How To Teach Colors To Your Child With Down Syndrome
Helping a toddler with Down Syndrome learn colors is not that different from teaching any other toddler. What we did with Max, our son born with Down Syndrome, was very similar to what we did with our other two children.
Hey Mama Bears, full disclosure here. There are affiliate links in this post so if you click on the link and buy the product I will earn a small commission. Now that we’re clear on that let’s get back to rocking life with special needs!
Children with Down Syndrome are visual learners and we definitely keep that in mind when teaching Max. We also find repetition to be key as it does take children with Down Syndrome longer to learn something new because of how their brains work.
Dr. David Stein does a fantastic job in his book Supporting Positive Behavior in Children and Teens with Down Syndrome explaining key brain differences in our kids with DS.
The hippocampus and temporal lobe are both very important for learning and retaining new information. When a typically developing child learns something new their brain processes the new info and then encodes it by transferring it to their longer term memory. After this, the brain consolidates the information or stores it permanently.
Dr. Stein tells us In children with Down Syndrome, their hippocampus and temporal lobe act differently with the biggest difference being new information isn’t transferred into long term memory as easily or as consistently.
Therefore it takes children with Down Syndrome longer to learn something new AND a lot of repetition. It’s just the way their brain works. So when teaching your child with Down Syndrome keep these things in mind…
Tips For Teaching Your Child With Down Syndrome
They are visual learners
Repetition helps them learn
It does take them longer to learn but they WILL learn
Keep their interests in mind when teaching. For example, if your child loves farm animals, use farm animals to help your child learn their colors.
Most children are able to start recognizing colors around 18 months and by age 3 most children can name at least one color. Knowing our children with special needs take a little longer to learn, I started working with Max between 15 and 18 months.
Now remember Mama Bear, your family and your child with special needs are unique. Some of these things may work and some may not. You are the expert on your child and your family so take away what will work for you and don’t worry about the rest!
Teaching Colors To Your Child With Down Syndrome: Introduce Colors
The first thing we did was start introducing colors into Max’s world. We introduced colors in three main ways. We read books together, we looked at flash cards, and through our day to day communication.
Let me talk about each of these a little more.
Introducing Colors: Best Books For Teaching Colors To Your Child With Down Syndrome
I sought out any children’s book that talked about colors. One of my absolute favorites was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See by Eric Carle. I read this book so much I basically had it memorized. We read it EVERY NIGHT for months upon months.
I used funny voices when I read it to make it super fun and as Max became older I would point to an animal and ask him what color it was.
We read books several times throughout the day. Before nap and before bed were the two times I made it a priority to read a book together.
I LOVED Kids Like Me...Learn Colors by Laura Ronay. It features kids with Down Syndrome which I thought was super cool as representation is SO important. Max loved it as well.
Here are a few other books to enjoy together while introducing colors to your child.
Introducing Colors: Best Flashcards For Teaching Colors To Your Child With Down Syndrome
We found these really great touch and feel color flashcards for Max. I couldn’t find the exact ones we used at the time, but I did find some that appear very similar.
Not only are these cards introducing colors to your toddler, but they also help with fine motor skills and are great for sensory feedback.
Max would work on isolating his pointer finger to feel the fluffy part of the flashcard and we would talk about what he was feeling. The cards we had introduced all sorts of sensory experiences. Some cards had soft things on them, some had rough, and one even had a sticky part!
I think the touch and feel flash cards held Max’s attention better than just a regular set of color flashcards. We did have a set of those as well and we did use them. Max was much less interested and we flew through them pretty quickly. With the touch and feel flash cards he really took time to look at each one, feel it, and say/sign the color.
If you have a set of regular color flashcards there are definitely things you can do to make it more fun.
Look at each flashcard with your toddler, review the color and then see if you can’t find something in the house that’s the same color. Or lay each one on the floor and hop to each color yelling out the name of the color as you hop to it. Toddlers love this!
Keep in mind, repetition is great to help our kids learn and flashcards are an easy way to build in that repetition. I would break out the flashcards whenever we had an extra 5 minutes.
Introducing Colors: Day to Day Conversation
When we were teaching Max colors I would point out the color of EVERYTHING.
First of all, talking to our kids is SUPER important, even if they are not at the point where they can reciprocate.
Remember, often their receptive abilities are ahead of their expressive abilities, meaning they can understand more than they can actually say. This is especially true of kids with Down Syndrome.
At dinner as I put food on Max’s plate I would say something like “Here are your green peas Max and now for the white mashed potatoes.”
I did this with everything!
