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Learning to read words

Most young people with Down syndrome can learn words by sight before they are able to recognise, learn or apply the rules of letter sounds, phonemes and graphemes. For them, whole word learning is a strength and will give them reading success, even if they have poor speech and auditory discrimination skills.

• Learning to read whole words (a sight vocabulary) can teach word meanings that will help to build speech, language and literacy skills. A visual image of a word is particularly helpful for people who are good visual learners, especially those who find it difficult to develop an auditory image or memory for sounds, words and sentences. Learning to read words can be beneficial for people with Down syndrome of all ages and abilities.
• Learning new word meanings by reading develops vocabulary knowledge and helps teenagers learn about the world.
• Learning to read words that are already understood enables teenagers to learn about how words work together, or how to understand and use language.
• Saying words, individually and in sentences, helps teenagers to improve the clarity of their speech, so reading words also provides practice for learning to speak more clearly.
• Learning to read words in semantic categories, or associating words with similar or linked meanings, builds teenagers' understanding of language in an organised, integrated way and may make it easier for them to use their language knowledge when communicating.
• Learning to read also helps teenagers to improve their working memory function. Improved working memory enables people to process and remember information more easily and to choose the correct words to express their feelings or ideas more quickly and accurately.
• Learning to read words with similar sounds in them, rhyming words, and similar spellings or word families helps teenagers to recognise the sounds within words, link these with their other reading activities and develops their ability to use phonics (phonological awareness). This will help them to speak, to spell, to write as well as to read.

How to choose words and teach them

The choice of words for any teenager will depend on the stage the teenager has reached in learning language, his/her age, cultural and family background, his/her interests and things he or she likes to communicate about, and the teenager's school curriculum. This section describes recommendations for beginning to teach reading using whole words, how to extend vocabulary and how to encourage reading for pupils of all ages, levels of ability and rates of progress. It also stresses the importance of schools and families working together.

Words that the teenager needs or wants to say clearly can be targeted, e.g. 'sausages'. Social phrases can also be learned through reading aloud, much like a play script. Words from a reading scheme, and support materials such as Wellington Square^[24] and words from a programme for reading remediation are also likely to be chosen and practised. Words that have been chosen should be practised daily. Words for reading can be based on the teenager's vocabulary knowledge, on vocabulary in school that links with school life (school vocabulary, routines, reading scheme vocabulary, as in Figure 3 and Figure 4) as well as words linked with home life (such as family names, friends' names, routines and interests).

Much vocabulary will emerge from lessons in school. Reading, writing and saying the words will improve the teenager's articulation, e.g. for maths 'measure', 'centimetre', 'metre' and 'ruler' might be read, copied and said, for PSE, 'deodorant' and words for feelings, like happy, sad, delighted, surprise, jealousy or anger.

For teenagers beginning reading, it is important that the words and materials selected and style of interaction used with them are age-appropriate, although the stages and principles are similar for beginner readers of any age.

Content words and high frequency words

As teenagers' reading skills develop they will need to learn words that are common in written and spoken English. Many of these words can be taught as words or flashcards with matching games, or other teaching activities that offer frequent repetition.

They will also occur and be read in the grammatically correct sentences in conversation diaries. Reading high frequency words in sentences helps to give them more meaning, and enables them to be practised with purpose.

Many teenagers find learning function words (prepositions, pronouns, auxiliaries) as sight words difficult to achieve, whereas content words (nouns, verbs and adjectives), where meaning can be illustrated with a picture, symbol or more visual representation are likely to be learned more quickly.

Many of the 'high-frequency' words (Figure 5) that are essential for fluent reading are function words and should not, on their own, form the foundation for learning to read for young people with Down syndrome. They do need to be learned though, and this can be achieved by including them with equal numbers of content words that can be more easily remembered.

Differentiation and vocabulary learning

Work is likely to be differentiated (simplified) for teenagers with Down syndrome of all ages, to varying extents. Words can be chosen from across the curriculum to extend vocabulary knowledge and enable teenagers to access the curriculum, revise and remember what they have learned (Figure 6).

Schools and parents should work together

Parents can be included in planning for schemes of work so that vocabulary can be chosen with the teenager's interests and life experience in mind, and can also be reinforced by parents at home. For example, parents could contribute ideas for the books that will be used in literacy lessons, for topic work and maths words. Parents can help to identify words the teenager needs or would like to be able to say more clearly, so that these can be included in reading work.

Vocabulary from reading schemes

Words that are part of a core vocabulary from a reading scheme can be taught to teenagers at school and practised at home.

It is important to find reading books with age-appropriate content for pupils in secondary school. Wellington Square^[24] is popular, and Wolf Hill^[25] for the younger age range. Wellington Square has activities books and activities available on CD-Rom as well as supporting language activities.

