book together yesterday. Actually, I could have guessed what was coming, because Ricki had requested that I get the book down.
As I pointed to the first word of the text, I half-expected Ricki to attempt to get me to read. It didn’t happen like that however. She flew. She read page after page, quickly, clearly, and with understanding. She was reading better than me at certain parts. (Keep in mind that we are reading Hebrew here, a second language for me.) And she was enjoying herself.
When did this happen? Was it due to the numerous small books I had sent to school this year, for the aide to read with her, replete with comprehension sheets? Was it a product of her playing “teacher” nearly every day? Probably it was a lot of both.
And to new parents of children with Down syndrome, I want to tell you that this happens a lot. Sometimes you work ages on something and don’t seem to be gaining any ground. You wonder if the child is gaining ANYTHING from your input. Then, for whatever reason, your center of focus shifts a bit, you take a small vacation, you center on something else. But inside your child that “coffee” is “percolating”, and suddenly, oh so suddenly, it is done.

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.

The Reading Machine

I have a friend who is blind; she comes to my “English Books Library”. How does she read these books? Easy, She has a reading machine.
I had once read in Time magazine, as a teen, that reading machines could be set to read in a variety of “voices”. The first time this lady came to the library, and explained that she had a “reading machine”, I was glad to know about it, and remembering the article, asked her which voice she had chosen, perhaps “Perfect Paul”?
“How did you know?!??” ( Ahh, nice to be considered intelligent and on the ball….)

This morning she paid the “Library” (My “library” consisting of only some 24 shelves of books, plus an additional 3 shelves on “special needs”.) a visit. She mentioned how much she enjoys listening to taped lectures (of Rabbis), much more than hearing it from a book with “Perfect Paul”. Because “Perfect Paul” is not human. He is a machine. And no matter how well he is programmed, he just can not give the same inflection to his speech as a human can.
So for all of our slowness, our forgetfulness, and our inaccuracies, we are still that notch—a human notch--- above machine.
So I , for one, will try and use my voice wisely and not carelessly today….

Try this Tuesday

I just wanted to add the following footnote to Trish's idea.
A digital camera is my best friend!(Besides word check spelling.)
Any activity that Ricki does, any outing, any family gathering, gets photographed. Than I can instantly use those pics for :
--Reading (make a booklet, story)
--a writing -sentences prompt
--speech work

I actually once wrote an article on this in Down synrome News and Update (Down's ED) (this article is best for the learning-to-read stage), which can be viewed online here:
http://www.down-syndrome.org/practice/238/

THIS ARTICLE HAS LOTS OF IDEAS