Making Connections

The more I learn, the more I am amazed at how one area of development leads to another. In His great wisdom, God has created us so that the natural, loving care of families feeds a child's development in exactly the right ways.

It is when we notice deviations from the usual that we realize extra means are necessary to bring about the same results.  With any delay in development, it is a gamble to do nothing.  We don't do early intervention so that John can compete academically with Sue, but so that John can meet early developmental goals that, in turn, become part of the process which will maximize his potential later on of living a healthy, productive life.

No, I can't predict the future with definitive certainty for my child with developmental delays, but neither can I predict the future for my other children.  For all of them, however, I wish to do what I can to guide and train them to be responsible members of society who will help to build for the good of others.

What I do today, although seemingly insignificant, becomes monumental when joining forces with the powers of yesterday and tomorrow.

And so, although I have not yet experienced the future with my children, I can learn from the lives of those who have journeyed a similar path.

So for the protein of today's post, here are some connections to explore for the education of both you and your child.

Down Syndrome 101 ---lots of helpful information here on a wide range of subjects

Down Syndrome Daily ---news articles relating to Down syndrome

Your Therapy Source  ---many terrific printables and activities here from pediatric occupational and physical therapists

And here are some things we're doing....as we continue to learn...

You might very well ask, what are we doing?  It all looks so ordinary.  No formulas for greatness there.  

And if you said that you would be absolutely right.  For we are learning that simply incorporating the daily lessons into our practical life opportunities as we go, allows the Ordinary to become the fertile ground where someday the Extraordinary may bloom.

A Few Good Things

We've finally discovered a few more good websites besides Starfall.

Literactive is an excellent source of interactive reading activities.  It has plenty of games for developing listening skills which is just what Wade needs to be practicing.  You have to register, but it's free.  Once you log in, just click on the green "Road to Reading" button.  It also has some very nice printable worksheets.

Earobics also has a nice section of educational games in the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.

National Kindergarten Readiness also has a very good website with articles, activities, and printables for a variety of developmental skills needed for entering school.

Mighty Book is a website with many interactive storybooks, songs, puzzles, art, and classical music.  There is an astonishing amount to be had for free and then once you're hooked, you can pay the subscription and get more.  I have not subscribed, so I can't vouch for what all is there, but what I have seen is put together well.

ABC Fast Phonics is a phonics tutorial with cartoons.  It is not wildly exciting with fun and games, but it can be used to build vocabulary and to practice enunciation.

And finally, San Francisco Symphony for Kids is a website that I used this summer to teach Wade the category of instruments.  You can click on each instrument and it makes its own sound.  For older kids, it also has a music lab where you can learn more basics and compose your own music.

Have fun exploring with your child!

On the Calendar: Monday

I've been working on time concepts with Wade.  Every evening before he goes to bed we talk about what the next day will be and what he will be doing at what time during the day.  One of his music therapists taught us a great little song that talks about yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and every morning we sing that while talking about the day's schedule.  That great printable above is from School Sparks.

I have his monthly schedule written out on a calendar page, and each evening Wade draws an X across the day that is all done.  Last year I just did a weekly schedule because each day of every week was the same.  This year though his schedule is not the same each week so it was better to write (in pencil!) the month's activities.

So this week I'll tell a bit about what he does each day in therapy or school and also one or more activities we do at home.

This morning he had Yellow Time with Mommy.  Don't ask me why it's called Yellow Time; that's what he named it and so that's what it is.  But he looks forward to it as much as if it would be Ice Cream Time.

We tossed balls into a container. 

 These little balls are easy to make and easy to throw.  One of Wade's ot's gave me the idea.  Randall made these for Wade's Christmas gift one year, but you can just use a handkerchief and stuff it with plastic bags or with quilt batting.  Tie it shut with a ribbon or with a tight rubber band and you have a great therapy toy!

In the afternoon, Wade had music therapy with Andrea.  They were talking about fall things today, so there were lots of new and old vocabulary words, which led to my favorite quote of the day.

Andrea:  Wade, what do you eat on Thanksgiving Day?

Wade:  Cats!

A Week with Wade: Friday

On Friday, Wade has no school or therapy.  So it's Mommy Time all day.  Hurrah!

The activities we do reinforce his therapy goals and also introduce other skills he is ready to try.

He can work on many of his goals just by helping me around the house:  following directions, understanding prepositions, learning sequencing of events, and talking about whatever we are doing.

So Wade happily helps to empty the trash, unload the dishwasher, set the table, put away his clothes, and run all kinds of errands.

He does a pretty good job of dressing himself with a little assistance.  Buttons are still difficult.

Each day, we talk about the month, the day, and the weather (printables from Sparklebox).

 Recently Wade has become very interested in time, so I introduced the clock to him with flashcards. Issues relating to time can sometimes be difficult for children with Down syndrome.  Five minutes might be an hour or an hour might be 5 minutes.  So I decided to seize this window of opportunity and introduce time early while he is interested in it.  If talking about clocks and pointing out daily schedules helps his sense of time to develop, then that's great.  If not, we haven't lost anything by learning about something he enjoys.  At the very least, he'll be able to read the time, and that will give him a sense of accomplishment.

