Research and studies that have been conducted for the Early Literacy Skills Builder by the Attainment Company (Browder, Gibbs, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Courtade, & Lee, in press) prove that this literacy program is effective in teaching students with moderate and severe disabilities. The teaching strategies used in this literacy program are based on scientifically based reading research. The purpose of this literature review is to familiarize myself and other educators with the effectiveness of this program. The Early Literacy Skills Builder is for elementary-aged students with moderate and severe cognitive disabilities who have not acquired print and phonemic awareness. In the Early Literacy Skills Builder (ELSB) all responses have been developed for either verbal responding or nonverbal responding. Nonverbal students may use assistive technology, pointing, or eye gazing to make target responses. Guidelines are offered for promoting active student participation in reading (e.g., saying a repeated story line) and understanding the story. Students who complete the ELSB are ready for instruction in a beginning reading …show more content…
These studies revealed that students with moderate to severe disabilities have the potential to benefit from phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. The ELSB curriculum supports these studies by providing phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. In addition, it provides an option for students who need to use augmentative communication, who do not have phonemic awareness skills and who may need more repetitions to learn. The ELSB can be used either with a small group of students or individually. Additionally, teacher scripts are provided so that teachers know how to word the introduction of each skill and to keep the lesson moving at a quick
With such high numbers of adolescents falling below basic in reading, illiteracy is a battle that must be fought head on. The largest dilemma with the struggle is the number of variations that cause adolescents to become reluctant, unmotivated or struggling readers. Fortunately, a large number of strategies exist to encourage and strengthen readers of all ages, proving that adolescence is not a time to give up on faltering students. Rather, it is a time to evaluate and intervene in an effort to turn a reluctant reader into an avid one (or near enough). Ultimately, educators must learn to properly assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses (Curtis, 2009) and pair them with the proper intervention techniques. If one method does not work, countless others exist to take its place.
They have begun to develop sound-symbol understanding to speak the written words (Reading map of development, 2013), this is demonstrated by their ability to point at the word they are reading. The child is beginning to understand the book and its meaning, however fluency is not yet developed and several semantic mistakes were made. They display a good understanding of a graphonic cue and can do this mostly without prompt from the parent. Visual/pictorial cue can be achieved with prompt from the parent, the child is beginning to gain an understanding of how the pictures can match the text and this with more prompting should become an automatic cue. Vocabulary is still limited however it is expanding through their continued reading (Reading map of development, 2013). They know and understand that books are read from left to right and top to bottom. They also know how to ask for assistance when they get stuck on difficult
At Clarke I currently teach in a self contained classroom of four year old children that are deaf and hard of hearing who are learning to listen and speak. I assist under the direction of the classroom teacher in planning, preparing and executing lessons in a listening and spoken language approach. I have the opportunity to record, transcribe and analyze language samples on a daily basis. In addition, I facilitate the child's communication in the classroom and ensure carryover of activities between the classroom and individual speech therapy sessions. Every week I contribute and participate in meetings with the educational team to discuss each child's progress using Cottage Acquisition Scales of Speech, Language and Listening (CASSLLS).
Preventing reading difficulties needs to be caught and identified in the earliest stages of a child’s development. ‘Research over the last two decades has demonstrated that most reading difficulties can be corrected,” (Kilpatrick 2011) According to the research it seems that reading difficulties can be diagnosed and a plan of intervention established early in a child’s education. The teaching establishment just needs to realize this and come to grips with a plan and practice to implement. According to a study by Vellutino, (1996) he conducted a study in which first grade students had an intensive intervention program and the results turned out to be very good about 68% benefited from the intervention and continued to do so a year after. One of the inventions focuses on site recognition where students can recognize a pool of words instantly. This was further explained in an article by Linnea Ehri (Learning to read words: Theory, Findings, and Issues). Here there was research done because educators where looking for evidence to make decisions on reading instructions for their students. Ehri conducted studie...
There is no doubt our educational system is more complex than ever before. There is much to consider when looking at the balance between theories, proven methods, and the reasons why we chose to invest such time into our children’s education. In this paper I will touch on these theories, methods and the importance of the education.
