Hi,
I'm new to this forum, and I have a son, Jacob, who is 8 1/2 yrs old and has Down syndrome. Our family is Jewish. We are trying to work with our reformed synagogue to educate our son. This year, he is probably going to be entered in a 2nd grade "Family Class" for Sunday School. (He is a 3rd grader in public school in an inclusive setting with assistance.)

I am looking for help in identifying resources for teaching him the Hebrew alphabet (picture clues would be great!). Jacob is a sight word reader and is working towards becoming a phonetic reader. Hebrew is a very logical phonetic language (unlike English with its oodles of exceptions to every rule!). I was hoping some of you have been down the path to Bar/Bat Mitzvah already and could share some ideas on how to get our temple to help out. They do not have a special needs program and we need to work to design one.

Second grade "family class" means my husband or I would attend most of the Sunday school session with our son. (I did this with our daughter, now age 11, with a different teacher.) The teacher is a volunteer and not an educator by trade. He is friendly and willing to work with us, but he's looking to us to be the leaders in telling him what our son needs and what materials should be used/changed.

Any and all ideas welcome! I'd be happy to call you if you have advice to offer! Just write back and let me know!

Thanks so much!

Beth

PS I don't really know what the "Poll option" is as I'm new...can someone briefly explain?