Connections

Reading is fundamental

Reading is fundamental. It’s a tried and true statement that’s been the cornerstone of literacy promotions for many years.

For children with profound disabilities, developing reading and literacy skills can be challenging…but not impossible say Anne Carlsen Center for Children Learning Center staff.

Every person, no matter what his or her cognitive level, can take part in the literacy process, says Learning Center Specialist Theresa Hanson. “It might be as simple as making the choice of what book to have read, to writing a story and presenting it to their class. When you can read or access books it becomes part of everyday life.”

Hanson and Assistive Technology Specialist Mark Coppin say its important to move reading and literacy activities from passive events, where a person is being read to, to being active participants.

“We use a spectrum of tools to do that,” said Coppin, “from low level picture choice cards to high tech computer programs.”

Examples, they say, include:

• Providing two books for a child to choose from
• Having a book on tape with the tape player connected to the child’s switch. The child then turns on the tape player to begin reading or:
• He or she uses a switch to turn the pages of the book on tape
• Using a mouse to turn pages of a computer book

Coppin has begun adapting the local newspaper for students at ACCC. Each morning he chooses the top headlines and converts them into simple headlines and self-reading stories using Intellitools computer software.

Classroom teachers that used to read the top news stories to their classes every day are now directly involving their students, who are using communication devices to choose the stories they want to read and hear.

Developing books on subjects of high interest to a child can help keep them interested. And with the availability and simplicity of desktop publishing programs, Coppin and Hanson say it’s easy for anyone to write!

Maybe it’s a story about their family, pets, a trip they took, or a topic they’re very interested in…anything can become a story.

Literacy also plays a part in social skill development. Coppin said creating social stories can assist in teaching appropriate social skills.

One child ACCC staff worked with enjoyed swimming but picked at her arms, often until they bled. And she couldn’t swim with sores on her arm. The girl’s speech therapist created a social story using simple words and pictures about a girl who quit picking at her arms and got to go swimming and was happy because she got to swim.

Hanson said for children who have behavior disorders, the design of regular books makes them easily destructible.

Parents and teachers should, she said, tear books apart and laminate the pages and rebind them with simple key rings in the corner. “This can often provide a useful alternative to not reading at all,” she said.

Laminating the pages makes them more durable. “Kids can grab onto them, turn pages and enjoy the visuals,” she said.

With laminating, other tactile things can be glued to the pages for children with sensory or vision impairments.

Hanson and Coppin say there are many on-line resources that can benefit parents searching for ways to wrap literacy activities into their children’s lives as well as educators who want to build more literacy activities into their students’ classroom days.