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…

February 2018 – This month our Pre-k and Level 1 classes focus on legal rights related to placement decisions and the educational options of public school (general education and special day class), private school and homeschool. There are pros and cons to each setting, so it is important to actively consider each option and the differences between…

January 2018 – This month we are talking about sentence awareness and sentence/paragraph building activities. Once your learner has acquired some sight words, the process of putting these words to use in sentences is an important step in developing literacy skills. There are many activities you can use to reinforce sentence building, from modeling DSF Reader…

December 2017 – This month Pre-K, Level 1 and Level 2 classes focus on learning to identify colors and two dimensional shapes and using this information for sorting activities and to duplicate & recognize patterns. Levels 3 and 4 continue to work on these concepts at a higher level, with the added concepts of ordering and…