ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a rather unusual reading project involving mentally handicapped children born with Down's Syndrome and their parents. The work described is unusual in two ways. First, because very young mentally handicapped children are being taught to read by their parents and, second, because reading skills are being used to help their language development. The teacher and parent used the materials of the Portage programme for early education as a basis for a comprehensive remedial programme for each individual child. The language development of the reading children suggests that the language has benefited from the reading. In order to teach a preschool age sample and in order to ensure that the children benefited from involvement in the research, working with parents at home and fitting the reading work into a comprehensive early education programme seemed the best way to proceed.
