Hi there,
I am not an expert of forum discussions (better said I’ve tried it only once before) but I’d love to get into contact with those who manage to do much more for their child as I do for the moment.
My name is Luana and I am from Romania. I have a 10 1/2 years old son and a 1 1/2 years daughter who happens to have the Down Syndrome. I have read a lot about teaching babies to read and about the benefits it brings to “brain injured” children. The problem is that in Romania this is seen as a weird idea and I am confronted with pittyful smiles when I try to talk about it and my intentions to try it with my baby girl. Over here oppinions are just starting to face changes and the main idea is that we should be happy if our DS kids walk, feed themselves, are clean and talk. I do want much more for my daughter and, after surfing the net for hours and hours since she was born I do believe it is possible. I am aware I shall have to adapt the English material I would find into Romanian, but this is not the main problem. I was more than happy when I found out about Brill Kids’s new release and the Trial Version. My problem is that it doesn’t work for me. I installed and reinstalled it, I deleted and downloaded it again and then tried once more to install the program. NO USE! And days are passing by…
I would be happy if I could find out at least some details about Little Reader. Ho it works, its structure, the resources, kids’ reactions … I just can’t buy it (by the way, I didn’t look yet what the price is) not knowing in what extent I could use it for my baby. There are so many things I need to do for her …
I will try and visit the Forum as often as I can to see what is new and I would be happy to “meet” people having similar problems. I am also open to any suggestions and advices. In fact I am hungry of new ideas.
Wishing everyone all the best and lots of success and joy in the work with your kids,
Luana
Hi and welcome to the forums! It’s great to have you here! There are several other parents here who have brain injured children. In fact, kmum has a daughter with down syndrome too, and she is doing wonderfully! I’m sure kmum will tell you that all of the early learning techniques and special attention really help! I’m sure she would would love to share her experiences with you. Here is a thread that you can look into http://forum.brillkids.com/coffee-corner/special-needs-kids/
We all face a lot of skepticism and criticism from others about teaching our children so young. In fact, we have a thread about it! Most of us keep it to ourselves and don’t even bother telling others what we are doing. http://forum.brillkids.com/coffee-corner/explaining-this-to-others!/
And I will be sure to let the admins know about your problems installing Little Reader. They should get back to you soon.
Feel free to browse the forums and add to any discussions that interest you. Please let us know if you have any questions or need any help getting around. We hope to hear more from you soon!
Nikki
Hi Luana,
Welcome to the Forum!
Can you tell us a little more about your problem with Little Reader?
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Are you using Windows Vista or XP? (It has to be either of those).
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How exactly is it not working? Does it finish installing or do you get an error during installation? If you’ve finished installing, can you open Little Reader at all? If not, what happens when you try to run it? Is there an error message and if so, what does it say?
Thanks!
Hi Luana!
I would like to ask you more about your problem with installing Little Reader. 
I am very interested in helping you getting the software up and running on your computer, so that you can begin to try out the program.
If you don’t mind, may I ask a few questions?
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What is your Computer Specs?
To get these, simply go to your computer desktop, right-click on the MY COMPUTER icon, and click on PROPERTIES.
Please let me know what your processor is, your RAM, your System type -
What is your computer Operating System (OS)?
Are you using XP, or Vista? -
During installation, are you able to fully complete the process while connected to the internet?
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Do you see an error message or screen? If you do, what does it say?
I hope you can answer these questions for me - these will act as clues so that we can figure out what exactly is causing the problem so we can fix it much faster.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Lappy
Hi Luana,
Just want to let u know tat if u do start early with your child, u are helping her in a very big way and giving her the best gift of her life- knowledge!.. I have a friend with a down syndrome boy who is 7 now…His IQ level is way above any normal person… he is a sensible and loving boy… Mummy started from birth and never stop from Day 1 till now ( that included any holidays!) …she is a super mummy whom I greatly admire and inspired by her love for her child… knowledge input is one impt factor but pls also dun forget their physical development which can greatly affects the way they learn too…
Cheers,
Vian
Hi,
I’ve been overwhelmed with things to do and couldn’t get to the computer.
Thant you all for your lines.
First of all, about the soft problem. Lappy and KL, you asked me some details about my computer. My system is not a very new one. It’s Pentium 4, CPU 1.7 GHz, 261.488 KB RAM. It operates under Windows 2000 (NT).
At first sight the installation of the program works, but once I want to start it I get only the starting picture (the one with the baby and the flash cards). After that I get and error message and I can’t take any action. If I want to report the error I get a box to fill in but, the “cover with the baby” can’t be moved, so I have no acces to a “send” option for my error reporting. If I looked into the details of the error, it says that somewhere there is was an attempt to a “divition to 0”.
If I unistalled and reinstalled, or even tried to download the program again, I got the same error. No way to go past that “cover”.
Nikki, thank you for your words and suggesions. I did some “wandering” through the site. Intersting things. Need time to take them in a row. I’d be happy to get into contact with kmum. My problem is that I am not so sure how to do it. Should I post directly a message on a topic she is in?
As for what you tell me, Vian, about your friend, could you tell me more about what she has been doing with her baby? I am taking my daughter to physical therapy, swimming and occupational therapy (and try to do things at home too). I am just starting to do my own flashcards and still work on the best way to do them so they would also last. The main problem is the best content. I need to get the main point in organising information I put on the cards. By the way, if I’d get Little Reader, am I going to be able to introduce Romanian words to existing pictures and add the my Romanian pronounciation to them? To me it seems so, but I’d like to be sure.
Anyone who could tell me about things that worked with kids that are a little bit of a slowlearners would be of great help.
I’ll come back on the site later, I must go to my baby now.
Best wishes and a nice weekend.
Luana
Hi Luana,
Unfortunately, Little Reader only supports Windows XP and Vista, and I think it would probably require much more RAM than that to get it working effectively in any case.
But yes, if you have it working, then you could use Romanian on it, just like the many other languages currently used by many other members.
You can send her a message directly. We have a PM function that is just like sending an email. Just go to your inbox here on the forums, and press new message. Just type in her name in the recipient line. There is also a link under everyone’s name and avatar when they post a message on the forums. It looks like a little speech bubble. You can just press that and it will let you send a PM.