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DSF had a great time presenting about literacy at the National Down Syndrome Congress Convention in Dallas, Texas. On July 13th, we spoke to educators, sharing strategies, resources and activities to support reading.  On July 14th and 15th, we spoke to parents and professionals in more depth about sight word acquisition, phonics, personalized resources, sentence…

June 2018 – This month all LP levels focus on working and short term memory. Studies show that students with Down syndrome have verbal short term memory challenges and relative visual short term memory strengths. Understanding memory and interventions to improve memory can lead to improvements in targeted memory tasks and, hopefully, improved academic achievement.  Without…

May 2018 – This month all LP levels focus on fostering independence at home and school. Whether you are a parent or teacher, your goal should be self sufficiency in as many areas as possible. At home, a guiding question is “what am I doing for my learner that they can (or should) do for themselves?”…

April 2018 – This month all LP levels focus on the measurement of time on a clock and calendar. Understanding “time” is critical to independence. As adults, we incorporate concepts of time into the background of our lives, using it to guide us through our days as we move from activity to activity, scheduling appointments and…

March 2018 – This month all LP levels focus on sounds and letters. While we are still working towards best practices in this area, a growing body of research supports the importance of including phonemic awareness and phonics activities when teaching reading to students with Down Syndrome. Pre-K and Level 1 classes focus on noticing…