Enhancing the Literacy Experience for Students who are Deafblind

1. Enhancing the Literacy Experience for Students who are Deafblind Presenter: Deirdre Leech, M.Ed. Perkins School for the Blind Deafblind Program

2. Overview • Literacy challenges for students with Deafblindness and Multiple Disabilities • Ideas on how to encourage other teachers of Deafblind students to incorporate literacy into the school day • Several ways to adapt books for all types of learners

3. What is literacy? Old definition: “ability to read and write”

4. New definition: “Proficiency in understanding and using written as well as spoken language as a reader, writer, speaker, and listener. Literacy is an integrated process which develops gradually from birth and is built upon learning from broad experiences, linking language with the development of concepts, and providing exposure to the written word in a variety of meaningful contexts” (Wright, 1997).

5. Goals of Reading & Writing • Reading: for the reader to obtain meaning from text and apply it to the world and oneself. • Writing: to communicate an individual’s understanding of the world and themself through written text. (Koppenhaver, 2000)

6. Challenges Children with Deafblindness have limited opportunities for incidental learning • Reduced exposure to literacy • Lack of early experiences • Read aloud to less • Lack of readily available materials • Motivation

7. Lack of Early Literacy Experiences • Child may not oversee parents and siblings reading newspapers, writing out grocery lists, and reading books • May not hear or process language in stories being read aloud • For medically fragile children, medical interventions often take precedence over other learning opportunities, including literacy

8. Lack of Early Literacy Experiences Delayed concept development due to: • visual impairments • hearing impairments • motor impairments • health issues • behavioral issues

9. Lack of Exposure to Stories Read Aloud • Limited opportunity for reading time • Limited access to appropriate print materials • Access to dual media books (Braille/Print/auditory/tactile) • Limited sign language capabilities to communicate the story • Incorporating individual communication strategies “Reading aloud regularly to a child from infancy is the most important factor in building a foundation for the enjoyment and success in reading”

10. Lack of Motivation • Child • See no value in books or reading • May only be motivated by music, sounds, flip-ups, tactile components, movement • Parents • May not get enough feedback or response from child • May think story time is not enjoyable for child • Teachers • Time consuming to make materials • Diversity of students in classroom

11. Motivating Books

12. What are some strategies to incorporate literacy throughout the school day and at home?

13. Modify the environment Exposure, exposure, exposure! • Display visual, tactile, and sign language alphabets • Label the environment • Use Bulletin boards • Thematic Unit vocabulary, display favorite books • Organize room • Accessibility to materials (height, distance) • Name symbols (labeling, attendance cards)

14. Modify the Environment

15. Encourage Book Handling Skills • Books have: • Top and bottom • Front and back • Title and Author • We read print/Braille from left to right, top to bottom • Explore books through touching and feeling

16. Have several options available • A typical classroom has many shelves of books for a child to choose from • Children who are Deafblind do not have this many choices available for many reasons • Don’t just go to the library, create your own personal library in classroom/home!

17. Reading Activities

18. Read aloud Reading aloud regularly to a child from infancy is the most important factor in building a foundation for the enjoyment and success in reading

19. Story box includes: Props related to the story Adapted book(s) appropriate for each student Switches Literacy Kit includes: Story box Communication boards Extension activities Worksheets Games Electronic activities Assessment Create Story Boxes & Literacy Kits

20. Story Boxes Curriculum books with materials Objects only Repetitive line picture book with objects and materials Story books with materials Concrete Abstract

21. Story Boxes and Literacy Kits

22. Story Boxes/Literacy Kits

23. Story Boxes/Literacy Kits

24. Supporting Activities Preview & Review Vocabulary • Book reports • Sentence starters • Questions • Curriculum activities • Expanded CORE curriculum

25. Supporting Activities Address the expanded CORE curriculum • Cooking recipe related to book • Community experience • Grocery shopping • Special events • Museums

26. Adapting Books

27. Student Considerations • Visual • Tactile • Physical • Cognitive • Lesson goals and objectives

28. Goals of the Lesson • Teaching reading skills (decoding) • Simplified language • Length of text on each page • Material includes familiar vocabulary • Content is interesting • Comprehension skills • Use more listening (attention) skills • Include picture and/or symbol support • Assessment activity

29. Adapting books • Modifications to the TEXT • Modifications to the PICTURES • Modifications to the BOOK

30. Modifications to the TEXT • Make text accessible by adding Braille • Make text accessible by replacing smaller print with enlarged print • Provide contrast • Simplify the content • If student is not reading print or Braille at the level of the text in the book • Support print with picture or tactile symbols

31. Modifications to the TEXT

32. Modifications to the PICTURE • Simplify the background • Make accessible for student with CVI • Highlight the main idea of the picture • Provide tactile enhancement to the picture

34. Modifications to the BOOK • Use cardboard to make pages thicker, easier to manipulate, and more durable • Add “page fluffers” • Rebind the book so it stays open more easily • Take pages out and put into protective sheets • Laminate pages • Tactile enhancements

36. Modifications to the BOOK • Books that are on tape or CD can be adapted with a switch so that a student can continue to read the story by activating the switch • Create an electronic version of the book • Tape, CD, MP3 • PPT or other software • Can be made accessible using a switch or touch-screen

38. Electronic Books • Audiobooks • On the computer • Include animations • Motivation • Adapted with appropriate pictures and text • Accessibility • Attention • Physical • Cognition

39. Writing Activities

40. Make your own books • Fun and engaging activity • Promotes language skills • Teaches books can be different: • Shape and size • have different parts (pages, cover, etc.) • may contain pictures and writing • Book skills • read left to right • Written by author (Swenson, 1999, p.27)

41. Make Concept Books • Create books that describe abstract ideas and objects such as: • Actions • Emotions • Colors • Shapes • Size • Spatial relationships

42. Write Experience Stories Together • Students participate in activities then write a story based on the experience • Stories incorporate real life experiences that may be fun and memorable • Experience stories can be written using objects, pictures, print or any combination • Experience stories can be reviewed at any time and brought back out as routine/experience is repeated

43. Write Social Stories Together • Definition • Teaching a skill • Stories incorporate real life experiences that may be routines that are stressful and require desensitization • Social stories can be reviewed at any time and brought back out as routine/experience is repeated • They evolve

44. Example Experience Story

45. Compose Journals/Home Books • Develop memory skills: activities or events that occurred earlier in the day are reviewed and documented • Writing may take form of objects, pictures, line drawings, print, or voice output devices • Take child’s communication mode/level into consideration

46. Write letters together • Writing letters is a motivating activity to encourage and practice many literacy skills. • Sentence structure, Braille, vocabulary • Letters can take shape in many different formats including partial objects, pictures, print, Braille, or any combination of these.

47. Name Writing For work samples, vocational jobs, signing cards: • Stencils • Name stamps • Stickers • Student’s initials • Tactile name symbol

48. Name Writing

49. Universal Access • Write using symbols/text that the student understands • Objects, tactile symbols, Braille • Pictures, MJ symbols, drawings, text • Display “text” in an accessible format • Slant board, book, sequence boxes

50. Universal Access Incorporating Technology • Computer access • Reading • Writing • Communication devices • Switches