A good reading program

[Guest guest]

Hi, I meant to mention this before, but forgot. We are using a new

reading program with with which we have been very pleased. I

believe it is the only reading program there is that has been

specifically researched for kids with Down syndrome (Edmark is

commonly used and there's lots of word of mouth about it, but I don't

think it has been researched specifically for that group yet), which

means basically if you want your school to use the program, they are

going to have to, given the requirement under NCLB and IDEA for

researched-based best practices- if you have research for your

program and the school doesn't have it for theirs, you win. It is

called Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), developed by

Vanderbilt and their Kennedy Center of Excellence. Although it was

developed to have peers work with the kids with disabilities, in the

research it was modified to have teachers do it, and that is what we

do. It is based on the Big Five of reading, and uses the theory that

kids with Down Syndrome CAN learn to read phonetically as well as by

sight words, using modified versions (more intense, more one-on-one,

and often more fun) of the same methods used with typical kids. The

program calls for 2 separate 1/2 hour reading sessions a day, but we

also do another session at home in the evening, as the expert we've

talked to says that repeated readings of the same material at least 3

times per day is most effective. It is dirt cheap, too. You can

read about it, find its research references, and order materials at

http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/pals/. At this point, we have gone through

all the materials they had when we started, and the district's

reading expert has developed more materials based on the strategies

they use. I just noticed that they have developed more materials, up

through high school, and also have it for math, and for reading in

French now, too.

Also, I had asked about a good math program some time back. The high

school inclusion person here has developed a program based on the

Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome book, but we have also

bought FASST Math as a supplement to teach math facts. It is working

great, as loves it. We are also using Read Naturally as a

supplemental program for comprehension and fluency, as it has been

highly recommended. There is another reading program the district

school folks were excited about, but its expensive, so we're not

doing it (yet). Soliloquy Reading Assistant uses advanced speech

recognition software to allow the student to read aloud to the

computer, which provides immediate feedback to the student and also

tracks progress for the teacher's review, allowing the student to

read independently without requiring a teacher or aide to be there

with them at the time. Apparently the company has been acquired by

Scientific Learning, so the name may have changed. It appears the

company may sell only to school districts and not individuals, but I

did see someone in NJ selling the software on Craigslist for

$675.00. Anyway, for anyone looking for reading or math programs,

there's some options.

Amy