Prewriting - Getting ready to Write!

Adeline's motor skills are weak, so we are working hard to improve that.  I would like to start teaching her how to write letters soon but I feel that we need to strengthen the muscles in her hands a bit more.

What we are doing:

1.   Crawling every day.  Crawling strengthens the hands as weight is put on them.

2    Hanging from a monkey bar.

3.   Playing with play dough

4.   Lacing beads

5.   Peg board
 
6.   Scooping with a small scoop is very good because it forces you to use your pincher grasp.

7.  Drawing lines - we have been doing lots of matching pages.  I laminate them and use them over and over.
   
8.  Prewriting  pages-  I love these pages from:  3 Dinosaurs  

The number matching page is also from  3Dinosaurs 

We love these dry erase makers they are thin like a pencil and Adeline can erase when she is finished.

Favorite Posts of 2012

2012 was a great busy year for us around here.  Adeline learned so many new skills.  As I look over our blog posts from this past year I am reminded of how far she has come.  I am so encouraged to press on.  Children with special needs can learn.  At times it takes figuring out how they learn, but once that is tapped into you are on your way to MAGIC.  

Here are the favorite posts of 2012;

Trays On The Go!

Holiday Sorting and Matching

 Push and Pull

Milk Caps and a Box

Pull Box

 I Pad Apps For 2 and 3 Year Olds

25 Of Our Best Fine Motor Activities

Using Teddy Bear Counters With Young Children

 12 Activities For Teaching Colors

 Well this is our list for 2012 can't wait to see what 2013 brings!  Blessing on your new year of learning.

Teaching With Flashcards

I have had a few questions about how I teach Adeline the things she has learned.  Today I wanted to share how I have taught her hundreds of words, colors, numbers, shapes, and letters.  Since children with Down syndrome are usually very visual learners, flashcards work great.

I printed my cards using the Brillkids program but you could also make your own.  Just make sure the cards are nice and large and the word is on one side of the card and the picture is on the other.

I try to teach words in categories such as; animals, clothes, colors, parts of the body, actions, food, transportation, things around the house.  Use categories of things that your child is familiar with.

Here are some pictures of our flashcards.  This is the word side.

 Here are the same cards turned over.

 
When I show the cards to Adeline I first show her the word and say the word.  I then turn over the card and show her the picture and say the picture which is the same word.  We will work on a category of 5-10 words a week.  I try to show them to her three times a day for a week.  We will then review the following week with some new words added so she will not get bored.  Show the cards quickly so that the child do not get overwhelmed or tired of the process. 

Here is a video of me showing some cards to Adeline.

 

Videos of Adeline Reading

I thought I would share with you a couple videos that we tried to make of Adeline reading two of her books from the Learning Program.  These books are wonderful and provided free to print up.  Here is the link, http://dsfoc.org/learning_program.htm

In this first video she really has a hard time saying, rectangle and triangle but you get the idea.

This is the Pets book.

Learning Colors

I am on a milkcap run right now.  They are great free learning!  I made this game way to difficult for Adeline but I wanted to have it done so that she could grow into it.

For this activity I used milkcaps and paint chips from a paint department.  You will need two chips of the same color, one for the cap the other for matching.  I cut circles out and glue guned them onto the lid.

You can start however simple or difficult your child needs.  I used about six colors with Adeline.

    

Learning Shapes

This is a simple game that can be adjusted to your childs needs.  I used a file folder and milk caps and drew the shapes on each.  Adeline matched the caps to the correct shape.

If you are just starting matching or shapes you may want to use two different shapes and less shapes on the folder.  This is completely adjustable.

Counting Flaps

We have been working hard around here with our counting and number quantities.  Using some file folders that I cut down, I made some counting flaps.  This flap is just to ten but it can be added onto.  There are five flaps per folder and I taped them together with duck tape on the back.  The quantity is on the outside and the number underneath.  You could write the word on the outside and the number underneath.  There are many possibilities.

Grabbing the flap and lifting it involves some fine motor skills as well.  If you child is young you could even uses pictures and do a peek a boo game just to work their fine motor skills.

Counting Sticks

I have been working hard on teaching Adeline her numbers.  I have used flashcards to teach her many of them, now we are focusing on order and quantity.  So I am keeping it simple and having her just put 1-5 in order.

I had a bag full of cardboard tubes so I made some counting tubes to work on today.  This kind of turned into a fine activity as well.

Using tinker toys my goal was to practice putting the tubes in order.  That did not quite happen because Adeline just enjoyed putting the tubes on the tinker toys, but that was also a good hand eye activity.   Later, she just wanted to count the tinker toys so I guess that worked too.  We will pull the tubes out again another day.

 In the end, Adeline made them "crash".

Adeline counting the tinker toy tude stands.  

15 Of Our Best Sorting and Matching Activities

I have put together a collections of many of our favorite sorting and matching activities that I want to share but before I do I have a few new sorting activities to share also.  Sorting activities are great because many times they practice more than on skill.  Usually fine motors skills are involved and sometimes we can sneak some gross motor activities in as well.

The other day I found these little rubber bracelets at Walmart in the Halloween section.  I thought they would provide a great sensory type of sorting and fine motor activity.

Another sorting activity we did the other day is a gross motor sort, using floor mats and cardboard blocks.

Here are a few more of our favorite sorting and matching activities:

3. Milk Cap Matching

4. Fine Motor Sorting

5. Early Learning With Teddy Bear Counters

6. Interactive Book

7. Sorting Clothes

8. I Like To Eat

9. Trays On The Go

10. Who Are The People In Your Family?

11. Working With Blocks

12. Fine Motor Sorting

13, What's In The Bag?

14. Big and Little

15. Winter Sorting