Teaching Reading Early

Many of the blogs and social networks that I read and/or participate in online center around Down syndrome or Autism due to my own interests. Whether children are typical or have differing abiliites, it is important to teach reading as early as possible.

Here are some important points to keep in mind with regards to teaching reading:

1. If a child can learn sign language, they are ready to read! A sign is simply a visual representation of a word - which is exactly what reading using the whole-word approach is.
2. Just because a child is not ready to speak does not mean they are not ready to read. Remember that input and output are two different processes!
3. Teaching reading early increases brainpower!
4. Teaching reading increases your child's ability to communicate.
5. Teaching reading can teach talking and/or improve speech and language development. (Speech Pathologists and Therapists tend to love eReadingPro!)
6. Teaching reading is an important intervention for helping children overcome learning difficulties.
7. You can easily begin teaching children to read at 2 years of age.

It is so important for parents to understand that teaching reading can be easier than they may otherwise think. My next blog will provide pointers on how to teach reading - for ALL ages!

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.