Technology To Go

More and more frequently, I have been receiving calls, emails and requests at workshops as to whether we have thought about creating an iPad/iPhone/iPod app.

It is something I have pondered over the past year, as technology persists in being an important part of our lives. One parent in particular pointed out that their young son with Down syndrome, who is 4 years old, picked up a family member's iPad and was extremely intuitive with learning how to use it. One woman, who has a 9-year old son with Autism said he began spending about thirty minutes at a time using the iPad to learn spelling, math, puzzles, etc. - voluntarily! Studies have already begun to examine the effectiveness of the iPad/iPod as learning tools for children with autism and other special needs.

Using an iPad (or something similar) is a stress-free, fun way for a child to learn. They are cheaper than a computer, portable, If you're interested, this is a great article on the benefits of the iPad for children with Autism, as well as some app recommendations. These amazing gadgets are less expensive than a full-blown computer, very portable, most applications are under $10 - and many are even FREE to try. The positive stories of how effective they are seem to be abundant.

So... after spending the time to understand the benefits of using an iPad for educational purposes, it became clearer and clearer that it is time to step up and create a version of our eReadingPro system for the iPad/iPhone/iPod. An iPad is now on my Christmas list, and eReading To Go is on it's way! Our hope is to have it on the market early 2011!

Merry Christmas everyone!

eReadingPro and Specs4Us in New Zealand

eReadingPro toured New Zealand in September (2010), and introduced our amazing reading program to parents and educators throughout the country. Wow! What a great trip it was! Maria Dellapina from Specs4Us came with me, and together we shared our special products for individuals of all ages with Down syndrome and other special needs.

The tour was planned and organized by the President of the New Zealand Down Syndrome Association, Neville Strong, as well as the National Coordinator, Zandra Vaccarino, and began with presentations at their National Forum in Auckland. Leaders from parent groups across the country were brought to Auckland to learn about various ideas and tools they could take back to their groups. The forum was extremely well-organized, and we met some wonderful people! Neville was a gracious host who was helpful beyond words!

After the National Forum, full workshops were presented in Auckland, Tauranga, Paikakariki and Christchurch. Great attendance at each workshops brought parents, educators and professionals to see just how eReadingPro works, and how easy to use it really is. We were welcomed with open arms by everyone we met. New Zealand and its people are beautiful and amazing, and if you haven't been there yet, you really should visit!

As a result of the amazing response we are having with our program internationally, we have now added an instant 'Downloadable' version to our range of formats available. This will allow individuals all around the world to have eReadingPro at their fingertips in only moments after visiting our website! Technology truly is amazing! This new downloadable version not only provides you with the complete Instructional Guide, all the vocabulary to present to your child, 14-month Presentation Schedules, AND over 600 printable flashcards that you can either print, or show your child right from the computer. The download also provides you with our 'Step-By-Step' video of how to set up and use the program.

We are always interested in hearing feedback and comments about how we can get more and more children reading - after all, it's just a matter of teaching them in a way that works best for them! Keep spreading the word about how well eReadingPro works! Invite us to come and speak to your parent group, school, or at your conference - you will be amazed!

Expect. Don't Accept

I awoke on Thursday morning to an email in my Inbox that contained a link to a keynote speech delivered by Paul Daugherty in 2009 at the Remarkable Families Symposium. You can take a few moments to read it here - it is truly inspiring!

In the speech, Paul spoke of his daughter Jillian, who was born with Down syndrome and was 19 at the time of his speech. He spoke of her impressive accomplishments such as performing in the school play, managing the school volleyball team, participating on the junior varsity dance team that entertains at halftimes of basketball games and holding the school record in her weight class for the bench press, the dead lift and the squat.

He went on to state that Jillian once had a special ed teacher who sat in an IEP meeting with him and his wife, stating that Jillian was incapable of learning. Other teachers didn't now how to teach her so they just didn't. Throughout their journey however, they have been guided by one thought: Expect. Don't accept.

Ironically, on Thursday afternoon I received a telephone call from a teacher who said she works with children who are mostly non-verbal, many of whom have Down syndrome. She questioned me about skipping the part in eReadingPro where you introduce 12 names. Her logic for skipping the teaching of names was that "names mean nothing to these children". My response, after I picked my chin up off the floor, was "why not try?" She then replied with "trust me, I've worked with these children for some time now, and I know the names will not mean a thing to them". I was appalled , and persisted in trying to convince this woman that learning what their friends' names looked like would mean a great deal to the children she was working with. The heart-wrenching part was that she truly believed what she was saying! I should have asked this woman for her email address so that I could forward the link that I had received just that morning.

I will be sharing the message of 'Expect. Don't Accept' in my eReadingPro workshops. It is a powerful message that needs to be shared, over and over again!

Friends at the NDSC Convention

Well, we are now home from Florida, where I spoke and exhibited at the 2010 NDSC convention. What an amazing time! We were reacquainted with friends, made many new friends, and had a really wonderful time.

In my last posting, I mentioned Specs4Us and my friend Maria Dellapina. I am happy to announce that Maria received a President's Award for her contribution and commitment to the Down syndrome community. We attended the awards banquet with her, and are so proud of her! Maria and I will be heading to New Zealand together in September to present and exhibit at the National Forum for Down Syndrome. Can't wait!!!

