Ever since Colin was really little, reading books has always been a regular part of our day to day routine. We have always read to him before bed and as he got older, he would often bring us a book when he wanted to be read to. When Colin hit Kindergarten for the first time, learning sight words was a daily assignment we needed to practice. That first year, I found this to be a little challenging but overall, he learned about 50-60% of the Kindergarten word list. By the second year of Kindergarten, this number significantly increased and I found the task to be much easier for him to complete. There were subtle clues last year in 1st grade that started to emerge that showed his love for reading and we found that as he became more confident in reading these words, he wanted to read more and more. We started out with simple level books and then he started to read whatever he could get his hands on. In addition, the school purchased a new reading program for Colin about half way through the year called Edmark that benefitted students with Down Syndrome because it was a sight word based program (typically easier than decoding). As this program was incorporated into his day along with the phonetics program they were already using, we started to notice even more progress (and saw that his DRA level was increasing as well).
One of Colin's most favorite activities to do these days is read (and that makes this book worm Mom SO happy). We are so proud of him because he reads so confidently and the more he reads, the more his fluency increases as well. We were told by his teachers last year at the IEP meeting that his reading comprehension is what affects his DRA level but we are even noticing an improvement in his ability to answer these types of questions. In addition to reading books of his choice before bed, we have also been reading the Raz kids books on the iPad (these are leveled books on readinga-z.com that are first read to you, then the student reads, and then there are 5 follow up reading comprehension questions). I am even noticing progress in his ability to answer these questions independently. At a meeting we had this week with Colin's teachers, they told us that his only difficulty with transitions comes when he is reading a book; he doesn't want to transition if he enjoying the book he is reading (not a bad problem to have!). Reading has become a clear area of strength for him and we just love seeing/hearing him read every day!
The first video below is from this morning. When Colin wakes up every day he knows that he needs to get himself dressed (his clothes are already in the bathroom), brush his teeth, do his hair, take his medicine (reflux) and then he can have the iPad to watch the videos he enjoys watching on YouTube kids. However this morning, he carried his stack of books to the bathroom while he got ready and then carried the same stack to the living room so that he could read them instead. He did this for quite awhile before asking for the iPad.
The next series of videos are clips from homework tonight. Colin had to reread the story "Dogs" (informational text) that his class has been working on because he will have a test tomorrow. He knows he needs his glasses to read and will make sure he has them on now so he can see well enough to read. I know if you are watching, it may be difficult to understand what he is saying but when he reads slow and you are with him, it is far easier to understand his words. I also love how he uses his figure to read; even a simple task like this was something we had to model for him.
We are SO PROUD of Colin and his reading!
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