Let’s celebrate reading during National Reading Month!

Submitted by our Sister Playhouse, Quad Cities.

Sharing this wonderful Blog from our Sister Playhouse Quad Cities! Happy National Reading Month!

“At GiGi’s Playhouse, our one-on-one tutoring program is one of the many FREE educational programs we offer to help individuals with Down syndrome build confidence, independence, and lifelong learning skills. Through personalized literacy tutoring, participants strengthen reading, comprehension, communication, and memory skills, all of which play an important role in everyday life.

In honor of National Reading Month, we are shining a spotlight on our literacy tutoring program and one participant who has been a rockstar!

Literacy

Literacy is especially important for individuals with Down syndrome because reading and comprehension skills support communication, independence, and long-term cognitive health. Regular practice helps strengthen memory, attention, and problem-solving abilities, while also giving participants the confidence to apply their skills in real-world situations.

Today, we are excited to highlight Christy, one of our adult participants who is actively involved in many of our programs!

Christy has been a rockstar in literacy this session. She is reading like a champ and using context photo cues to decode new words. She also works hard on her homework every day—even completing it in the car! At each lesson, she proudly tells us she earned an A+ on her work.

With the help of her tutor Lauren, past tutors, and the constant encouragement of her family, Christy continues to grow her reading skills while gaining confidence and independence along the way.

Christy is proving that you’re never too old to keep learning and strengthening your literacy skills! 

We asked Lauren to share something she enjoys about working with Christy.

“My favorite thing is that Christy is SO PROUD of herself! She has been working on sight words, and I told her if she could read me the book we had been working on by herself the following week, she’d get a prize. The next week she came in, gave me a hug, sat down with a smile on her face and read the whole book to me!

She was smiling the whole time as I kept assuring her that she was reading it perfectly. Her mom told me she practiced frequently that week in prep for our next session. Her practice paid off, and I love this for her! And yes, she got a prize…a beloved Reese’s egg, one of her favorite things!”

Become A Tutor

The ability to read opens doors for individuals with Down syndrome in the workplace, schools, and the community, and YOU can help make that happen by becoming a tutor here at GiGi’s. The next tutoring session will take place this summer. Applications for volunteer tutors are now open! No experience is necessary. We provide the training needed and support you along the way!

Participants

Applications for individuals with Down syndrome ages 3+ for the Summer 2026 session will open on April 12, 2026.

Summer is our busiest tutoring session, but as always, we do our very best to match every participant who applies with a tutor. Priority is given to first-time applicants and individuals who have not participated in tutoring recently.

To increase the chances of being matched with at least one tutor, we encourage families to apply for literacy, math, and speech programming.

Just a reminder that ALL programs here at GiGi’s are offered at NO COST!

We can’t wait for another summer of learning, growth, and Best of All moments!

The Principles of our GiGi’s Literacy Tutoring Program are to:

• Teach using materials that are meaningful and relevant to the student to maximize interest.
• Teach with a multi-sensory approach to build confidence and reinforce learning.
• Teach students to practice, transfer, and generalize newly learned skills. 
• Teach students to comprehend and use information gained from reading to apply to their real-world experiences.”

Thank You, Quad Cities for submitting this Blog!