As we went for walks I would point out and say the color of every flower we encountered, the green of the grass, the blue of the sky...everything. Some days I would talk so much my voice would be hoarse!
Teaching Colors To Your Child with Down Syndrome: Hands On Activities
Once we had introduced Max to colors via books, flashcards, and with our day to day conversations we moved on to hands-on activities. The bonus part of these activities is not only are you working on your toddler learning his or her colors, they are working on fine motor skills as well!
Hands On Activities To Learn Colors: Paint
Max loved fingerpainting. We would squirt yellow, red and blue onto a paper plate, strip Max down to his diaper and just let him have fun. Max would finger paint on paper, cardboard, whatever we had available. He loved it.
We introduced mixing colors to make other colors as well. He loved mixing blue and red to make purple or yellow and red to make orange. We made sure to say the name of the color A LOT!
These dot markers are also fabulous for hands on activities to learn colors!
Hand On Activities To Learn Colors: Crayons
It took awhile for Max to develop the tripod grasp needed to hold a pencil or crayon. We found these fabulous crayons that were perfect for the fisted grasp he had at this age.
We would pick one out, name the color, and then use it to scribble on the paper. Max loved to stack these crayons too. He would stack them and together we’d name the color of each crayon.
If your child’s fine motor skills are pretty good and you want to encourage the tripod grasp used to hold pencils and crayons then check out these triangular crayons. We moved onto these when Max was between 3 and 4 years old.
Hands On Activities To Learn Colors: Play Dough
Did anyone else get in trouble as a kid for eating play dough?
No, just me? Ok then moving on…
I’m going to be honest, when we bought a set of play dough for Max I was super excited because I absolutely adored playing with play dough as a kid.
We’d roll the play dough into balls and then flatten them out. We would create play dough snakes and cut them up into tiny bits. The entire time we were playing with play dough I would be identifying the color to Max again and again. When it was time to put the play dough away we would have to find the correct container for the play dough.
Teaching Colors To Your Child With Down Syndrome: Sorting and Matching Activities
We moved on to sorting and matching activities after having done hands-on activities for a few months. As we introduced a new thing we still did all of the other things.
So, we were still reading a ton of books about colors, looking at our flashcards, identifying colors as we did our day to day activities, and doing our hands-on activities. We simply added a new element with sorting and matching.
When looking for sorting and matching activities and toys for Max I saw these cute little teddy bears you could use. I avoided them though because I was afraid Max would scarf one down and choke. I chose to go with bigger stuff he would be less likely to shove into his mouth.
I see they have jumbo teddy bears to sort by color now so other Mama Bears must have had the same concern.
These are color sorting activities you can do with your child. I like these because they can be used for learning other things as well once your child learns their colors. For example, the jumbo bears above can be used to work on counting, identifying colors, sorting among other things.
If you don’t want to go out and buy stuff on Amazon, which I completely understand, you can always be super creative and thrifty and use stuff you have at home.
For example, paint cardboard boxes or shoe boxes red, yellow, blue, or whatever color you would like and then fill them with things you have laying around the house that are that color. Go through the box with your toddler taking out the items and then have your toddler sort all of the items back into the appropriate boxes. It may not be as pretty as the color sorting toys you can buy, but let’s face it...your toddler really doesn’t care!
Similarly, you could lay out pieces of different colored construction paper and have your child find items of those colors and place them on the appropriate piece of paper.
So there you have it Mama Bears, I’ve shared how we taught colors to our child born with DS.
I really enjoyed the toddler years and had so much fun helping Max learn his colors, shapes, letters, and numbers.
I feel those years kind of get a bad wrap. Yes, there are definitely some, ahem, challenges. I mean the term “terrible twos” wasn’t coined for nothing. Sometimes though I feel we are so eager to share our war stories from the toddler years we forget the magic and wonder of that age.
I remember the sheer joy in all of my children as they explored the world. The delight of a dandelion. The magic of a soap bubble. The sheer delight of a butterfly. At this age, they are just soaking it all up like eager little sponges. I love it!
If you enjoyed this post then check out
The Best Toys For Your Toddler With Down Syndrome
5 Toys To Help Your Toddler With Down Syndrome Improve Fine Motor Skills
Teaching Sign Language To Your Child With Down Syndrome
Mama Bear, I hope you found something that’s going to help you and your family rock this special life!
Dandelion Tribe Takeaway: To teach colors we first introduced them through books, touch and feel flashcards, and day to day conversation. We then moved on to hands-on activities that involved paint, crayons, and playdough. Finally, we solidified his knowledge through sorting and matching activities.
Mama Bear Share: What activities or toys are YOU using to teach your child colors?
