reading and language intervention for children with down syndrome sandra akerman and julia cornwell
TRANSCRIPT
Reading and Language Intervention for Children with Down Syndrome
Sandra Akerman and
Julia Cornwell
•Aims of Session
To be confident that the intervention program will ensure progress for the individual child.
To know how to access support after today’s training
To understand the structure of the intervention.To have clarity about the preparation needed; both
pre-assessment of the child and gathering of resources.
To know how to deliver each element of the 45 minute daily intervention.
Confidentiality
The intervention grew out of a major research project by Down Syndrome Education, starting in 2008. It involved 50 primary schools, 57 children and 70 teaching assistants. The intervention was evaluated by a randomised control trial, it was one of the largest studies of children with Down Syndrome to date. The findings were published in 2012.
Aimed at children in Key Stages 1 and 2.
Children with Down Syndrome’s spoken language is delayed relative to their understanding and need to communicate. Unlike children who follow a typical pattern of development, reading can help improve their spoken language, so there is an interweaving of written and spoken communication. This intervention helps to address this.
Children with Down Syndrome:
Learn more slowly – Therefore benefit from small steps, intensive daily instruction, frequent opportunities for revision and consolidation.
Short term memory: visual stronger than verbal – Visual supports for learning.
Comprehension an extra challenge - Emphasise and support reading for meaning from the outset
Maintaining attention and managing behaviour – Short, varied activities and teaching approaches that ensure success.
More support for phonological awareness and phonics – Explicit instruction and frequent practise, alongside sight word instruction.
Recognising the wide range of ability – Scope to tailor program for individual abilities.
Research Findings
There was a wide variation in progress What influenced this? Younger children tended to make more
progress. Missed sessions affected progress and when
this dropped to less than 80% (4 out of 5 days a week) progress was significantly affected.
Staff delivering the intervention reported that: Though the intervention was hard work they
enjoyed it Increased confidence and feelings of
competence Improved skills and expertise Increased self-esteem and greater job
satisfaction Potential for application to other children in the
classroom
Ongoing support
Hillside Outreach Website Section: Forum Email:
[email protected] Research papers available at:
www.dseinternational.org
Programme Structure
There are two parts to the programme, a reading strand and a language strand.
Daily 40-50 minutes (or 2 x 20-25 minutes) sessions
Monday to Thursday are teaching sessions and Friday is a consolidation of the weeks learning.
Session structureReading Strand (20 mins)
Reading easy level book 2-3 min
Reading new instructional level book 5 mins
Sight word learning 2-3 mins
Letters, sounds, phonology 5 mins
Introduce new instructional level book 5 mins
Language Strand (20mins)
Vocabulary: Introduce new words 5 mins
Vocabulary: Reinforce meaning of new words 5 mins
Expressive language: Use new words in connected speech
5 mins
Expressive language: Use new words in written language.
5 mins
Assessment
For this intervention it is essential that a thorough assessment is made of the individual. This will establish exactly what that child can and cannot do, creating a starting point that will create a challenge that is within their capability to meet.
Go through Assessment pack (R2 – R9) Look at Example (R10) score Burt
Reading test and identify Hatcher book level.
Practise using Hatcher
Do an example – Polar Bear Polar Bear Selection of books, work in pairs. Use Page 48 of handbook (photocopied) Fill in Record form (R16) Put onto excel spread sheet on whiteboard
when complete and mark book with a graded post it note.
Cumbria CPS www.cleo.net.uk/consultants_resources/sen/cpsb
ooklist/index.htm
This has a huge list of books available to search by
a) level of difficulty b) title (alphabetically) c) publisher (alphabetically) There is an excel spreadsheet on the
resources disk (R15) for you to use.
Miscue analysis/Running Record
A running record has two purposes:a) To calculate reading accuracy b) To code the errors the child has made. Looking at correctly read word and incorrectly
read word Missed out word and inserted word Educator inserted word
Handa’s Surprise
Calculating Reading Accuracy: The aim of the running record is to calculate reading
accuracy. Books can then be graded in to an ‘Easy’ reader 95%, ‘Instructional Reader’ – 90 -94%, Hard (frustrating) – less than 90%.
