One of my student's, Anna, is 6 years old and has Down Syndrome. She has been in my classroom since March 2011. Anna had absolutely no letter or sound recognition at all. On day one I introduced the alphabet with the Zoo-phonics® method. Some of the kids really went to town on it while others seemed to not be paying attention or giving it any effort. (Anna being in the latter part of the group) Well, on the 7th day of school Anna came up to me at my desk and opened her arms and started doing the motion for Allie Alligator and said /a, a, a/ with a big smile on her face. I said, “What does Bubba Bear say?” and she proceeded to do the motion with a /b, b, b/. I was flabbergasted! We continued on through the entire alphabet and that little hotdog knew 14 of the 26 letter sounds after only 6 days of school and Zoo-phonics®! I had tears in my eyes!!!!
