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Words! Words were easy to teach once phonics had been mastered. I just wrote a simple word, like "cat" or "dog" and ran my finger under each letter as I put the "sounds together" for Zachary. I remembered how Zachary's face totally lit up when he finally understood exactly "where words came from"... these symbols, letters bunched together or "words" that were everywhere in his world... he now understood. Another huge piece of the "language code" had been broken for him. He finally understood how it "all fit together". After the concept of words had been taught, I worked with a few flash card sets simply to reinforce reading ability. I found at first I greatly underestimated Zachary's potential in terms of reading. I, like all parents, started out with words like cat, dog, etc. I soon realized that Zachary was capable of much, much bigger words. That realization came to me when I awoke one morning to the sound of Zachary reading a label in my bedroom... a label he saw on the television... with perfect pronunciation, he read: "Panasonic". Again, it was just a matter of learning the concept... and once the "concept" was learned, he could easily generalize it to any word and moved forward quickly in terms of his ability to read. So, from then on, I knew "big words" were ok too. As long as Zachary knew the phonics, he could pretty well make out the word. I now used flash cards to teach new words. A company called Frank Schaffer Publications made the flashcard set I liked the most. You could buy various sets of flash cards (I had 3 sets) with the word on one side and the picture on the other. The sets I had were for 1) action words (product no. FS-3214), 2) picture words (product no. FS-3205), 3) blends and digraphs (product no. FS-3210). These were excellent products for the autistic child. I simply picked them up at a local school supply store. Any school supply store should be able to order these products as this is a fairly large school supply company and it was very well known. I looked for their website, but could not find it off hand. If someone did find it, please forward it to me via my website and I will provide it for all parents on my website. With these flash card sets, Zachary greatly rejoiced whenever he could make out a word and I would flip the card over to show him the picture. Seeing the picture when I flipped the card for the word he read acted as "the reinforcement" to go on. I did not have to use food or anything else to get him to read once he understood the concept that letters had sounds, and when sounds were put together, they made words... and words labeled things. That all important label provided what he so desperately needed to begin to cope with so much in his environment... and for Zachary, "breaking the code" provided plenty of reinforcement in and of itself! Zachary's face showed an immense fascination when I put the "letters" and "sounds" together to "make things".... "words". It had been like seeing a little light bulb turn on when he figured out that letters had sounds, and sounds, put together made words, and words provided labels for things... and these labels helped understand "everything else". I literally saw the amazement in his eyes and the joy in his face when he figured that out with the first word he read: C-A-T. That critical "connection" had once again been made! In no time at all, almost overnight, he had developed the ability to read! In looking back, I spent a great deal of time, just labeling things. A whole new world had opened up. I was so happy that Zachary was finally "talking"... or so it seemed! |
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