Literacy Training

Literacy Tutor Training- tonight 2/18/10
If you are interested in becoming a tutor please come to the new playhouse at 5404 W. Elm St. Suite A at 6:00pm!
Thank you

Ever thought about tutoring?

My name is Heather and I'm a Literacy Tutor at GiGi's Playhouse in McHenry, Illinois and I can safely say I have been blessed with one of the most fun, most challenging, most rewarding and downright most fabulous volunteer opportunities ever.

Basically, I get to help kids and adults with Down Syndrome learn how to read. But that's just the beginning. I see my students weekly and in our sessions I get to know them, hear their stories, celebrate their victories and grieve their losses. I love how my student Lisa and I end up in giggle fits during our sessions because we share the same sense of humor. I love how Matt's face glows with pride after I've made him work really hard and he's kept at it to the very end. I love how I've gotten to watch Anna develop over three semesters - there is such a strong woman inside that tiny girl!

I also love what I've learned. That patience is worth more than gold and you can never, ever have enough of it. That the littlest steps forward are often the most important and always deserve celebration. That humanity is diverse and beautiful and sharing life with people who are different than you will show you all kinds of things about yourself that you never knew, that you never even knew to look for.

As wonderful as it is, I'd also have to admit that it's probably not the easiest volunteer gig, and I'm not talking about the teaching part. GiGi's has a fabulous training program and lots of supportive staff and volunteer professionals, and after a few sessions, you get the hang of the program and so do your students and then everyone starts having a lot of fun. But you have to be creative and quick-thinking, patient and flexible, and above all: sincere. Without sincerity, no one can learn anything from you. And you also might find that your students work their way into your heart and if they have to stop coming for a while, you miss them. Or if something tragic happens in their life, you might find yourself crying with them. And I guarantee that you will end up bragging about how interesting and wonderful they are to whoever will listen.

In order to keep providing this free program to our students, we need tutors. Volunteers who will take on this task. People who will weekly donate a couple of hours their time for several weeks to teach a child or an adult with Down Syndrome how to read.

We are getting ready to start a new Literacy Session in October and if you would like to join our Literacy team, let us know. You need no teaching experience as all the training is provided. If you're interested in becoming a tutor, please call Laura Cook, Literacy Director, at (815) 385 - PLAY or email lauracookies7@gmail.com

Learning Without Limits

Meet Lisa:
Lisa came to our Literacy Program in January with the reading ability of a preschooler. She knew a few words, recognized her name and had a stubborn desire to learn more. She is 35 years old.

We started out much like I did with my other students, with beginning level books, matching words to words with pictures, working with farm animals first. That's when things started to get interesting. Lisa started to FLY. When I pushed her past what I thought was her limit, and asked her if it was too difficult she would say, "I like easy and I like hard. I like them both." There was no technique or new reading game she wouldn't try. She would work for an hour solid without batting an eye so I was kept on my toes coming up with things for her to do! By the third session, she was matching words to pictures, labeling each item with very few errors. Lisa was READING. We moved into some basic readers donated to us by a local school. I like these readers because the story lines are funny and they repeat a lot of the same words so each new book builds on the vocabulary of the last book. Lisa could look at each new book and see right away that she already knew a lot of the words. Two sessions ago, she read a book to me without any help and with full comprehension. When the story was funny, she laughed. She is reading and enjoying what she reads. I am so unbelievably proud of her. I know her loving mom and dad are too.

A few years ago, I would have met Lisa, learned about her situation and it would not have occurred to me that something could be done about it. That a 35 year-old with Down Syndrome is perfectly capable of learning how to read, but more importantly, that they NEED to learn. They DESERVE to learn. Now the thought of all the times she has looked around and not been able to interpret the written language we depend on absolutely breaks my heart.

But she is going to change that and I am going to do my very best to help her. She knows what she is capable of and it is far greater than what people see, what even I can see. So I'll keep bringing the books and the flashcards, but I'll let her show me what she can do because as soon as I think I've put my finger on her limits, she just surprises me again and again.

