Sorry… I’m new and can’t figure out how to reply to the posts so I’m starting a new one.
I’m a parent to a child with Down syndrome. He is 7 years old and knows about 150 sight words and is reading some simple books that have these words. We are currently working on comprehending what the sentences say. So we are doing things like “The boy is under the chair.” and he is manipulating a picture to show what it says. Anyway…
Here is a great book:
Teaching Reading to Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Teachers by Patricia Logan Oelwein
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0933149557/sr=8-1/qid=1153111948/ref=sr_1_1/104-9358176-6126363?ie=UTF8
It comes from a wonderful series called “Topics in Down Syndrome” and I would recommend all of them!
We have also tried using the Edmark reading program and there is some great stuff in there in regards to sight word recognition, putting it together in stories and comprehension of what is being read. It is lacking in regards to phonics so I feel that it needs to be supplemented with a way of teaching phonics as I would like my son to be able to sound out words that he doesn’t have in his sight memory.
I hope this helps some. Most children with Down syndrome are extremeley strong visual learners so anything you can pair with visuals is great… the computer program “Writing With Symbols” is a wonderful piece of software that allows you to write directions or stories or worksheets and with each word a symbol will pop up… this allows a child to “read” before they know words and motivate them to want to read words.
Hope this helps. Good luck :).
Monica