Hi my son is two and has DS, we have stooped the Doman sessions as he just doesn’t sit through them. He does love the little reader trial, which we present on the iPad. in fact he will bring the iPad over to me for his lessons. We really want to get the full version, but does it work on the iPad? I am new to this program, so I’m still learning the ins and outs. Do you still use Doman method too? I’m thinking of just going purely with little reader as we are making great progress, he read the word point and clap last week!
rbel - as long as she is still excited & interested, I suppose you could do them all together but it does seem like a lot for such a young child. The most important thing is that you always quit before she is tired of it. You want to be sure to keep her interest. If you feel you are losing her interest then try separating them or shorten the length of each session.
I woke do the programs with both kids together. If she can’t already read the words you are teaching then she will benefit. Even school age kids learn sight words because not all words follow phonics rules.
Li21 - Little Reader can be done on the iPad but only by using a program that lets your iPad control the computer & you must be in wifi range. Search the forum for details -.it was discussed in another post.
It is fine to combine more than one method. I just do whatever works with our schedule & lifestyle. Learning through more than one method is good too.
kmum…thanks for the reply 
Thank you, how often do you change the content of your lessons?
It depends on how many times each day you are showing them but in general, if you are doing the semesters, I would just follow what is set out.
If you are creating your own playlists, I would probably change it weekly but again, see if she is loosing interest & adjust your schedule accordingly. This is what I did in the beginning but now that dd is reading so well i have to change it every 2 or 3 days in order to keep up with dd.
Great, thanks for the tips, much appreciated. I was wondering do you sign with your child? We do, it’s just something we have done along the way, so I sign with him as we present little reader.
We did sign when dd was younger but she quit signing at age 3 when her spoken language took over. Here is the longer version of our sign language experience:
http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.ca/2011/02/my-views-on-sign-language.html?m=0
Thanks for sharing your blog on signing with your child it was encouraging to me. I signed with my first 3 children and I had been signing with my 19 month old DS daughter. Then I had read that maybe I shouldn’t be signing with her. Even though I loved it and she seems to love being able to communicate some that way, I slowed up on teaching her very many new ones. She is not saying any words at all yet. I am currently doing the 2 week trial of Little Reader with her.
My son is two and we sign with him, even whilst doing the little reader. So he knows all the signs for the animals featured very very quickly. my son will talk when he can, we are also having loads of success with prompt therapy. he is learning words on a weekly basis with this method.
How far are you in Little Reader (what age did you start)? Does he sign them everytime he sees the animals? That is neat What is prompt therapy?
We are just using the trial at the moment, and have used it for a few weeks, twice a day. We are going to buy the full version soon. I use the iPad and sit behind it and sign after each image and word. He has a natural interest in animals so he has picked these up quickly. prompt therapy is when I use my hands to prompt his lips into the correct formation for when he speaks. for example when I say Boo, I will support the back of his head with one hand whilst gently using the back of my fingers press his outer lips to mimiick the same movement as speaking. There are courses available to teach parents prompt. I am doing the course and I also take him to a professional prompt therapist once a week. Some children respond well, however some do not like their face being touched, in which case I can’t see it being beneficial. I guess like all therapies it is a personal choice by the child, my son finds it quite comical and will now push his face out waiting for me to show him how to say it. The first week helped him say more, boo and bye bye. Now if only I can get him to say - mum sit down I’ll do the washing up lol
I also didn’t answer your question, he is two.
So excited to have found this!!! We have 2 kiddos with DS that are 2 adopted from Ukraine, and 2 more on the way from Latvia, ages 5 and 8!!! I did the early reader with my son today and he loved it!! We are a home school family and I can see this working great for us. We are also working with a neurodevelopmentalist. Have any of you used this along with working with a neurodevelopmentalist??
adopted4GOD - congrats on your adoptions! Hope the next two that you are working on go smoothly.
We are using a neurodevelopmental (ND) program with our daughter. We made our own home program until she was 3 & for about 2 years now we have used an ND with ICAN.
You are welcome to check out my blog which is in my siggy to read more about her & the various therapies & supplements that we have used.
I have a 7 year old with down syndrome- he just finished kindergarten, and is doing some basic reading, but I’d like to provide additional support for him in reading and math. What are folks’ experience with older children and these programs?
I am still using Little Reader with my dd who just turned 5. Although her reading vocabulary was tested at age 4.5 at a grade 3.9 level, she usually reads at a mid 2nd grade level for fun. I usually use more unique files like geography, art, French language or files that I make on my
own because she knows too many words to do more simple files. It is a Little more work, especially making my own files, but K really enjoys it & is learning so much from a wide variety of subjects.
We started around four months ago and we are only using the apps I bought for little reader. So at the moment the program we do each day is pretty limited. We do it twice a day and he signs all the animals now. He has started to do the noise of the animal too, all though every animal sounds like a growling dog at the moment hehe, very cute. P.R.O.M.P.T. Therapy is a speech/language therapy method that has done wonders for My son It is a language-based technique that provides tactile cues to the lips, tongue and jaw to essentially help the kid feel what â€correct†placement feels like, it is difficult to learn by yourself and i think you need a practitioner to help.
At what age did your child with DS show an interest in the reading program? I have a 7-month old son, and am looking into different programs out there. I have heard great things about BrillKids, but am trying to do my homework before I make the investment. Thanks
Amy Hunter - my dd enjoyed this program as soon as she was old enough to enjoy looking at pictures. She did however seem to learn much better when we printed off the cards & showed them to her. As she got older she seemed to learn better on the computer. In my opinion this is the best program because it is limitless in what you can teach & fully customize able.
Before you buy, check out this information in the special needs discount:
http://downsyndromeupupupandaway.blogspot.ca/2011/03/exciting-announcement-from-brillkids.html?m=1