So once again, let me introduce you to my friend Lisa:

READER!

Summer Literacy Registration Now Open

It's time! Come read with us!

Summer Literacy Registration is now open! The summer session will run from June 1, 2009 - August 23, 2009 and registration forms are due April 30th! You can pick up forms at the McHenry Playhouse or click the links below to print the forms at home.

Summer Literacy Information Letter

Summer Literacy Registration Form

Literacy is a FREE program offered by all GiGi's Playhouse locations for children with Down Syndrome aged 3 and up! For more information about what this program is all about, please visit: GiGi's Playhouse Literacy Program

Questions about the program or registration forms? Email Carol AnCel, Literacy Program Director at: cancel (at) gigisplayhouse (dot) org or leave a message at (815) 385 - PLAY.

Read, "Meet Anna!" an article about one of our Literacy students and watch video of her work!

DIY Literacy Materials

This is a repost from my personal blog. Our Literacy Coordinator thought it might be helpful to some of the parents! If you attended Jeri Reed's Reading Workshop a couple of months ago, you'll recognize some of these ideas. :) This will probably make more sense if I clarify that I'm a Literacy Tutor at the McHenry Playhouse and I also homeschool my own kids.



This is a salt/sand box. Basically you take a box (I had a wooden box from the thrift store with a lid), paint the bottom black and fill with salt or sand. I've let Jeremiah (3) do his own explorations with the box and he has done letters in his name, footprints with his plastic dinosaurs and most recently, stamped letters into the sand with magnetic letters from the fridge. It's a great pre-writing tool and it's fun for working on words we're learning as well.



Speaking of magnetic letters... This was another idea I got from one of the special ed teachers who volunteer at GiGi's... This was another box I had laying around which happens to be made of metal so I filled it with a bunch of magnetic letters which they can arrange on the lid inside or outside. They take it in the car, they sit and make up their own nonsense words for a good giggle (a great way to introduce phonics!)... the possibilities are endless on this one.



This is my robot word-eater. I made him for my kids and my students. I painted a box and cut a hole for the mouth and grabbed a stack of cards from a Memory game that no longer had all the pieces. I wrote words on the backs of the cards so we can play different variations. Robot wants to eat the word that starts with "b." Robot wants to eat the word "bear," can you find it? The picture cue is nice to have so if the child is having trouble, they can self-check so there's no wails of, "I don't knoooooow!!!!" So far, he's been a welcome guest with my boys and at my literacy sessions. The best part is, of course, turning him over and dumping him out after his meal.





These are little books I've made out of those flashcards you can find at Wal-Mart, Target, etc. I divided them into categories, "Things We Wear" and such and punched holes in the corners, threw a book ring around them and then printed a list of the words on cardstock and cut them up. The books are small and fun to look through and you can do lots of matching and labeling with the cards and words. For instance, in the first picture, I'd say, "This card says, 'boot!' Can you find the word that says 'boot'? Can you match it?" and it's relatively simple to find the word that looks the same. Instant success. After a while, you flip the cards over to the other side and have them match without the pictures. I find a lot of times, the kids will, before I say what the word is, read the word to me. I don't have to ask, I'm not testing, they just tell me when they know it.









These are some more flashcard books I made from recycling card games that no longer have all the pieces. Goodwill, garage sales... these places have a ton of flashcards and game cards that could be repurposed this way. The kids love having these little books around to flip through. If they are reading from the picture side, the visual cues are enough so that they can read the book to me without help... It's such a pleasure to see the satisfaction on their little faces. After a while they flip to the other, pictureless side and find they know many of the words by sight just from reading the little book over and over.

Skill Builder Saturday!

Saturday, January 24th, 1-3 pm

Join us for an afternoon of fun as we reinforce - or learn new- academic skills. All ages welcome - parental involvement required!

