Since the day Charlie was born we knew that learning would be more difficult for her, but not impossible. Charlie is now two and a half years old. We feel that Charlie is just as capable as our other 6 children and wanted to start working with her educationally.
We have began to do some research on how children with Down Syndrome learn best. We are discovering that it is not that much different than other children, but they do not learn their alphabet first. They should concentrate on learning sight words first and the alphabet will come as they continue to learn. It is best if they have manipulatives to work with. We have also found out that Down Syndrome children are very visual learners as well. Using actual pictures instead of clip art helps too.
There are several programs out there that help children learn, but they can be fairly expensive so we decided to create some materials on our own. We wanted to start with the people that were most important to Charlie so we made a book of our family. We put actual pictures with the names of her parents, brothers and sisters in it. We also cut out the names so that she can match it up with the picture of the person it belongs to. We have been reading it to her for a couple of days now. She is getting better at saying their names and matching up their names. She still has a little ways to go, but she is at least started.
We have put this product on Teachers pay Teachers for free so that you can create your own book for your own family. We hope that you have as much fun as we have watching your little one grow and learn.
To see a video of Charlie using this product, visit our Facebook page.