Specs4Us and eReadingPro had some really great t-shirts created (that included both of our logos) especially for this conference, and had the pleasure of supporting a new company called Down Syndrome Footprint, who employs only individuals with Down syndrome to create their awareness products. Katia Hauser is the brainchild behind this company, and we met in March at the AIA Conference in Kansas. Katia and our t-shirts can be seen in the photo below.

I really love attending the NDSC Convention, being reunited with people that I've met along the way, and meeting new people who are connected to this group in some way. Parents are so grateful for the assistance I can offer in the area of reading, and it warms my heart when they return the next year to tell me their child is now reading!

eReadingPro is continuing to work hard at bringing new products to parents and educators. In June we presented an in-service to a school district in Arkansas. More and more schools are jumping on board with our program after seeing great success by parents using the program with their children at home. Our goal is for it to be used in ALL school districts across the US! We are currently working on the next level and hope to have it in parents' hands soon!

For more information on our products, visit our site at: http://www.ereadingpro.com. View videos of children with Down syndrome using eReadingPro as young as 3 years old!

eReadingPro and Specs4US

Last year while I was at the NDSC convention with eReadingPro in Sacramento, my husband and I met an amazing woman named Maria Dellapina. Maria, her partner John, and her son Anthony were in the booth next to ours in the exhibit hall. Their booth was called Specs4Us.

Over the three day duration of the conference we spent a great deal of time getting to know them, and we have become great friends. In fact, she opened her home to me when I was touring Ohio last week, and spoiled me rotten for four whole days - it was amazing!

Specs4Us is Maria's company. Her daughter Erin was born with Down syndrome, and is now 10 years old. After spending over 25 years in the optical industry as an optician, and her daughter Erin having no success with glasses being comfortable or staying up, Maria decided to take it upon herself to create a frame that would fit her daughter - and all the other individuals of the world with Down syndrome!

Unlike other frames, the bridge of these eye glasses is adjusted to fit on their smaller noses and the temples (some people call them arms) are designed to help keep the glasses from constantly slipping. 'Erin's World' frames are available in a variety of sizes and styles to fit toddlers to adults. The BEST part is that all her frames are very affordable! Parent's report that their children are now actually leaving their glasses on, and happy to wear their new glasses, and they no longer slide down their noses.

It is Maria's mission to improve the sight and quality of life for children with Down syndrome by providing these custom frames. I think what Maria has done, and continues to do is amazing work! I'm so lucky that through our work we will be crossing paths in live over and over again, and look forward to seeing her at the 2010 NDSC Convention in Orlando this July!

If you haven't checked out her products yet, you should go to www.specs4us.com.

P.S. Maria's daughter Erin is now using eReadingPro and is doing amazing! I will be posting a video of her soon....stay tuned!

University of Pittsburgh and eReadingPro

I just returned from a driving tour presenting workshops in Pennsylvania and Ohio - 5 workshops in total. During my trip I met with Dr. Chris Lemmons of the University of Pittsburgh. I had met Chris in the lunch line at the World Down Syndrome Congress in Dublin in August, 2009, and was anxious to meet with him regarding his current studies involving children with Down syndrome and reading.

Dr. Lemmons has been studying the use of phonetics with children with Down syndrome, and his general outcome on all studies confirms previous studies that children with Down syndrome are better able to understand how to decode text after they have learned how to read a bank of words by sight (Stanovich, 1986; Lemmons & Fuch, 2010).

During our meeting, we discussed the possibility of him conducting a study using eReadingPro's system for teaching reading using the whole word approach, which takes the learner from reading single (whole) words to couplets, phrases and sentences in a progressive and systematic manner. He is very excited about setting such a study up and we will be working towards this in the very near future!

I look forward to working with Dr. Lemmons on this endeavor!

Dyslexia and eReadingPro

I often get asked about how children with Dyslexia learn to read, and why it can be so difficult for them.

One of the best books I've ever read about Dyslexia is called "Overcoming Dyslexia" by Sally Shaywitz. She explains that individuals with Dyslexia are very 'right-brain learners', and see words as a pictures. This is why the whole-word approach works so much better in these cases, and phonics is so painful.

Like any visual learner, it is much easier to learn how to phonetically decode a word AFTER the whole word is mastered. It's like assembling the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle - it's much easier when you can refer to the entire picture, and know what the final outcome is supposed to look like!

eReadingPro was created using the whole-word approach, FOR the visual learner, and therefore works very well with individuals with Dyslexia. Once the child has mastered the whole word, I recommend sitting down with the flashcard and discussing the letters and sounds that make up the whole word. Have them match letters up underneath the word as they reassemble it. Once they understand what letters make up the word, do the same exercise with phonetic components. You should find that your child begins to recognize words easier, AND understand how the pieces fit together to make up each word.

NDSC 2010 Conference in Orlando...Here We Come!

Our line-up of eReadingPro workshops this year is amazing - you should check it out! I'm so excited for many reasons - but especially because so many people will learn about a method for teaching their children to read that really works!

