Organizing--HS your child with Down syndrome

[Hollie in SC]

Noah is currently in a 5 day program at a very special local charter school. The school is amazing and we love it. He has another year (hopefully two) left.

We continue to pray about God's leading for homeschooling him after that time. Needless to say, we also work with him at home. :) I've been collecting a lot of great stuff--but am having a hard time organizing myself. :spin: Overload. :lol: Basically, there are SO MANY areas he needs to work on, I don't quite know where to start. So many of the most basic preschool skills are still our of his reach. How are you doing it? I'd love to know. :)

TIA!

[Catherine]

I don't know if this is going to be helpful, as it's still a work in progress for me. The hardest thing for me to get around was how to teach him things when he has little to no spoken language. I'm not sure I'm completely there but definately better, we use a combination of sign, which he is doing well in, picture cards and flash cards, which he loves. You're right the list of things to teach seems long. I've discovered that in thinking about organizing things to teach him, I look for intentional, concept focused, and repetative. So it's kinda backwards from how I've taught the girls, where it was more let's do a fun activity or read a book and see what we can learn from that. They were able to just pick up the concepts along the way. With Aaron, the concepts come first and then I pick the activity/book to go along with it. KWIM? So I had this long list of things (colors, counting, shapes, language etc). I just jumped in and started with two concepts. We worked on them, then I would drop the one he seemed to be doing well in and add another. Bringing back the dropped ones for review along the way. As his attention span has gotten better we are able to do more.

Some resources that have been helpful:

http://www.vort.com this has been helpful for me to identify where he is, what comes next and in breaking down stages into more manageable pieces. I have the strands charts and a go along book with activites that coorespond to the skills

http://www.see-and-learn.org/ I printed off the flashcard and instrustions, organized them and use them as directed. Aaron really likes these activities and can attend to them for 20 or more minutes

http://www.dsfoc.org/learning_program.htm this has lots of good ideas and printables, that we just follow as directed

I try to incorporate fine motor skills in with our other activites, and use the Woodbine book as well as the HWOT. We've just started doing this, but they have a suggested schedule on-line that helped me get started and we're just stringing it out as he is going slower on accomplishing skills http://www.hwtears.com/files/PreK_Teaching_Guidelines_2007.pdf

For us the most important first step was getting him ready to learn. He needed to learn to follow directions, attend, and listen. His speech therapist has made me realize that his first 9+months of little to no hearing and his subsequent periods of diminished/no hearing really taught him not to listen, he did things based on visual context and didn't really "tune in". This has made huge differences in his attention, following directions, behavior and ability to learn.

Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if you want more details.

[Hollie in SC]

This does help--a lot! :yes: I have been trying to figure out how to pull everything together. I have this growing pile of things and am just staring at it. Thank you for the links I'm going to go look at them.


For us the most important first step was getting him ready to learn. He needed to learn to follow directions, attend, and listen. His speech therapist has made me realize that his first 9+months of little to no hearing and his subsequent periods of diminished/no hearing really taught him not to listen, he did things based on visual context and didn't really "tune in". This has made huge differences in his attention, following directions, behavior and ability to learn.

Oh, this was Noah. He didn't get tubes until a few weeks before his first birthday. Thank you for the reminder.

:group: Cahterine!

[Sue C]

We continue to pray about God's leading for homeschooling him after that time. Needless to say, we also work with him at home. :) I've been collecting a lot of great stuff--but am having a hard time organizing myself. :spin: Overload. :lol:

TIA!

I am in a different boat with my 2 current kids but homeschooled my special needs son who is now 19 for a bit. (he is not down syndrome he is fragile X). I am only writing to say I will pray for you and your decision. I can't compare aspergers to downs syndrome and I know the struggle I went through this past year trying to decide what to do for my daughter. So your Mom prayers are felt by us Moms who have prayed similar prayers. Just wanted you to know I'll keep this in my prayer book. :group:

[Leslie Nelsen]

I'm not going to be able to offer the info you are wanting, but wanted to give you a hug. :group: I will be praying for you.

I know that we are facing the school decision this year as well. I want Eliana to continue to receive therapy - but really don't want to have to put her in school to get it when she turns 3. So, I am wanting to figure out more structure to her day so that we can make the most of our time at home if she is not in a more structured setting. (Why do we doubt we can do this with our sn kids? It's like having to learn and build up our confidence all over again.)

:group: It is overload at times. I know sometimes I feel just paralyzed with inactivity as I don't know where to start. Praying that God will lead you and guide you to the path that is best for Noah! You are a wonderful Mom!!!

Great links Catherine! :group:

Love

[AmyinWI]

This does help--a lot! :yes: I have been trying to figure out how to pull everything together. I have this growing pile of things and am just staring at it. Thank you for the links I'm going to go look at them.



Oh, this was Noah. He didn't get tubes until a few weeks before his first birthday. Thank you for the reminder.

:group: Cahterine!
Interesting- i never thought of it that way. Gabe didn't get tubes until he was 13 months. We are pretty sure he wasn't hearing much before then (or at least wasn't responding to sounds).

[Catherine]

This is an example of the "listening" I'm talking about hope this helps explain. When I would make a PBJ sandwich for Aaron, he would want to help. So I would say "go get the peanut butter" ,"let's get a plate", he would be able to do both as if he was hearing, understanding and following my directions. When our therapist brought up this idea of "listening" versus "context" I started to ask for peanut butter and a plate while not making his lunch and he couldn't do it. He had learned the visual context of the steps of making a sandwich, but not the language that went with it, because he had learned to rely on a strength of these little kiddos which is visual memory to make up for his inablilty to hear. KWIM? It was like he was so used to not being able to really hear, that he had learned to not need to listen to function, even when he was able to hear. And of course if you're not really hearing the words (tuning in) , you're not going to try and say them.

So it was a bummer to realize that he didn't understand as much as I thought he did. But the fix has been fairly easy and has produced improvement in many areas. And once he discoverd the benefits of listening he suprises me almost daily now with things he knows that I don't realize. :clap:

[Hollie in SC]

Wow--VERY interesting, Catherine. Thank you so much.

[Jill S]

I would answer but I'm not organized with VEE's stuff. At all. One of the plans for the this summer.....

[Christi in OH]

I too become paralyzed with the overwhelming options and not knowing exactly what we chould be doing next. Being organized is something I am working on. :unsure:

Right now I am using Heathers preschool planning page I modified it and one column is things to do and the other is things we have done. In the margin I wrote a list of skills and resources as a small reminder for myself as I plan(gross motor, fine motor, music, HWOT, science, math, games, reading, art, flannel board, activity bags, computer time, and that sort of thing). I also assigned each day of the week a craft theme - clay, paint, coloring, glue, messy. My goal is to have 3 things planned out and use those in the workboxes with some other fun play stuff too.

Right now my biggest thing is getting her some routine in her day. Routines including helping around the house. She is learning to feed the dog and we are working on more self-care things.

I always remember something Catherine emailed me - the she is sure God will provide the opportunities for everything he wants her son to know. That has been a huge comfort for me. I know that God wants Ronnie home with us learning how to live her life. He will show me what to do and where to be headed with her.

I know I need to keep it simple and take it slow with her. Plus, with the busy little baby coming up behind her, we don't always get to our days like I'd like.

[Hollie in SC]

Thanks ladies! I'm learning a lot! :)