Troncoso Method: what it is and how it is applied to boys and girls.

Let's see what this method of teaching reading and writing consists of.

Until relatively recently, the idea that people with Down syndrome and others with disorders linked to neurodevelopmental problems had was that it was very difficult for them to acquire everyday skills such as reading and writing.

Fortunately, this idea was eventually disproved with the advent of the Trinitarian method. the emergence of the Troncoso method, especially focused on this group.method, especially focused on this group. Let's see a little of its history, main objectives and characteristics.

What is the Troncoso method?

The Troncoso method is a methodology focused on the acquisition and improvement of reading and writing skills, especially aimed at people with Down syndrome..

Its main author is María Victoria Troncoso, and it places special emphasis on the potential of visual discrimination and memory skills, skills that tend to stand out in people with both Down syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

History

The Troncoso method method has its origins in the 1970's, being originally focused on children with Down syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder.It was originally focused on children with intellectual disabilities or with specific learning difficulties in reading. However, it would be during the 80's that this methodology would take more shape, being applied to students with Down syndrome who had been fortunate enough to have received, since birth, early intervention programs.

The appearance of this method was revolutionary, given that it helped to disprove some of the myths related to reading and writing skills and Down syndrome.. Prior to the development of the Troncoso method, the idea was widely held that people with chromosome 21 trisomy, along with anyone with an IQ of less than 60 or a mental age of less than 6 years, were unlikely to learn to read and, if they did, they would have no comprehension of what they read.

Based on this thinking, since there had been no effort to teach the Down's population to read and write, there had not been properly designed teaching programs focused on this group. Fortunately, the Troncoso method contributed to weaken these ideas, since a way was found to make people with Down syndrome literate.

The current situation is quite different. We have gone from having practically the entire population with Down syndrome illiterate to having nearly 80% who can read more or less comprehensively..

Fundamental approach.

Before understanding in depth what the fundamental approach of the Troncoso method is, it is necessary to highlight what reading and writing is.

In essence, reading consists of accessing a written message, decoding the sounds represented in the symbols we put on paper and understanding both the individual meaning of the words and the idea they convey together in a sentence, without the need to pronounce the words orally. On the other hand, writing involves expressing a message in written form, transforming ideas and concepts into something represented graphically and using a certain code.

Although the two processes are closely related, writing and reading involve different actions, but together they imply understanding a message in written form.but together they imply understanding and recreating meanings through a written code.

Understanding all this is very important when talking about people with Down syndrome. These people present physical, psychological and evolutionary characteristics and learning pace different from those of people without intellectual disabilities. It is essential to take this into account when teaching reading and writing, since we will not start from the same point as with students without the syndrome.

Troncoso found that a fundamental aspect in the acquisition of reading and writing skills in children with the syndrome was having received early intervention. In fact, based on this they put forward the idea that these children could be taught to read and write before they reached school age and, thus, help them to integrate into the community. and, thus, help them to integrate into school more easily.

Objectives

The objectives of the method are focused on achieving that the students, in particular those with Down syndrome, can acquire a reading and writing ability good enough to be able to have an independent life, being able to manage in a functional and practical way with their social and cultural environment.

The following objectives follow the same order, going from the most basic to more socially extrapolated levels..

Reading

The main objectives of the method focused on reading competence are, from less complex to more complex:

• Simple everyday actions: reading posters, menus, neighborhood notices....
• To be able to read in their leisure time: to understand video game dialogues, to consult the billboard, to read current news...
• Provide them with the reading level to be able to study on their own, extracting the fundamental ideas from academic documents.
• Enjoy higher literature: poetry, classics, beautiful forms of literature....
• Be critical of what they read, relate, contrast and compare the information they receive from the medium.

Writing

In terms of the objectives to be achieved during the development of reading skills we have the following, ordered from less to more complex:

• To be able to write their first name, last name and sign.
• Writing small lists: family names, shopping list....
• Writing small dictations.
• Write letters or short summaries of their readings, movies, experiences...
• Writing essays, writing short essays, writing in the diary...