This class is not based on age or grade level. If your child is working on these skills, come on in!

This month the Phonics & Handwriting groups will be focusing on the letters s,a,t,i,p,n. Learn silly songs and actions to help remember the letter sounds and practice writing them using either Handwriting Without Tears or D'Nealian handwriting techniques.

In Math, we will use Touch Math to learn counting to 10 and adding single digits. Move on the Art Station to have fun learning colors and blending!

Based on success, we will schedule these Skill Builder Saturdays regularly so please, come on in and learn with us! We hope to see you there. ❊

Signing Classes Resume

After a little break for the holidays, Signing 'Til Dawn classes start up again this Friday! These classes are for parents, children and teachers and will focus on more than just the basics - more advanced than baby sign language but not so advanced that individuals new to sign can't just jump right in! We play a game with the kids for the first half and the adults practice during the second half. We're using a mix of ASL (American Sign Language) and SEE (Sign Exact English) to promote proper sentence structure in speech, as an aid to reading and comprehension and to help with communication. Whether you are parents of a new little one just starting out with signing or are school-aged kids working on reading and comprehension... this class is for everybody!

Parents, if your child's teachers need sign language education to better communicate with your child in school, invite them to this class! We love the teachers who work so hard for our kids and we want to support them if they want to increase their knowledge of sign language. Plus, the class is free!

Signing 'Til Dawn will be held Fridays from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm at the McHenry GiGi's Playhouse (1720 N Richmond Rd, McHenry, IL) and we do ask that you call (815) 385 - PLAY and leave us a message if you plan on attending so we have enough materials on hand but if you forget, come on in anyway! ☺

Dates for classes and for our other programs can be found on our calendar located at the bottom of our blog... scroll down! We update frequently so check back often!

Here's a great article about one mom's experience with sign language and reading with her son with Down Syndrome: The Use of a Reading Program and Signing to Develop Language and
Communication Skills in a Toddler with Down Syndrome

Hope's Homework Helpers!

Homework Ideas

by Hope McCarthy - Special Education Teacher

PHASE ONE

Match word cards to picture word cards from books. Some kids may need to hold word card above each word card to scan for same letters. You can say, “No, try again."

When they can easily do this without scanning and/or they get 100% match ups independently, you can move to phase two.

PHASE TWO

Cut words from your pictures. You now have 2 sets of word cards and 1 set of pictures. Kids can “read” the picture, match the picture to the word. Use initial sound cues, “M says m-mmm, does that sound like t-t-t-t toy? Try again." After student can match independently with no cues you can move to phase three.

PHASE THREE

Match word to word card! Read word. Ask student to put word on word. Ask them to read word. As student progresses towards independence, you can play concentration or memory. Flip all the cards face down and match them up by taking turns to flip over two cards. Remember to lay the unmatched cards back in the same spot so you can remember where they are.

Remember to keep reading those books. It is the best way to reinforce reading behaviors. Learning while doing!! The card activities reinforce the actual reading goal.

Be sure to make this successful and fun! 100% cues in the beginning to achieve confidence and reinforce reading memory.

-Thanks so much, Hope! ☺ These ideas are great to use in conjuction with our Literacy Program! If your child is already in Literacy, these are some great ways to reinforce what your tutor has been working on during your child's tutoring sessions. If you would like more information about our Literacy Program, please visit GiGi's Playhouse!

Meet Anna!

Anna has been a part of our Literacy Program for about 6 months. She is 5 years old and completely awesome. I love being her tutor. She works so hard every session and we have such a good time! We have been working with various books and flashcards and last week I made some winter/Christmas flashcards to work with. She and her mom graciously agreed to let me take some video to share with you all. :)





At the beginning of the program, she would find the correct word to match to the flashcard out of a field of two. Now, she picks out of a field of 4 or 5! Her mom Jill tells me that she spreads all her words out on the floor at home and plays the matching game by herself, picking out the words out of a big pile! I'm so excited that she likes the materials we make so much so that she chooses to work with them at home.



