AAC and Literacy

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AAC and Literacy

• Sandra Stewart
• Speech Pathologist
• Crippled Children's Assoc.
• May, 1999.

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• Reading, writing, speaking and listening develop
  concurrently and interrelatedly, rather than
  sequentially.
• (Koppenhaver et al., 1991 Maehr, 1991 Teale
  Sulzby, 1989)

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• There is consensus that literacy involves a
  complex integration of cultural, social and
  psychological processes, as well as linguistic
  processes, developing from birth onwards (rather
  than being a sequence of discrete learned
  cognitive subskills taught at school)
• Millar, S. Kerr, J. CALL Centre, 1995

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listening, speaking, reading, writing

• Children develop all four abilities concurrently
  and inter-relatedly when they
• see print in their environment
• observe literate models
• use print themselves for functional purposes
• and when they are read with.
• Their reading and writing behaviours support the
  development of listening and speaking and vice
  versa
• Steelman, Coleman Koppenhaver, 1992

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reading/writing

• The reading-writing connection occurs in all
  subjects in school and throughout ones lifetime
  in personal communications therefore, writing
  across the curriculum and writing for a purpose
  are essential.
• Steelman, Coleman Koppenhaver, 1992

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Important process

• For people who are unable to speak, literacy is
  an important key to unlocking communication
  barriers and improving quality of life.
• (ACN, Vol. 9, No. 4, 1996)
• Literacy skills are integral to a childs
  success in school, a young adults transition
  into the workforce and an adults ability to live
  freely and independently.
• (Yoder Koppenhaver, 1993 in (ACN, Vol. 9, No.
  4, 1996)

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Important process

• ..no symbol system, no matter how
  linguistically-based or how many thousands of
  items it can represent, can compare to the
  alphabet. With just a small set of letters (for
  example, 26 in English), any literate individual
  who is unable to speak can write anything, in any
  way she or he chooses.
• (ACN, Vol. 9, No. 4, 1996)

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• Approximately 70 of individuals with severe
  communication impairments are significantly
  behind their peers in literacy learning.
• Koppenhaver Yoder, 1992

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Challenging process

• limited research
• specialised assessment
• specialised intervention
• to help AAC users develop literacy skills we need
  to collaborate

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Barriers

• Several authors have identified numerous factors
  affecting the acquisition of literacy that are
  more to do with physical, social and
  psychological barriers in the environment than
  with an individual childs linguistic or
  cognitive factors.

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Identify literacy barriers in your classroom
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Barriers

• may not be positioned to see everyday models of
  literacy
• often reliant on others to initiate storybook
  sessions and to choose books for them.
• limited literacy opportunities
• fewer opportunities to participate actively in
  story reading sessions (for example, ask
  questions, comment, predict what will happen
  next, retell, act out)
• fewer opportunities for repeated readings
• limited access to writing materials
• reduced expectations relative to literacy
  learning

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Models of literacy

• Eg. seeing someone .
• look up a phone number in a book
• writing a note
• reading a book for pleasure
• reading notices/memos
• using a calendar/schedular
• reading a recipe book
• reading traffic signs

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Limited Opportunities

• Koppenhaver Yoder (1980) reported that in the
  classrooms of three adolescent boys with Cerebral
  Palsy, 30 - 40 of the instructional time
  allocated to literacy each day was devoted
  instead to non-literacy activities such as
  toileting, waiting, or booting up a computer.
• (In Beukelman and Mirenda, 1992, pg245)

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Repeated Readings

• A number of researchers have observed that
  children use repeated readings as an opportunity
  to help them become more dominant in the
  storybook interactions
• (Cazden, 1983 Samuels, 1985 Snow Ninio,
  1986 Teale, 1982)

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Expectations

• Adult users with congenital disabilities who
  learned to read as children have consistently
  identified the high expectations and
  encouragement of family members as having a major
  role in their success (Kopenhaver, Evans
  Yoder,1991)
• (In Beukelman and Mirenda, 1992)

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Identify literacy opportunities within your
classroom
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Creating a literate person

• There are three main ingredients needed to
  help create a literate person
• print in the environment
• (labels and models)
• access to writing and reading
• (play with books, draw, pretend to be
  readers writers)
• interactive storybook reading
• (read frequently, relate to experiences,
  contribute in some way)
• Steelman, Pierce Coleman Koppenhaver, 1992

