Colors Part 3

I posted about Zoya learning her colors HERE  AND HERE. Zoya had a really hard time learning to match two similar items until just recently. You can see her matching the color card to the one that looks the same. It seems like a simple skill but it's not so easy to teach and it wasn't so easy for Zoya to learn...but she's got it down now :) She is able to do the same with her numbers and shapes (I havent posted about shapes yet but she has recently learned the 8 shapes in the preschool prep series). You can see her in the beginning of the video smiling with her cheesy face because she thought I was taking a picture with my phone..she didn't realize I was trying to take a video.

We recently started working on sorting colors into the correct color group.  I've been using little color counters and having her put them on the correct color character on the placemat. Next I will use different colored placemats or bowls and have her try to sort colors that way without using the color characters.

Learning Colors Part 2

Being a teacher, it only makes sense that lots of my posts are about how Zoya learns. I love working with her and learning more about her learning style and watching the light bulb go off when she learns new things!  I posted about Zoya learning her colors HERE. One thing many people with Down Syndrome have difficulty with is generalizing skills. For Zoya, she learns one concept in one way or place and then also has to be taught how to use that concept in a different way and/or place. For example, using the Preschool Prep curriculum, Zoya first learned her colors by associating them with a color character (almost like she was learning a name for each color character). She could recognize the color characters but could not then recognize the color "red" anywhere outside of the "red character." So I made some flashcards you will see in the video below to help her bridge the skill from color characters to colors in general. I put the color character on one side of a flashcard and then a blank piece of that same colored paper on the backside of the same flashcard. I would show Zoya the plain color side and ask her what color and then flip the card over so she could see the color character. She eventually learned (after much repetition and practice) that the colors are actually more than just a character. So after that I made plain colored flashcards without the characters, which you will also see in the video (you can see her asking on the red card where the red character was! haha). So little step by little step she learned to name her colors without relying on the color characters. I can't say enough how great the color character idea helped her learn her colors though! Now she is able to name colors of objects in real life like hair bows (she picks out what color she wants every morning and loves it) and colors of clothes, crayons, toys, etc. She often labels the colors of things in her environment now without prompting...she just thinks its fun! My friend who is a montessori teacher says kids should drive the learning so when they get really interested in a subject, just let them fly with it and give them the support they need to learn more about that subject! That's what we've been doing...colors, colors, and MORE colors!

It was easier for Zoya to choose the correct color from a lineup, like you saw in the ipad video in my last colors post. It was a whole new skill set to be able to simply name the color of a card when presented with a colored flashcard but she did learn how to do that after lots of repetition and practice. The next skill with colors we are working on is sorting and matching, which also requires much practice and repetition...see any pattern here? Zoya learns very well, she just needs extra opportunities for practice and repeition. Repetition is the key for many kids with special learning needs, and is especially the key for Zoya learning/memorizing things like colors/numbers, etc.

In this video you can hear Zoya doing her best to say the colors and the ones she can't say, she signs. She started out signing all the colors without verbalizations and then soon after added the verbal words or approximation for each color (so those who say signing prevents kids from speaking I disagree and think it only helps!) Green and orange are really hard for her to say so she signs them; yellow sounds like lellow with verbalization only, blue like boo with sign as well, purple is pretty close with verbalization only, black sounds like lack (with sign as well), white sounds like wwhhhyyyyyy, and red sounds like rrreeehhh with verbalization and sign. Its strange that when she is able to say the word so others know what she is saying, she drops the sign all on her own! As I said in the last color post, pink and brown are not taught in the preschool prep curriculum which bugs me, but we are just learning those two now.

So here is little Miss Zoya showing off her colors that she has worked soooo hard to learn!

Learning Colors and the iPad

Zoya is really into colors lately. We started working on colors a few months ago and she has mastered them! She loves naming the colors of everything she sees! Zoya learns best with LOTS of repetition. I found a program that works great with Zoya to teach basic concepts like colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. You can check out Preschool Prep HERE. I absolutely love these videos and books and have made some flashcards to go along with them for Zoya. We are moving from colors onto numbers. The only thing I didn't like about the colors program was that it didn't have the colors brown or pink. But otherwise the repetition of this program is exactly what Zoya needs in order to learn best. The videos are basically a screen with the color and then a "color puff" doing an activity and the narrator repeats the color name over and over and over in different tones. It seems boring to me, but Zoya just LOVES it and it has really helped her learn her colors! When Zoya was first watching this video, we'd sit with her and show her each color sign along with the color and word on the screen. I also made color flashcards to help her carry over the concept of color people to actual colors.

I'm posting a video of Zoya using an iPad app to practice colors from the same preschool prep company. They go along with the videos and Zoya just loves practicing her colors with this app. It also helps her to focus for longer periods of time. I know you're probably thinking, seriously your 2 1/2 year old has an iPad? Yes she does and it has already helped her in soooo many ways! There is a lot of research being done on children with special needs using the iPad to communicate and improve many skill areas.  We are trying out some augmentative communication apps to see which one works best with Zoya before we decide which one to buy. There are so many apps that are helping Zoya with speech, academic skills, attention and focus, and fine motor skills for sure! If you're still not convinced (or if you're using or want to use an iPad with your child) check out Babies with iPads.

In the video you can see Zoya is a little distracted :) She had already been practicing numbers and colors on the iPad for 20 minutes when I finally remembered to video tape her doing it. She cracked me up feeding the characters and Elmo her snack! You will see the one she gets wrong she hits the other two that are wrong before selecting the only one left (the right choice)...this is one thing I don't love about this app...she likes to see the other colors disappear so if I'm not right there she will intentionally pick the wrong color to watch it disappear. I wish they would just not do anything if you pick the wrong color.  It took a couple times of me just turning the iPad off and telling her all done because she wasn't listening to the directions...now she only picks the wrong one occasionally or if she is distracted or not paying attention. Using this program has really helped with her being able to say the color names as well because she hears them over and over and over....repetition is exactly what my girl needs! She can also name all the colors verbally or by signing when they're presented to her, although she is slightly less accurate, but doing pretty darn well!