According to Vaughn, Wanzek, Woodruff & Linan-Thompson,
2007 (cited in a chapter by Light & Mc Naughton,
2013 in the text , Augmentative and Alternative Communication by Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013) …
Typically developing children in Grades 1 through 3 should receive an estimated 90 minutes of literacy instruction per day.
Students at risk for
developing literacy should receive 130
to 150 minutes per day.
Students with Complex
Communication Needs understandably may
require even more given their slower response rates.
Knowing this to be the case, educators routinely try to
infuse literacy into other areas of school programming. Here are two examples of how a school is succeeding in their attempts to 'pump up' their literacy agenda.
Heightening the Literacy Agenda Through the Use of E-Books
While serving as an embedded AAC consultant in a school for children with physical disabilities, we embarked on an intensive motor access training program using digital books as the vehicle for training motor access. Thirteen children who had long struggled with achieving viable motor access that would enable them to use more sophisticated voice-output communication devices, were given 15 minutes of daily, intensive motor access training using digital books.
Each digital book had four clickable buttons (1.
go back, 2. read the page, 3. listen to sound and 4. turn the page), accessed
in a predetermined order. This format allowed us to work intensively on motor access skills using a universal
data sheet, i.e., a data sheet that worked for all access modes! (intellikeys keyboard, trackball, single switch, two switch scanning, head mouse technology, joystick, trackpad).
Hundreds of books were converted to this format, e.g., all the books in the Scott-Foresman reading
series (K through Gr 4), hundreds of popular picture story books, and the Clifford
the Dog series!
It is important to note that although the OTs paced the ‘master
plan for each student’ the responsibility for motor training was shared by OTs,
SLPs, personal aides, and the AAC consultant. Given the large number of
converted books, students were able to choose books in keeping with their interests. The daily data collected allowed the team to measure
student progress and make ‘informed decisions’ re: viable motor access.
In summary, this program provided this group of at risk students with daily
motor access training AND by extension, 15 minutes of exposure to their ‘bigger
picture’ literacy agenda.
For more information, don't hesitate to email me.
Heightening the Literacy Agenda Through the Use of ASbySs
In
similar fashion, Animated Step-by-Steps®
(ASbySs) strive to provide a forum for providing students with
opportunities to apply the key skills
they are acquiring through their direct literacy
instruction. ASbySs allow school staff to infuse more text into a broad
range of classroom routines (cooking projects, poems, songs for morning meeting, social games, arts & crafts projects, science projects, and
social studies projects). Some of this can be achieved in a large group format
using the interactive whiteboard or
in a smaller group at a learning center
using an iPad. When ASbySs are displayed on an Interactive Whiteboard, the pen tools
can be used to provide ‘teachable moments’ for applying the keys skills that students are
learning in their ongoing direct
literacy training program e.g., highlighting words also found on the
classroom’s word wall, segmenting words into syllables to facilitate
pronunciation, decoding specific target words or reinforcing phonological
skills ‘on the fly’.
In summary, ASbySs can informally extend / generalize the lessons
learned in a direct literacy program into authentic meaningful and highly
motivating literacy experiences throughout the school day.
…’til the
next post … (new posts every Monday)
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Email
me canadiangoosse@gmail.com
©2017 Carol
Goossens’, Ph.D.
Augmentative
Communication Consultant
Speech-Language
Pathologist
Special
Educator