(Have you ever thought of what a heavenly concept it is to have no sense of time?  At the end of time when "time shall be no more" we will all attain the ability to have no sense of time.  Won't that be nice?)  

I like these printable play dough mats from Childcareland.

I've been working with him on the skill of spotting, or being able to recognize how many items there are without actually counting each item.  These printable flashcards from Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome are ideal for this.

These puzzles are great for working on cardinality (last number counted is the total).

We've also been working on reading the numbers from 1 to 100 (chart from Sparklebox).

Wade loves using this skip counter from The Toymaker.  You insert the number strip into the counter and then move the strip up as he counts so only the current number is visible in the round circle.

Then we practice skip counting again using actual money.  He was already introduced to skip counting and counting money on More Starfall, so again I'm just building on his current interests.

Music is a great part of Wade's day.  Today he was enjoying his cd a bit too loud and I told him to turn it down.  A while later I began vacuuming in the living room where he was still singing along with the music. Pretty soon, I noticed him behind me with his hands over his ears frowning at the vacuum cleaner and saying, "Too loud!!"

It totally made my day!

Tell Me a Story

We all love a good book--and in this economy, it's certainly the best way to travel!

Wade loves the audio books on More Starfall and follows along with the words, saying them out loud--great for practicing his ability to produce longer sentences.

So for today, here are some links to some virtual libraries.

Lil Fingers--online audio storybooks

Ziggity Zoom--more online audio storybooks ( as well as more printables--great alphabet tracing worksheets and color flashcards)

Storynory--online audio books for both younger and older children including stories from authors such as Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Charles Dickens.

Children's Books Online--an adorable antique collection of books to page through and read online; some of them have audio

Aren't these pictures charming?

And then, because we all love a good story, let me tell one on Nevin.

Remember a few days ago I posted a link to the weird and wonderful tales of Musicophilia. In it were several instances of otherwise normal people who experienced musical hallucinations--so real that they were sure they were hearing live music from somewhere. These poor people heard whole symphonies inside their heads, music that could not be shut off (including one old lady who wasn't amused to be wakened every morning to the strains of "The Old Grey Mare, She Ain't What She Used to Be").

Last night Nevin was on his way home after dark on a lonely country road (well, okay, as lonely and country as you can get a few miles south of our metropolis), when he stopped at the stop sign and heard church bells behind him plain as day.

Only there are no church bells anywhere around.

He opened the window, and they were still there ringing.

He backed up to see if the sound would become closer. They still rang the same.

Lovely. Weird. Hallucinatory.

Then he realized they were coming from behind his seat.

Oh.

Yeah.

He had forgotten that he had picked up our repaired chiming clock at the jewelers that day.

Guess we won't have to call for Dr. Sacks after all.

Downsed

Down Syndrome Education International.

Education tailored especially for our kids.

We are using it.

It works.

The proof will be in the videos I post tomorrow.

In the meantime check it out and sign up for the free online advice sessions that will be taking place the next few months.

A Few of Our Favorite Things

Here are some of the products and websites I've enjoyed using for Wade's education. In fact, I've enjoyed them so much that sometimes I fear I have never really grown-up at all, which would probably explain the continuing allurement of Peter Pan and Pooh and Wonderland tales.

So indulge me today and come and play.

These foam beads available at the dollar store are great for Wade to string because they don't slip off the needle. They also make a good OT quiet toy to take along to church.

Canon has a lovely site with colorful flashcards and silhouettes to match--one set of vegetables and fruit, another set of animals. These are free printables and the more ink you use, the better Canon loves you.

Another site with loads of free printables is Activity Village. They have everything from learning games to lacing cards. Wade really enjoys the tracing pages.

Enchanted Learning is full of great ideas. And don't you just love the name?

Sparklebox has amazingly colorful free printables covering literacy and numeracy as well as other topics such as weather, art, music, senses, space, and how to outsmart your parents. (Not really--just checking to make sure you're still paying attention.)

Childcareland has a terrific repertoire of videos that show you ideas of how to use the free printables with your child. It also has pages with clear photographs of fantastic hands-on teaching ideas.

And one more favorite thing we've been using lately is Boggle, Jr. Using the dice to spell the words helps in pattern sequencing as well as in using words like first, next, and last.

Well, there you are, with links to more fun than a human being should be allowed to have. Go forth and play (with a purpose)!

Do, Re, Mi

He makes music an adventure.

He makes Wade sound good on a guitar.

He knows all about Tiggers being wonderful things.

He makes us laugh.

When has work ever been so much fun?

Like many other children with Down syndrome, Wade has always loved music. Because he loves music, it proves to be one of the best pathways for learning that we have found.

(It also has been a good way to make the vegetables go down--a healthy modern option that Mary Poppins didn't know about.)

When Wade was still quite little, I found the Sign, Sing, and Play Kit by Monta Z. Briant which included flashcards with pictures and words on the front and illustrations of how to make the signs on the back. It was a terrific prop for my brain to have those illustrations handy for those days when Wade could pick up the signing much faster than my mind could go.