The formula is:1. Total the number of errors (e) and take away from the
number of the words in the text.2. Count the number of words in the text (n), 3. n – e = a this gives you the number of words read
correctly.4. a ÷ n x 100 = percentage score of book
Error Coding
Misread, but evidence of phoneme knowledge (P)
Misread, but meaning makes sense (M) Grammatical or syntactic error (G)
This error coding allows you to find a focus for your Sight word reading and Letters, sounds and phonology sections of the intervention.
Coffee Break (15 mins)
The reading intervention daily session.
Strand Component Duration
Reading 1.Easy level book reading 2-3 mins
2.Instructional level book reading
5 mins
3.Sight word reading 2-3 mins
4.Letters, sounds and phonology
5 mins
5.New instructional book reading
5 mins
An easy level book is designed to be a positive and enjoyable experience for the pupil enabling them to feel confident in their reading.
There should be a focus on fluent reading and the pleasure of reading for meaning.
DVD
Component 1:Easy level book reading (95% or more reading accuracy)
Component 2:Instructional level book (accuracy 90-94%) This level of book presents slightly more of a
challenge, it has been previously looked at the end of the last session.
Take a running record to assess the child’s independent reading skills – do not correct any errors or prompt the child. There will be time to correct errors at the end.
Can be part of a book, not always a whole book. DVD
Instructional level teaching
After reading the book you will go back and look at difficult words which you have discovered through using your running record.
See figure 11 on P.52 of the teachers handbook for some suggestions.
If the child is still between 90 – 94% accuracy the educator and child will re read this book at the end of the session as component 5 ‘New instructional level book reading’.
If the child has read with 95% + accuracy this becomes a new easy read and a new instructional level book will be introduced in component 5 ‘new instructional level book’.
Component 3:Sight word reading Reading words by sight is a an important
strategy for reading. Many high frequency words are irregular and cannot be decoded and therefore have to be taught as sight words.
All of these sight words are on flash cards in the resource kit.
There are lots of ideas in the handbook P. 58 Do not forget to make sentences with these
flashcards and find the words in text.
Matching, Selecting and Naming, with flash cards. Matching:The pupils is asked to find 2 words that look
the same (pairs, lotto/bingo) Selecting:Choosing from a small group of words
‘which one is….?’ Naming:Say the word when shown a card. DVD
Component 4:Letters, sounds and phonology.Developing phonic reading strategies is essential
for independent reading. These include the ability to sound out the letters in a word and blend them to identify a word when reading. To reach this point a child needs to learn the sounds that letters represent, develop phonological awareness (hear the sounds that make up spoken words) and link the 2 together.
This what this component teaches.
Activity
Describe to your partner the phonological activities you are doing with the child you work with.
1. List the activities you use.2. What are you trying to teach?
DVD
Flip chart
Component 5:New Instructional level book reading The goals of this component are to
demonstrate good reading behaviour, support comprehension, promote enjoyment and expand vocabulary.
The child is not expected to read the book independently – but share and enjoy the book with the adult.
Tips for this are on P. 53 of the handbook
Strand Component Duration
Reading 1.Easy level book reading 2-3 mins
2.Instructional level book reading
5 mins
3.Sight word reading 2-3 mins
4.Letters, sounds and phonology
5 mins
5.New instructional book reading
5 mins
Lunch 30 mins.
Session StructureReading Strand (20 mins)
Reading easy level book 2-3 min
Reading new instructional level book 5 mins
Sight word learning 2-3 mins
Letters, sounds, phonology 5 mins
Introduce new instructional level book 5 mins
Language Strand (20mins)
Vocabulary: Introduce new words 5 mins
Vocabulary: Reinforce meaning of new words 5 mins
Expressive language: Use new words in connected speech
5 mins
Expressive language: Use new words in written language.
