" I got my master's in reading so I could teach anyone to read.  And here I am 14 years later, still learning....  This is a fabulous resource - thank you!"

Jennifer N

Masters Degree, Reading

I have a four-year-old, Luke, who has Down syndrome, and I'm a virtual teacher/tutor who loves and uses the Science of Reading in my tutoring. Before virtual teaching, I was in the kindergarten classroom for fourteen years. Almost all the books and journal articles I have read about teaching children with Down syndrome to read talk about learners knowing 100–500 high interest words by sight before teaching phonics. As far as I understand it, it's because they often have awesome long-term memories but not great short term memories. Would love to hear your thoughts on this and also hear from parents who are using the Raising Robust Readers program to hear if they have been successful and at what age did they first start and did they know a certain number of words first. Thanks so much.

Kristy C.
Classroom Teacher, Tutor

" Kristy  as a former teacher and reading specialist of twenty years, I heard and read the same research. I started down that road when my son Ethan was very young. We did flash cards and Ethan memorized about twenty but never noticed them in context. I’ve always read a lot to both my boys. Reading is their favorite. Ethan is now five and would be starting kinder in the next school year. (I say ‘would’ because I homeschool). I’ve been using Raising Robust Readers for a year and honestly it has been life-changing. Ethan recognizes and sees phonemes everywhere. He’s in a preschool once a week and he is “teaching” his typical peers all the letter sounds. He is now noticing beginning sounds. So he will say “Mom robot starts with R.” Or “Mom there is a double ee. It says E.” His preschool teachers just can’t believe it. One of the things that drew me to RRR is that as a former reading specialist I studied Orton Gillingham and I’ve seen it work miracles with people with dyslexia. RRR is so much like OG and so hands-on and multi-sensory. I just don’t see how memorizing sight words is better.

Emily H,

Reading Specialist