Dylan Kuehl

While I attended the 10th World Down Syndrome Congress in Dublin, Ireland, I was fortunate to meet some really amazing people with Down syndrome.

One young man really stood out for me - perhaps because he was exhibiting at the booth directly across from us (eReadingPro), and that gave me a chance to watch, listen and understand him more than others indivuduals I only met briefly.

Dylan Kuehl is an extremely talented human being. He is an artist who like others, uses his art to express himself. It allows him to be focused and detailed, while enabling him to build confidence and character. Dylan is a visual and performing artist, a writer, and a speaker. His art is simply beautiful.

When I fell in love with one of Dylan's paintings I pointed out how I loved the way the clouds in the picture parted to form a heart shape. His Mom said that they never even saw that until quite some time after he had created the picture. I realized today when I was staring at the beautiful card that he gave me as a token of our friendship, that the existence of this unintentional heart was like a profound reflection of what I see when I look at an individual with Down syndrome. The heart within is so pure and open, and many individuals overlook the joy that can be found from someone with Down syndrome, simply because they have not taken the time to look within. I am eternally grateful that I have 'tripped' into the world of Down syndrome, and devote every day to helping individuals like Dylan learn to read so they can lead rich and fulfilling lives like him.

If you would like to learn more about Dylan and his art, you can find him at: http://www.dylankarts.com/.

Reading and Down Syndrome

While presenting a workshop in Utah this past weekend, a woman approached me telling me about her friend who had video-taped her son as he read words off of flashcards. She went on to tell me that the woman had been using our reading program! It was as a result of seeing her friend's video that she came to our workshop, as she wanted her child to be reading as well as her friend's child. She said that I should try really hard to get more people to see that video as they would be 'blown away'!

Upon returning home I emailed her friend. She was very happy for me to share her video and to encourage other parents by having them see it too! She said that her son " is now on day 313 of the program (yay!) and he is still going strong! He is very stubborn :), but we have tried to be very consistent and make it fun! We are now involving his little sister (21 months old) and he thinks that is great! So now our daughter is starting to pick up on it, too... we couldn't ask for anything better!"

Thank you so much Tiffany for sharing this video with me, and for allowing me to share it with everyone. I'm sure the work you have done with your children will be an inspiration to many!

eReadingPro Instructional Guide is now available separately

Another frequent request that we receive (especially at workshops) is whether our Instructional Guide could be purchsed separately.

Now that we have everything changed over from 'Out of the Box Reading' to 'eReadingPro', I wanted to let everyone know that our eReadingPro Instructional Guide is NOW available for purchase separately! The price is $149.95.

Enjoy!

Starter Kit now available!

People have asked us for some time to try and bring the cost of our kit down. Unfortunately, the bulk of the cost is in the printing of the book, images, and of course the materials.


To respond to this, we now have a 'Starter Kit' ($199.95) available for those who want to use the program but have access (and the desire) to cut their own cards. It will mean that you'll have to find your own card stock, cut your cards, organize them, and find a place to store them. However, it does bring the cost of the using the program down.


What I fear happening though is that people will purchase this new Starter Kit, save money, and then a delay will happen because they haven't found the right card stock, or haven't had the time to cut the cards. Either that or they will try and make the flash cards smaller to try and cut costs. Remember that the size of these cards is important - they need to be large! Ours are 4" x 20". Remember that any time there is a large delay in executing a plan of any kind, the less likeliness there is for success. It's kind of like a diet - "I'll look at it tomorrow". So IF you plan to use the Starter Kit, please promise yourself that you will get started cutting your flash cards and preparing your program right away!

Upcoming workshop in Salt Lake City, UT

Just wanted to let you all know that we have a workshop coming up in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday, February 28th, hosted by the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation. The 3-hour workshop will be held from 9:30am - 12:30pm at Murray High School.

Workshops attendees will learn:

· The importance of teaching a child to read early;
· An understanding of learning styles and learning strategies;
· Reasons why your child may be struggling with reading and how to help;
· How to set up a reading program;
· How to create flashcards and books;
· How to use flashcards effectively;
· How to progress with teaching your child to read single words, couplets, phrases, sentences and books using our program, and why this method is so effective;
· How teaching reading improves speech, language and memory development! (see: Teaching Reading to Teach Talking - Sue Buckley )
· How to teach reading to teens and adults. (see Reading & Writing for Individuals with Down Syndrome )

To register, click here. Hope to see you there!

Mom Blogs & Reading

One of the things I've learned alot about in the past few months is blogs - and more specifically mom blogs. It just seems to be the thing to do now! There are blogs about just about everything!!!

My favourite blog, and the one I've found really fun to read is The Mom Crowd. It was created by four women who are moms and moms-to-be who value each other’s experiences and decided to share this with the world. What a great idea!

One of the women from The Mom Crowd, McKenna Powell, has a beautiful little girl with Down syndrome. She has started using eReadingPro and has written about it in her blog. She is so excited because her 3-year old is reading! McKenna said: "The best part of this program is it has improved her speech! When she sees the flashcard with the word on it, she is articulating so much better than she did before. Her little voice is just way too cute when she says “pancake.” I am seeing results MUCH FASTER than with the other program we were doing. It requires much less energy and time on my part as well, and Darah seems to engage very well to this program."

You know, people are so amazed when their children begin to read. It is such a magical time! A whole new world has opened up to them! Keep in mind that your child CAN read - it's just a matter of figuring out how to teach them in a way that works best for them. MOST children are visual learners and need to be taught in a visual manner - (reinforced by both auditory and tactile techniques). Check out Reading and the Visual Learner and 5 Reasons Why Your Child May Be Struggling with Reading for more clarification on this.

This is why I do what I do!

I received the following email and photo from a Mom who was so excited about her purchase of eBook1 and eReadingPro:

"I sped-read through each topic in the index (of the eBook) and wish I had known about this for Joey years ago. I found out about it when I went to a playdate with a child who has Down's Syndrome and will be in Joey's K class. Her mom has been using Out of the Box (eReadingPro) since she was 6 mos. old. Her typical 21mos. old son was reading when his big sis was playing the word game. I was floored!" ~Audrey, MA~

Receiving emails and photos like this, and knowing how much eReadingPro can help children like Joey is why I do what I do! If you and your child are using eReadingPro or Out of the Box Reading and wish to share your success, please feel free to send me comments and photos as I would love to share them with our readers!