5 mins
Language Strand
The second part of the intervention also takes 20-25 mins and can be done at a different point in the day.
It has 4 components that take place Monday – Thursday with a consolidation day on Friday.
The SLT working with you will be a great source of support for this strand. Many of the targets you will work towards will be on the child’s speech and language programme
Aims of the strand To learn new vocab. Experience and use vocab in multiple contexts. Use new vocab in spoken and written
sentences. Build up grammatical skills and knowledge of the
syntactic structure of language. Develop appropriate social use of language.The language strand is also designed to support
the reading strand, as research suggests that pupils with limited language make more progress on a reading intervention when it is accompanied with language support.
Language group activity
Personal language
Explain personal words /colloquialisms etc in small groups.
Vocabulary is more meaningful and motivating (and easier to remember) when we can see how it has personal relevance.
Sequence of language strand
Introduce the word Reinforce the word Develop spoken language skills using the word Develop written language skills using the word
This strand should be adapted to meet pupils’ abilities and needs to link with personal interests and the school curriculum. Consider what vocab will be useful to them in their everyday lives at home, school and in other contexts.
The language strand daily sessionStrand Component Duration
Language 1. Introducing new words 5 mins
2. Reinforcing the meaning of new words
5 mins
3. Using new words in connected speech
5 mins
4. Using new words in written language
5 mins
Vocab themes
Vocab needs to be grouped into themes/topics. The idea is that you introduce a new word every
day except Friday. Your topic/theme will run for 2 weeks and will be
recorded in a topic book (which can then become one of your easy reads!)
i.e. you will teach 8 words and have 2 consolidation sessions.
Component 1 – introducing new words This component uses written and spoken
representations, and pictures and objects to teach new words.
A variety of word types should be targeted:NounsVerbsAdjectives Prepositions
Activity : Orangeness of an orange.
Example
Motorbike – part of a transport theme. 4.00
Note down how many different ways does the INA introduce the word motorbike?
Flip chart
Example
Dirty – related to class topic recycling.
What activities would you use to teach this word to the child you work with.
Watch DVD
Example of how to implement component 1. Look at L1 in resource folder.
Relevant topics for primary aged children (The park, food , clothes, my body, animals, weather, transport, cooking, in the home, occupations)
Component 2Reinforcing the meaning of new words. This component aims to increase the pupils
depth of understanding of a word and to revise and reinforce vocab learning.
It uses simple repetitive structured games and activities.
Offers the pupils a variety of opportunities to experience the words and their meanings.
Fun 5 mins of games! Ideas could be:
Matching pairs
Word hunt
Dominoes
Simon says
Feely bag
Odd one out
What’s missing
Practical activities (making and doing)
Sequencing – first, next, last and before
Singing songs
Using new words in connected speech. Most pupils with Down Syndrome understand
more than they can say. When they communicate, many pupils with DS will often use key words but leave out joining words and omit the correct word endings.
These last 2 components are aimed at helping the pupils use their new words in grammatically correct sentences.
Toy topic
1. What is your chosen vocab? 8 words (mix of nouns, verbs, adjectives)
2. List Activities that encourage speech and conversation.
3. Think about aims, what do you need to be mindful of?
Component 4Using words in written language Remember that children with DS will use their
visual skills to learn new sentence structures/grammatical structures through this strand.
What this component looks like will depend on the writing ability of the child you work with.
It is an opportunity to practise writing skills, including written grammar.
Written work is recorded in the pupils topic book which then provides a useful resource for revision and record keeping.
Activities to support the written language componentMuddly sentencesMissing wordsPost it notes covering wordsTracingCopyingSound shapes (letters) in sand/air etcLetter size and shapeFinger spaceFull stops capital lettersConnectives, verbs and tenses, prepositions
This topic book work is flexible, if the child is struggling with specific vocab these can be addressed during the language strand.
Tea break (15 mins)
Action Plan
1. Who do you need to discuss this intervention with?
2. Finding a time to work.3. Finding a space to work in. 4. Assessments5. Resources6. planning