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Strategies

• Use a vocabulary set derived from the target
  story throughout the day (that is, for multiple
  activities)
• Facilitate repeated readings
• Provide opportunities to see themselves as
  literate
• Provide opportunities to participate

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Opportunities to Participate

• access to vocabulary
• For example, turn the page, act it out
• to choose books
• access to turn pages independently
• access to single repeated lines

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Repetitive Line Hierarchy

• alone
• at the end
• at the beginning
• in the middle
• Musselwhite King -DeBaun,1997

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Task

• Determine a 12 word
• vocabulary that can be used
• generically to facilitate
• participation during story
• listening time

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Books for Learning

• selected for repeated readings
• focus for activities
• serve as the core of the theme
• development of literacy related extension
  activities
• communication/language learning goals
• (Musselwhite King-DeBaun, 1997)

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Books for Enjoyment

• enrich the curriculum
• help develop world knowledge
• support the current Book for Learning
• not offered for repeated readings unless
  requested by students
• (Musselwhite King-DeBaun, 1997)

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Adaptations Colour-coding books

• RED Repeated line book with symbol
• BLUE Symbols affixed
• GREEN Signs affixed
• YELLOW Sturdy books
• WHITE Programmed into device
• Musselwhite King DeBaun, 1997

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Adaptations-Independent book listening

• taped books
• books on video, slides or filmstrip/audiotape
  projectors
• via AAC device
• colour coded pages (symbols not required)
• shrunk pages
• step scan
• Liberator notebooks and macros and
• minserts to create novel stories
• computerised books (paired use - one AAC user
  with single message to turn the page and more
  able bodied student operating the mouse)

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Assessments

• Contextual Factors
• environmental expectations
• opportunities for literacy learning
• quality and quantity of literacy experiences
• Literacy Skills
• criteria based measurement tools
• standardised tests
• observations
• adapted materials for AAC users
• Tools
• materials/devices/software/equipment enabling AAC
  users to read and write
• (ACN, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1996)

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summary

• Literacy doesnt just happen, it is cultivated
  over time
• Literacy learning cannot be allotted to one hour
  per day within the school curriculum nor
  delegated to only the classroom teacher, reading
  teacher, special educator or speech pathologist
  it is a team effort, to be accomplished
  throughout the day, at school and at home.
• Steelman, Coleman Koppenhaver, 1992

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Software
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References

• Beukelman, D. Mirenda, P.
• Blackstone, S. Augmentative Communication News.
  Vol. 9, No.3., Monterey,1996
• Blackstone, S. Augmentative Communication News.
  Vol. 9, No. 4., Monterey,1996
• Koppenhaver, D. Yoder, D. Literacy issues in
  persons with severe speech and physical
  impairments. In R. Gaylord-Ross (Ed.), Issues and
  Research in Special Education, vol. 2 in Minspeak
  Conference Proceedings, 1992.
• Millar,S. Kerr, J. Augmentative Communication
  and Literacy The Sail Kit Approach. CALL Centre,
  University of Edinburgh, AGOSCI News, 1995
  (originally published in Widening the Perspective
  ISBN 1898942 07 1.
• Musslewhite,C. King DeBaun. Emergent Literacy
  Success Merging Technology and Whole Language
  for Students with Disabilities. Creative
  Communicating Southeast Augmentative
  Communication Conference Publication Clinician
  Series, Birmingham, 1997.
• Steelman, J., Pierce Coleman, P., Koppenhaver,
  D. Minspeak A Tool for Developing Literacy. The
  Carolina Literacy Center, University of North
  Carolina, Minspeak Conference Proceedings, 1992.

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Resources

• Center for Literacy and Disability Studies.
  literacy_at_acpub.duke.edu
• The Literacy Project, CALL Centre, University of
  Edinburgh, 4 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW.
• Glennen, S. DeCoste, D. Handbook of
  Augmentative and Alternative Communication,
  Singular Publishing Group Inc., San Dieago. 1997.
  (Chapter 8 The Role of Literacy in AAC)
• Kelly, J. Friend, T. Hands-on Reading,
  Mayer-Johnson Co., Solana Beach, 1995