The last unit we worked on was a Barney unit I made which included a book with her name in it. We played bingo-style games with the cards, did lots of matching and made up a few games as we went along to keep things fresh and fun. She's always up for a new game. :)



She reads her name and a few words from the Barney unit all by herself now! For our Christmas unit, we've been using sign language to help remember some of the words, which she has picked up really quickly.

The thing I really love about the Literacy Program is how it is how it is designed to really help kids succeed in every step. The kids aren't tested to find out what they don't know but rather to show them what they do know which is, as you can imagine, really exciting (probably as much for me as it is the kids!) The matching games we play are so fun and there's no pressure to get it all right, all the time. Eventually I start to notice Anna picking up words with no pictures attached and reading them to me as we play our games... what a wonderful way to learn and discover! I have so enjoyed getting to know Anna as we've worked together and I look forward to every week. I feel really privileged to be a small part in her journey towards literacy. Each bit of progress is so thrilling... I can't tell who's having more fun here, me or her! :)

Big thanks to Anna for being such a hardworking, amazing student and thanks to her awesome mom Jill who makes the trip out to the playhouse every week to bring Anna to the Literacy program and of course, thanks to Mary who comes along to our sessions and always has a "Good job, Anna!" ready for her big sister. :)

Hopefully we'll have some more pictures and videos of our students to share with you soon! We are so excited about the progress we've seen in the Literacy Program and we'd love to introduce you to our other awesome students and tutors involved. Stay tuned! :)

Reading Tips for Parents

This is a guest blog written by Hope McCarthy, one of our wonderful tutors at the McHenry Playhouse.


Read aloud tips
When you read aloud you can model many of the reading “behaviors” that your child will need. Techniques to help are finger point, picture walk, vocabulary brainstorm, verbal tonation for text and text sabotage.

Finger point- For beginning readers, this is a great way to show the students that the text corresponds with your spoken word. Read smoothly, but slowly, emphasizing each word with a tap.

Picture walk- I tell the students there is a great way to read the story called a picture walk. You walk through the pictures naming what you see and what is happening. You can also “vocabulary brainstorm” choosing the vocabulary you want to emphasize from the text. Talk about the words and lead discussions that go with the story.

Verbal Tonation- This is what keeps the story exciting. Be sure to create excitement by lowering your voice, speaking softly, slowly or quick and loud, with wonder or fear to go with the story.

Text Sabotage-This is a sneaky way to get the child interested in the printed word. Read the text til you come to a word that may be supplied by looking at the picture or from listening to the text. Pretend you don’t know the word and use reading strategies to see if you both can be word detectives to figure out the word. Try looking in the text, insert words you think it could be. Put in a silly word and ask if it makes sense or sounds right. Try sounding it out.
Remember to keep the story fun and exciting, cuddle and read for fun. It’s one of the best gifts you can give your child.

Passing on a good deal! This is the site where we bought our Sight Word Cards that incorporate pictures.


CurrClick - Curriculum at a Click!
This Friday, November 28th, put on your pajamas, put away your pocketbooks and "head over" to CurrClick's best ever Black Friday Freebie Giveaway and Homeschooling Through the Holidays Sale!

Black Friday is about savings, this season is about being frugal and CurrClick is and always has been about helping you trim your education budget. That's why this year, we're pleased to invite you to our biggest Black Friday Giveaway and Homeschooling Through the Holidays sales event yet, offering 28 COMPLETELY FREE TITLES from our most popular publishers, and dozens of your favorite holiday education titles up to 85% OFF! Don't miss out!

