Dear Mary:
You are such a help to all of us…I wanted to let you in
on a spelling activity that I use with my daughter, age 10, with
Down syndrome. It is an auditory game and it only takes a few minutes per day, so you’ve nothing to lose if it isn’t suitable.
First take some three letter words, ( for example, c - a - t)
those that are easy to sound out and don’t deviate from phonics rules. Sit your daughter down and spell a word c, a, t. Don’t
say the word. It is her turn to first spell it and then try to say it. If she gets it right, do another. You do this activity
for several minutes everyday. Once three letter words are easy,
move up to four, five and six. Move into two and three syllable
words. We are working on compound words now. You can even do
the words that don’t follow the phonics rules eventually, once
your child gets this down. Tell her you’re going to give her
a “hard” one.
This activity helps the child visualize the sounds of the words.
My daughter is an excellent speller. She rarely misses any words on spelling tests at school. I’ve also used a variation of this exercise to learn vocabulary words. We have been doing this
activity for years. Although it is a great exercise for auditory
processing, it works on visual processing as well.
If it doesn’t work for you, then you’ve only lost a few minutes
per day!
Melissa
Re: Thanks!
Hi Mary:
You could use any words you want. I try to use words that follow
phonics rules first and it is a good idea to start with simple
three letter words and work up to harder ones.
You only do this exercise for a few minutes each day. Maybe five
max. You could do it twice a day if you you wanted but it is important not to overtax the brain by doing it for too long.
I look at it similarly to exercise. You go for the burn but don’t overdo it! The first week, you might want to quit before you get to the burn. You can get creative and make up a game,
give rewards, etc. For some reason, my daughter loves this activity, but doesn’t like other auditory processing ex.
Melissa
Re: Spelling-For MaryMN
Thanks for posting this Melissa — I’m going to try it too, my son tends to be a “whole word” reader and perhaps this will help his spelling. I just wanted to say that I recently had a flash of understanding, brought to me by a young friend with Down’s that I met at a country fair last weekend. She was dancing spontaneously to music pumped out by the nearby ride, and her timing and rhythm/dance were so perfect I had to comment to her: “You should have been in the talent show!” (we had spent the whole afternoon in the ice rink at the amateur talent show — many kids got up and danced with less natural ability than this kid had!)
She of course, having the gift of emotional connection that most ‘downs’ kids of my acquaintance have had, gave me a huge hug by way of answer! We were strangers, but we knew each other on sight and words were not necessary for us to understand each other — I had a huge rush of understanding that never before did I think about how little of the “gift” side of downs has ever been identified…having learned over the last two years about my son’s “gift of dyslexia”, I looked at this child and thought “gee, I wonder when we will truly uncover the GIFT of downs”…from the looks of this girl, her parents and teachers have done a pretty good job at it…
Long ago I did volunteer work for a lady who ran an integrated developmental nursery school — a “pioneer” of inclusive education, who told me that down’s kids “function” level was directly connected to the interaction with the world they were given, and that their possibilities were truly unexplored. This was in reference to her explanation of the ability difference(s) between several Down’s kids in the program — this was decades before “Corky” went to highschool on national tv and I believe her attitudes where somewhat ahead of her time, though now have been proven true by many children like the character Corky, the actor who played him, and your daughter.
Just wanted to say how neat it is that your daughter is one of those at the forefront of “breaking” down the limits of expectation imposed by narrow minds on learners everywhere…more power to both of you!
best wishes,
Elizabeth
Re: thanks for the kind words
Thanks for the encouragement. Cristen is really a treasure and
I am priveleged to have a daughter like her. Those that get to
know her realize that. She is also a dancer…her ballet teacher
has truly been amazing with her.
Melissa
That’s a great idea! Do you use the spelling lists from school for words?
We just started AVKO, so I probably need to give that a chance. Plus I’m trying to cut back on homeschooling activities for the rest of the summer — dd has just about had it! However, I think your method would make a great way to review AVKO spelling lists once we cut back to one a day.
Mary