Along with the flashcards, this kit included a songbook and CD with songs which used many of the words which were being taught. That was a wonderful way to teach sign language and it became Wade's favorite CD until we met Kindermusik and Earthshine Pediatric Therapy.

Wade has been getting music therapy now for about nine months and I am so pleased with the great strides in his language skills since then. David works with rhythm, sound discrimination, cognitive and listening skills, etc. Spoken language has a rhythm, and he and our speech therapist have both told us that soon after a child acquires rhythm, he often will have a speech explosion.

(Do you think Christopher acquired too much rhythm? Because so far his speech has never stopped exploding. I'm blaming it on all the time he spent in that baby swing.)

For more on the subject of music therapy and Down syndrome, here's a link from the National Down Syndrome Congress--Music Therapy Encourages Development.

And for other reading on music and the brain, do check out this utterly fascinating book by Oliver Sacks.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain tells stories of some of Dr. Sacks' case studies, including the occurrence of a man who became passionate about music after being struck with lightning. I don't think that is the recommended way to become a concert pianist.

Knowledge is Power

Never in history has there been a better time to have a child with Down syndrome. Medical advances have increased life expectancies; support groups and online communities provide helpful information in a private and non-threatening manner; libraries and book stores carry up-to-date resources developed from research on the best ways to teach children with Down syndrome. It's all there at our fingertips.

Today I'll share a list of some of my favorite books of the last four years. Woodbine House is a publisher specializing in books about children with special needs. They carry all of the following books, but I have linked the titles to Amazon because there you can read reviews and also click on each book to take a peek inside.

These first books have info on the best ways to help your child learn based on current research. I especially liked them because they were broken down into easy steps with photographs that I could refer to again and again. (Yes, these were the books I hyperventilated over at first. But you know better than to do that.)

Fine Motor Skills for Children with Down Syndrome

Gross Motor Skills in Children with Down Syndrome

Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome, Book 1

Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome, Book 2

Teaching Reading to Children with Down Syndrome

Helping Children with Down Syndrome Communicate Better

Early Communication Skills for Children with Down Syndrome

And when you've read all that and are geared up to be Therapy Parents of the Year, go and read this one for another side to consider. Taken together with the rest, it helps to balance out the need to go put your head in a paper bag and breathe slowly.

Disability Is Natural: Revolutionary Common Sense for Raising Successful Children with Disabilities

And to help spread out the worrying to make sure it gets shared equally, here's one by Dr. Brian Skotko concerning your other children without the lucky 47th chromosome.

Fasten Your Seatbelt: A Crash Course on Down Syndrome for Brothers and Sisters

After all that, you need some downtime to relax with the stories of some very beautiful families. Here are two resources I wish we had been given when Wade was born. The first is a book, the second a DVD along with a link to the YouTube trailer.

These resources highlight the gentle magic of that extra chromosome that so happily bewitches us all.

Gifts: Mothers Reflect on How Children with Down Syndrome Enrich Their Lives

Deedah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vooCiGPr6O4

Changing Diapers with a Purpose

You know all those minutes spent changing diapers on your baby when he has nothing but you and the ceiling to stare at? Make use of them!

Sing the ABC song and count the buttons and snaps. How many times a day do you change a diaper? Enough times so that your child will have the ABC's and counting process memorized without ever knowing he was in school. When you've graduated from the diaper-changing era, carry over the counting and singing to the potty chair mode.

If you climb the stairs to bed, count the stairs. If the baby's room has bears (umbrellas, mushrooms, or trolls) on the wallpaper, count them every day before you put him to bed. (no, not all 500 trolls; just 20 of them)

Along with that for Wade, I did 30 minutes of Starfall every day, starting when he was still quite little. He couldn't say all of the sounds yet, but it helped him to hear them over and over (and over and over).

Was it mind-numbing for me to hear the same letters, sounds, song, and dance every day for 30 minutes? Yes. Was the small sacrifice worth it? YES, a hundred times over.

Wade can now sing the alphabet song (completely off-key), say all of the letters and their sounds, count to 20, skipping only 15 and 16, and read many words and sentences even without a picture present.

And as he learns to read, his vocabulary and intelligibility increases. If he can see the word, somehow he can say it better. For a while, he kept saying bup instead of cup even though I knew he could say the hard c sound. It (finally) occurred to me to spell it out with magnetic letters on the fridge. Abracadabra! He could say it, cup!!!!!!!!!! That day I thought cup was the most beautiful word in the dictionary.

Starfall stands head and shoulders above any other computerized reading program available that I have seen. The full-screen displays are simple and uncluttered without the annoying meaningless music running constantly in the background. Nothing in the program is without purpose, and I absolutely love the effortless introduction to classical music, art, and poetry.

And best of it all, it is free.

Starfall does have a sister site now called More Starfall which is available only as a subscription at $35 per year. More Starfall focuses on math, and colors, as well as reading. It is well-worth the subscription fee.