Today we found out that I will be speaking (and exhibiting) at the NDSC 2010 Conference in Orlando, which is being held from July 16th - 18th.

There is so much for us, as speakers and exhibitors, to learn at conferences, such as what parents are looking for in a product. I like meeting other speakers and learning about what they are doing within the Down syndrome community. I also like meeting other exhibitors and learning about their products. Last year at the NDSC conference in Sacramento we met Maria Dellapina of Specs4Us. Since then I haven't stopped telling people about the amazing eyeglass frames she has created - just for individuals with DS!

I have to say that one of my favorite parts about going to the NDSC conference is when parents come up to me, hug me, and thank me for creating a program that helped to teach their child to read. THAT is what makes my job incredibly easy! It's the joy that comes from their hearts, and that of their family when their child reads the words they see on a page with confidence.

The fact that the conference is in Orlando this year will make it fun too - as I'm just a big kid at heart, and have never been to Disney World. I will drag my husband around, and force him on a few rides while we're there I'm sure. I can't wait to see the ear to ear grins on the faces of the children as they encounter Mickey and Minnie and all the other characters that Disney has to offer!

eReadingPro and teachers

As the founder and creator of a reading program, people always ask me whether I've approached all of the various school boards to get the program used in the schools. My response is that it would be like a little mouse knocking on an elephant's door and saying "look at what I've got!"

So instead, we have marketed our program to the parents of children with special needs - particularly Down syndrome. Why Down syndrome? Well, first of all it is because all of the studies out there confirm that children with Down syndrome are very visual learners and learn best using the whole-word approach to reading, and that was who we originally created our program for. But particularly because kids with Down syndrome tend to be the most overlooked and under-taught group in the school system. Many people still have the sad misconception that children with Down syndrome will never be able to learn to read, and therefore don't spend the necessary time trying to teach them. Others want to teach them, but do not have the knowledge or resources available.

The great news is that we are seeing an emerging trend at eReadingPro, in that the schools are now contacting us! The parents are trying the program and seeing amazing results. The teachers are asking the parents what they've been doing to teach their children, as the results are shining through at school! So as a result, the teachers are pondering over just how many other children they are working with who aren't catching on to reading, and if this child with Down syndrome is learning to read at home with eReadingPro, think of all the other children that can benefit from this system as well!

As a way of opening up the avenues even wider with teachers and schools, eReadingPro has decided to offer a FREE 30-Day Trial of our CD with Printable Flashcards. It is inexpensive to ship, and therefore inexpensive to try! If the school or teacher is not impressed after 30 days, they can simply return it to us and it doesn't cost them anything other than return postage. If they like it however, then obviously they will pay us for the product ($109.90USD).

If you think any of the teachers who are working with your children would be interested in trying eReadingPro, just let me know and I would be happy to contact them myself - or you can give them our website: www.ereadingpro.com.

The Charlotte Clock

I mentioned in my last post a woman named Vikki Horner from the UK, whom I met when presenting an eReadingPro workshop in Gibraltar. The organizers of the workshop were very busy ensuring that us two speakers met in between my workshop presentation and hers. I'm so grateful that we did, and that I have some math materials that I can suggest to people who inquire.

What I didn't mention in my last post was a creation of Vikki's called the 'Charlotte Clock'. The clock was created to provide children with as many different ways as is possible to learn how to tell time. The concept begins with teaching the 5-minute blocks of time, and then the 1-hour blocks, gradually working into the fractions that enable the 'before' and 'after' the hour readings of time. The clock comes with a number of different 'faces' that can be used on the clock along with a resource pack for teachers.

The Charlotte Clock is a terrific invention that can be used for ALL children learning to tell time. However, it was specifically designed for Vikki's daughter who was born with Down syndrome, and struggled with the very abstract aspect of telling time.

What an amazing resource - I wish it was around when I was learning to tell time!

Math Made Easy

While in Gibraltar presenting an eReadingPro reading workshop recently, I was fortunate to meet with Vikki Horner of Maths Extra Limited. Vikki was scheduled to speak the evening after I spoke, hosted by the Down Syndrome Support Group of Gibraltar.

Often after I have presented my reading program, parents ask if I also have any recommendations they can use with their children for math. While often offering a handful of strategies they may incorporate, I had yet to suggest a particular program.

However, after meeting Vikki, I believe I now have a math program that I would recommend. Maths Extra is a multi-sensory approach to the first years of mathematical instruction.

The system allows the student to:

• See pattern in numbers
• See connections between numbers
• See structures within numbers
• Picture base ten structures

The use of various multi-colored apparatuses is the key to this system, and is based on some Montessori concepts, but particularly on the Structural Arithmetic Programme by Dr. Catherine Stern. The system begins with 'no number' puzzles, 'naming the plastic shapes' and then gradually works into introducing the actual numerals. It is a very gradual but systematic process - much like eReadingPro!

It is a system that Vikki used with her daughter Charlotte, who was born with Down syndrome, and was struggling with counting and the meaning of numerical concepts. Having such success with Charlotte, Vikki went on to introduce this system across the UK. Today she is an international speaker and presenter - which is how I came to meet her in Gibraltar.