I have two children…my youngest is J. and he is 9 years old. He also has Trisomy 21 ( AKA…Down Syndrome) though we call it Einstein Challenged.
We have been on a Neurodevelopmental program for the past 4 years and a Nutrivene-D supplement. Both have been remarkable in terms of development and health.
J. is also homeschooled as we found the school system was just not in tune with what our son needed to reach his full potential.
I’m excited that J. will have some new material that he can have fun learning with! Now that I won’t be spending as much time making flash cards I’m also excited that I can chat with everyone here!!
Hi my name is Sarah. I am a stay at home mom to my 4 year old son Logan and 8 month old daughter Emilee. Emilee has down syndrome and I was referred here by a friend. I can’t wait to be able to learn more about the program and I am even looking forward to work on it with my son also.
Hi. I am a mom with 4 kids: 10, 8, 4 and our little Down Syndrome daughter who is 18 months. I homeschool my children and have just been researching to find things that might be beneficial to my daughter with DS. I am encouraged by reading about what others have been doing. Thank you all for sharing your experiences. I am hoping to start the Little Reader program this summer with my 18mo and my 4 year old wants to do it too.
All children are like little sponges…they soak up information. Give them tiny bits at a time, keep it fun, and give lots of praise…you will see amazing results!
Hi! I have heard a lot about brillkids and decided to come check it out. My oldest is 4 and she is learning to read nicely, my second is 2 1/2 and then my 8 month old son is 8 months. I just started focusing on signing with him with more determination than my first two in anticipation of speech delays. I am looking for the best way to teach my kids to read!
Just joined the forum. I have four children. I will be posting about our youngest Grace, she is 6 and has down syndrome. She was adopted at 4.5 years of age and has significant delays in speech etc.we started teaching her ASL while still in country and she amazed us by learning the signs very quickly. Over the next two years she has learned over 300 signs and is adding spoken language slowly but surely. I started using teaching reading to children with down syndrome last year and she learned to read 20 words. (this program teaches about sight reading and using flash cards) Over the summer she developed seizures and has lost all but 5 words.We still haven’t gotten the meds regulated and have been frustrated by this new diagnosis. I was reading a blog that discussed this program and thought I might give it a try. Well at least join to research first. Oh, another reason I’m hoping this program will be a good fit is that Grace has significant vision loss so having words that are backlit on the computer etc will be even more beneficial. Im not sure where to begin. Any suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Mom2Grace,
Welcome to BrillKids
You have already done an amazing job teaching Grace and I look forward to hearing about her progress with the BrillKid programs. I remember taking so many notes on previous posts when I joined this forum so I understand your need to do some research. I even created a favorite folder on my laptop that contains links to various posts for easy access. I am so sorry to hear about the current medical problems and wish your family the best and will keep you in our prayers. Grace is sooooooo lucky to have a Mom like you who is not taking the setback as the end of teaching but as a new beginning.
So glad to have a strong Mom like you here with us.
Hi, I am Ann and my little learner is Ty Christian.
I retired and Ty Christian adopted us. He is 6.
I home schooled through pre K and K. Now he is in first grade.
Boy this is a lot to absorb.
I need something simplified and affordable. I hope to be able to break this down into bite size bits.
Welcome to the forum Ann.
This forum is is a warm and welcoming place to pose questions you have about early learning. Due to the age of your little learner you will mostly be interested in the teaching your older child section. I also have a 6 year old, a delightful age of curiousity and faith mixed with questioning and unusual logic at times.
If you have a specific question, such as " how can i teach my six year old to read?" then post a new topic on the board for older children. Also there is a search feature to scroll through past posts, top right. Use it to type in key words and review past posts on your favourite topics. There is a wealth of info here already, so spend plenty of time reading through.
Is Ty now attending school? If so then you are probably looking to “after school” him. A good search to start with perhaps?
Welcome I hope we hear more from you
Hello!
I have been trying to learn about Brillkids Early Reader for my youngest daughter! I have three girls ages 6,4 and 11months. My youngest has Down syndrome and I want to make sure she has a solid foundation of reading and numeracy skills as she gets older. I am actually a special education administrator and have been in the field for 13 years. I am also a reading specialist. I know that research is showing that students whose curriculum is mainly academic have a better adult outcome. Better employment rate and a better chance of being independent. I want to provide these opportunities for my daughter!
Hi! I have two children… Alex is 2.5 years old, “typical” boy. Naomi is 6 months and has Down Syndrome. Alex is quite a character and loves learning, so we are looking into starting Brill Kids for him and then hoping to use it for Naomi in the future.
Poise,
Here is a link to brillbaby where you can download 4 ebooks about how to teach your child using the BrillKids’ programs in PDF format. http://www.brillbaby.com/
Cellovich,
You can start using the program with Naomi as many parents start as early as 4 months. You can start by showing her infant stimulation cards that you can download from the brill baby link.
So happy to have you ladies here with us and we look forward to hearing more about your early learning experiences.
I have a 5yo son with Down Syndrome and we’ve completed the 2-week trial of LR and he LOVED it!! His vocab is growing, but his speech is lagging behind. I’m hopeful this program will encourage him to speak more clearly and with less hesitation. I did have to slow the program down quite a bit so he had time to respond before the next image appeared, but then it worked great. And I’m slowly going to increase the speed on him - to see if he will get faster.
Looking forward to reading through the forum posts and catching up with you all.
I am mom to Dane who is 15 years old with Down Syndrome and Autism. Dane has a brother who has ADHD and is 13. We have had the little reader program for a number of years. Dane is non verbal and has a hearing impairment. He has many challenges to learning including health problems (recurrent sinus and ear infections and Asthma). We have had Little Reader for several years and I am back to using the curriculum. He loves the sessions! I think the curriculum and the program are great and wish we had had it when he was 2. I love hearing other peoples stories and your approaches to teaching.
Hi! Just joined and I have two children. My son is almost two and I have a 12 week old daughter who has Down syndrome. We are playing with the little reader free trial on the iPad after seeing it recommended by other moms of children with Down syndrome. My daughter is still a little young, but my son loves it.
Edit: also wanted to add that my daughter also has a cleft palate so speech is a big concern for her pre and post palate surgery, which will be in about a year.