Literacy Seminar

As parents, sometimes the task of teaching our kids how to read can seem overwhelming. There are so many programs, curriculums, games... where do we start? Enter Jeri Lynn Reid, 15-year special education veteran and a bottomless well of experience, ideas, and encouragement. Jeri walked in off the street and volunteered to be a literacy tutor in May of 2008 and also graciously offered to put together an afternoon seminar focused on literacy from birth through adulthood.

Incidental learning, environmental learning, the importance of reading to our kids and exposing them to written language every day... simple ideas with big impact. Different learning materials were discussed and then during the second half of the seminar, the parents had the opportunity to actually make those materials themselves to take home and try with their kids. Jeri was available for questions and concerns - everything from how to deal with teachers who won't use sign language to how to help a child learn to read and understand a schedule.


We will definitely have more seminars like this in the future! A big thanks to Jeri!

From Literacy Seminar

From Literacy Seminar

From Literacy Seminar

Afterward, we made items to use at home.

From Literacy Seminar

From Literacy Seminar

From Literacy Seminar

From Literacy Seminar

It's Time to Register for the Winter Literacy Program!!

It's time to register for the Winter Literacy Program at GiGi's Playhouse in McHenry!!
Children and adults with Down syndrome ages 3-100 are welcome to register for our FREE tutoring program.
If you wish to have a registration form e-mailed to you, please contact us at mchenry@gigisplayhouse.org.

Feel free to stop in and pick one up at the Playhouse. ( the times we are open varies- check our calender for details.
To read more about it, visit GiGi's Playhouse or call 815-385-PLAY (7529)

Our First Signing Class

Our first sign language class was awesome! Dawn is a great teacher and since she is also parent to a child with special needs, understands how best to approach learning. The kids had a great time and we were impressed at how many signs they already KNOW! WOW!! *I* have some catching up to do ;-)

This class is for anyone who would like to add to their sign vocabulary. If you have a baby or young child and want to learn some signs to use, this would be a good place for you. Certainly children with out the basics would be welcome and we could do our best to catch them up!

We are going to be practicing entire sentences using Exact English. Children with DS often have a hard time with proper construction of sentences and having a visual such as sign language, helps them to learn it and be able to speak it. Speech is always the goal with the use of sign.

I found this interesting study :

"How Manual Sign Acquisition Relates to the Development
of Spoken Language: A Case Study"

Kouri, Theresa - School of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242

The relationship between signed and spoken word was observed in a young girl with Down Syndrome during a treatment regimen using simultaneous input.

All of her words were recorded over an 8-month period and classified according to the manner of speech and communication production (i.e., spontaneous/imitated; signed and/or spoken).

It was revealed that most of the words that the girl initially signed were later spontaneously spoken and that most of her signs evolved into spontaneous speech.
Several ideas and themes were demonstrated with specific words (ex: signs to speech), and sign/spoken developments during the first versus the final four months of the research study. It was concluded that use of simultaneous signs supports the formation of spoken language.

I know I witnessed the above with Christine! She has quite the spoken vocabulary, but her articulation makes if very difficult to understand her out of context. Sign gives her the ability to be understood at a more complex level rather then for her to resort to simpler words to get her message across. It also helped her to score higher on the vocabulary parts of formal assessments. It's been a huge help at school with auditory material. She simply can not sit and absorb lots of information by listening alone, so sign language helps her to 'hear' and retain what is being taught. We have also discovered that signing her spelling words results in perfect tests!

We are way past baby sign , but as she gets older we are finding sign to be even more helpful then it was in that stage of her development.

If interested our class meets every other Weds 5:30-6:30, the next class will be this upcoming Weds, October 15.

Here are a few more resources about signing with special needs children :

Children with Special Needs
Using Sign Language
This supports children with language impairments needing more input to understand be able to retell stories. I have found signing the key parts of any story or experience helps her retain and understand more and faster as well.
Insight Into Struggles Of Children With Language Impairments

Hand Gestures Linked To Better Speaking

The Use of Signs by Children with Down Syndrome
Yes, She Can! Language and a Student with Down Syndrome