Other books for reading ages 6 to 12 years are likely to be suitable. If possible, several sources should be tried with a teenager, to find a personal preference. Non-fiction books can also be used to develop vocabulary and reading skills. Many teenagers will enjoy factual books that they can relate easily to their daily lives and experiences.

Visually supported reading using pictures, symbols and objects

Most people with Down syndrome are able to learn to read using ordinary text from the beginning and the authors discourage the use of symbol systems to teach reading unless a person has made no progress with learning to read after appropriate literacy teaching. Picture symbols are all around us in the environment and they can enhance learning and support our understanding in many ways but using symbol systems as an aid to reading words and sentences introduces another symbolic system he or she may not need. However, for teenagers who practise often but still seem to find it difficult to select or remember words, picture symbols (such as Makaton symbols^[26]) and pictures can add to the fun and success of reading. These can be taught in the same way as teaching written words, with matching games initially, and combinations of words, symbols and pictures can be used together.

Working with symbols is different from working with words. Symbols do not necessarily map on to all of the words in a sentence. For this reason, symbols do not easily support the learning of sentence grammar. However, symbols can support understanding of ideas represented in words (for example, question words), text, locations, events, time, routines and sequences. Symbols can be added to pages or next to words and sentences, as can other visual aids and objects to help teenagers understand and remember. As a general rule, introduction of picture symbols for teenagers is not necessary for learning to read written words, although use of pictures and symbols may make recorded work and activities more interesting and aid comprehension by illustrating concepts (Figure 7 and Figure 8).

Computer software is available to support writing with symbols and words.^[27,28] Whether or not symbols are used, continue to teach reading throughout secondary school years, as people with Down syndrome may learn to read at any age^[2,23] and some are more motivated to learn to read as teenagers or young adults.

Supporting memory, learning routines, following instructions and learning to be independent

As a result of auditory processing and auditory memory difficulties, teenagers with Down syndrome are likely to have some difficulties in processing spoken language in the classroom, and may not remember new instructions.

Being able to read written instruction or follow lists helps teenagers to work more effectively in the classroom. They can keep to their task for longer periods of time, feel more confident that they have not forgotten anything and check where they are on the task. For events and activities that happen regularly, they can use a variety of timetables, for parts of days, whole days, school weeks and calendars of events at home. Timetables are likely to use text and pictures to help teenagers remember orders and sequences, focus on their immediate task and reflect on the past and the future. Whole words and sentences can be chosen to support the development of self-management and independence in the classroom and at home, for example, daily tasks at school, the order of activities at home before going to school and regular after school events.

All teenagers rely on written information for their school work, for homework, for following lesson instructions and keeping to their task. Teenagers with Down syndrome who can write or copywrite can also make their own records and lists, with help from a Learning Support Assistant as appropriate (Figure 9).

Learning to read from phonic teaching

Some teenagers with Down syndrome may be helped to begin to learn to read through mastering phonics. Teenagers with Down syndrome with word reading ages of seven years and above have usually developed phonic skills and are able to use them for reading, writing and spelling, even though they began reading by learning whole words. Those in good reading instruction programmes will have learned phonics in parallel with their whole word reading, and at some stage their visual and phonological skills become interwoven. The time and way in which this happens is very varied. Both teenagers' abilities to speak clearly and their experience of speaking affect this process.

Some teenagers with Down syndrome may have found it difficult to remember whole words in their younger years and, even with early phonic teaching, may not have been able to use their phonic knowledge for reading in their younger years. At a later stage, with greater phonological awareness, language skills and improved speech, they may be more able to use their phonic skills for learning to read. Teenagers who did not progress with whole word teaching methods at a younger age may learn to read well with a combination of whole word learning and phonic teaching between the ages of 11 and 16 years. They are likely to be able to achieve this through greater experience of speaking as well as sustained teaching of phonic skills, as a part of a comprehensive literacy teaching programme at primary school. All teenagers should continue to learn with simultaneous teaching of phonics as well as whole word reading throughout their education.

Encouraging reading for reluctant readers

Any progress in learning to read should be valued and celebrated. All teenagers should receive reading instruction and sufficient opportunities to learn to read, with materials chosen and made to link with their language and interest levels. Teachers and parents should convey to teenagers that learning to read, at any level of proficiency, is valuable, whatever their rate of reading skill development.

There are many ways of making reading or 'visual language' fun and encouraging teenagers to want to learn to read. Reading in a group, with a meaningful literacy activity that includes word, sentence and text level activities, is strongly recommended to develop interest and skills in reading and writing, for example making a newspaper, reading and writing journals and letters. Many teenagers are interested in learning to read when they realise that reading skills will give them new and much desired independence outcomes e.g. reading a shopping list or following a recipe.