Language

Robin Pegg, MEd, COTA/L, ATP, Carolyn Mervis, PhD, Virtual Convention 10/8/2020

This session will focus on how to design instructional experiences to support optimal success for the school-age student with Williams syndrome. We will specifically address the following:

In general, students with Williams syndrome learn best with consistency, structured instructional routines, clear and realistic expectations, social stories, scripts and visual schedules, and technology. In particular, students with WS are often very effective users of computers and iPads/tablets. They also benefit from “chunking” of material into manageable parts, audio and dynamic visual supports, rhyme, rhythm and cadence, music and/or performing, finding materials that they have an emotional connection with, and specific praise. Above all, it is important to provide the material in a variety of ways. Adapting strategies to pre-teach, teach, and then re-teach, in order to enforce concepts, can be very helpful.

Children with Williams syndrome who have been taught reading used a systematic phonics approach both decode and comprehend significantly better than children who have been taught to use a whole word approach, Consideration of these patterns in the context of what is known about the reading development of children in the general population provides a strong foundation of facilitating the reading development of children with Williams syndrome.