Teaching Pre-schoolers Phonogram Sounds Not surprisingly, my daughter-in-law, Mandy, teaches my four-year-old granddaughter phonograms.  She embraces “Wordy’s Way” by teaching Carley phonograms here and there throughout the day.  In fact, Mandy started by just singing the jingles to her when Carley was around 6 months old.  She did the gestures with the jingles, and Carley […]

“This is a little reading room Mark created for Jane under the stairs of their new house. It was his present to her for her second birthday. She sits in front of the Bose And listens to Katelyn read the phonograms CD ALL the time.

This update just out from the National Down Syndrome Congress. Grateful this Congress could agree on something as worthwhile as this. Click on the title to read more.

It IS the responsibility of teachers to teach reading and writing. But what a privilege for parents to be the first, foremost, and most influential teacher of these skills. We can go beyond our culture’s message of simply reading TO our children in preparation for these ‘professionals,’ and take our children on a fun-filled journey of learning early reading skills. (click title to read more)

Halloween  Phonograms ee and oo.In a room with a wood door,”Boo!” the ghost would go. Double o has three sounds: /oō/ /oŏ/ /ō/.  Talk about the sounds casually when you encounter them in your daily activities. (Can you get the cat fOOOOOOd please? Would you put this bOOOOOk in your bedrOOOOOm? Could you close the […]

If you have read “about us” you know that the genesis for Wordy Worm® Reading is Casey O’Halloran, a young man with Down syndrome, who struggled to learn how to read and finally was successful. Wordy Worm® is our mission to help other families avoid the years of struggle, frustration, and failure Casey faced. October is National Down Syndrome Month, so I digress from our usual reading-specific topics to share a personal reflection with you…(click on title)

I visited the National Down Syndrome Congress offices in Roswell, Georgia, last week and had the privilege of chatting with David Tolleson, Executive Director; Sue Joe, Communication Director; and MaryKate Vandemark, Office Manager. The visit took me down memory lane, recalling that, beginning some 30 years ago, the NDSC was at the center of our […]

We want to bust the myth that English is hard to learn and teach. English is logical, sensible, predictable and
easy to decode… (click title)

​War of the Worlds or Words?Arnie, from Patriot Press, who prints our Wordy Worm® books, used Wordy Worm to teach his son to read.  He also read to him every night; good stories and literature that perhaps took a week to get through.  So, he not only taught him the code, but he taught him […]