As surprising as the final objectives to be achieved in reading and writing may seem, the truth is that a significant percentage of the current population with Down syndrome has achieved them.

However, they can also be extrapolated to the rest of the population with Down syndrome. they can also be extrapolated to the rest of children without intellectual disabilities.The fact that the method has been shown to be effective for a group that until recently was considered non-literate is quite remarkable.

Characteristics and application of the method

During the application of the method, the priority and fundamental is that the student understands what he/she reads, that he/she acquires fluency and is motivated both during initiation and learning and progress in the short, medium and long term. In order to to ensure that the individual gains fluency without losing motivation, the program is designed with the following in mindThe Troncoso method is applied on an individual and personal basis, taking into account the needs of each person.

The educator in question, whether teacher or family member, works with a single student in each session, adapting the activities according to how he/she sees the reading and writing process developing and providing the child with the necessary materials. The teacher chooses the objectives, selects the materials and executes the activities in a systematic and structured way. The teacher chooses the objectives, selects the materials and executes the activities in a systematic and structured way, although, depending on how he/she sees fit, he/she may allow some flexibility.

The Troncoso method, as it has been specially developed for people with intellectual disabilities, takes into account the need for each new learning process to be consolidated. To achieve this goal, the learning is repeated as many times as necessary so that the student has it so well established as to be able to transfer and generalize it to other contexts beyond the classroom. This means that the method ensures that the child is able to read and write outside of the session.

While it is not a disadvantage that the child has not yet begun to speak, it is appropriate that he or she is familiar with the idea that people, animals, things and actions have names.. To verify that this is the case, you can say the name of something (e.g., "ball") and, even if he does not repeat it, if he locates it and evokes it, it will be understood that he relates that word to the object in question.

This is a fundamental aspect, since the method consists of presenting a written word to the child and reading it to him/her several times during several sessions, also indicating what it refers to. The child, having been exposed to this visual information over and over again, will relate these symbols to an object, action or person and will consequently "read" the word from memory once he sees it. It is important that the written word is presented on something physical, such as a piece of wood or cardboard, accompanied by a drawing of what it represents.

In short, the method can be described by overcoming the following stages:

1. Association

The child learns to discriminate and match objects or pictures that are the same.. This is done following the following progression:

Object-object Object-picture Image-image Image with the word-image with the word Word-word

2. Selection

The child selects among several objects that meet the characteristics indicated.

3. Classification

The child establishes different categories for having a certain common quality, such as the same semantic field, the same utility, relation to place, size, origin, etc.such as the same semantic field, the same utility, relationship of place, size, origin...

4. Expression

The child describes an object in an expressive way, highlighting its properties and qualities or something that calls attention to it.

5. Generalization

The child exports what he/she has learned to different areas of life and with situations of varied characteristics.

The advantage of teaching reading by this method, both with children with and without intellectual disabilities, is that the information is presented in more than one way, facilitating learning. On the one hand, there is the fact that information is received visually (the word together with the image it represents) and aurally (the teacher reads the word). (the teacher reads the word). On the other hand, the fact that the word is written makes it remain longer in the individual's consciousness, so it is easier to leave it fixed in memory.

The words that are proposed to the student to read are those that he/she knows in his/her real life, such as "dad", "mom", "ball", "walk".... Once the student has associated the written word with its graphic representation, he/she will be able to form simple sentences using the cards on which they are written. In some cases the child is able to "read" orally what is written on these cards, although, in the case of Down syndrome, some articulation problems are to be expected.

One of the characteristics of the method that may be surprising, even counter-intuitive, is the fact that it starts with the student learning to read the word in its global sense and, later on, to break the word into syllables. That is, it is not that he reads each letter of the word to form the word as a whole (e.g., house = /ka-sa/ or /k-a-s-a/) but that, upon seeing the word, he immediately relates it to its concept. Thus fluency is prioritized over phonological awareness..

The daily time dedicated to teaching reading and writing is not very long, usually between 5 and 10 minutes a day, which can be easily incorporated into early care sessions. Gradually the time is increased, emphasizing phonological awareness with the intention that, in the future, he will be able to read words he has never seen.