In this time, it has become highly regarded by many teachers and administrators. The program uses a site word approach to teach emergent reading skills. The program uses a carefully sequenced, highly repetitive word recognition method combined with errorless learning. This approach eliminates incorrect responses and helps students view themselves as readers. The Edmark Reading Program ensures success to students of all ages who have not yet mastered beginning reading. This program is recommended for students with developmental disabilities or Autism, students with learning disabilities, Title 1 students, ESL students, preschool and kindergarten students who lack vocabulary development and non-readers who struggle with phonics. The programs
Schwarz, R., & Burt, M. ESL Instruction for Learning Disabled Adults. ERIC Digest. Washington, DC: National Center for ESL Literacy Education. (EDRS No. ED 379 966) (1995)
The first article, Improving Fluency in At-Risk Readers and Students with Learning Disabilities by Allinder, R., Dunse, L., Brunken, C., and Obermiller-Krolikowski, H. Allinder et. al. described fluency, what it is and how being a fluent reader is such an important skill to have because non-fluent readers use the majority of their brains decoding words, which prevents them from comprehending anything they just read. This article included information that being a fluent reader is necessary to comprehend what is read, but also that being able to comprehend what you read will increase the reader’s fluency (pg. 49). I cho...
According to McArthur, Konold, Glutting and Alamprese (2010), many adults in the United States have difficulties with basic literacy. A solution to this situation has been the founding of adult basic education (ABE) programs by the U.S Department of Education which helps and serves more than 2 million adults annually (U.S Department of Education, Division of Adult Education and Literacy, 2002, 2006). Mellard and Patterson (2008) found that ABE students differ in skill from zero or minimal reading skills to reading simple stories, books and descriptions on familiar subjects so new vocabulary can be determined by context. According to Mellard and Pattersen (2008) ABE literacy program is divided in to four levels which range from “beginners” to “high intermediate”. Scaffolding theory provides a promising method of providing support to students with learning challenges, e.g. dyslexia and short term memory deficit. As stated by Larkin (2001) the main purpose of scaffolding is to support students and slowly reduce help until they are able to apply the new skills and strategies independently. Students receive support to complete particular task and eventually demonstrate task mastery.
Talks about how the earlier reading disabilities are detected the better. With proper encouragement and tools students will have more motivation for reading throughout their lives.
Santa Barbara, CA: Learning Works, 1996. Print. The. Girod, Christina M. Learning Disabilities. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2001. Print.
Communication is very crucial in life, especially in education. Whether it be delivering a message or receiving information, without the ability to communicate learning can be extremely difficult. Students with speech and language disorders may have “trouble producing speech sounds, using spoken language to communicate, or understanding what other people say” (Turkington, p10, 2003) Each of these problems can create major setbacks in the classroom. Articulation, expression and reception are all essential components for communication. If a student has an issue with articulation, they most likely then have difficulty speaking clearly and at a normal rate (Turkington, 2003). When they produce words, they may omit, substitute, or even distort sounds, hindering their ability to talk. Students who lack in ways of expression have problems explaining what they are thinking and feeling because they do not understand certain parts of language. As with all types of learning disabilities, the severity can range. Two extreme cases of expression disorders are dysphasia and aphasia, in which there is partial to no communication at all (Greene, 435, 2002). Individuals can also have a receptive disorder, in which they do not fully comprehend and understand information that is being given to them. They can experience problems making sense of things. “Children may hear or see a word but not be able to understand its meaning” (National Institutes of Health, 1993, p1). Whether children have difficulty articulating speech, expressing words, receiving information, or a combination of the three, there is no doubt that the tasks given to them in school cause frustration. These children experience anxiety when...
These skills are an important core separating normal and disabled readers. According to Hill (2006, p.134), phonemic awareness is a skill that focus’ on the small units of sound that affect meaning in words. For example, the following phoneme has three syllables, /c/, /a/ and /n/. These letters make three different small units of sound that can impact the meaning of words. Seely Flint, Kitson and Lowe (2014, p. 191), note that even the Australian Curriculum recognises the importance of phonemic awareness in the Foundation year, due to the ‘sound and knowledge’ sub-strand. This sub strand recognises syllables, rhymes and sound (phonemes) in spoken language. Rich discussions about topics of interest to children as well as putting attention to the sounds of language can help encourage phonemic awareness as well as improve students vocabulary and comprehension development. It is important to make awareness of phonemes engaging and interesting in preschool and in the early years so children can learn these skills early and become successful
Reading is an essential skill that needs to be addressed when dealing with students with disabilities. Reading is a skill that will be used for a student’s entire life. Therefore, it needs to be an important skill that is learned and used proficiently in order for a student to succeed in the real world. There are many techniques that educators can use to help improve a student’s reading comprehension. One of these skills that needs to be directly and explicitly taught is learning how to read fluently for comprehension. “To comprehend texts, the reader must be a fluent decoder and not a laborious, word-by-word reader” (Kameenui, 252). Comprehension can be difficult for students with learning disabilities because they tend to be the students that are reading below grade level. One strategy is to incorporate the student’s background knowledge into a lesson. This may require a bit of work, but it will help the students relate with the information being pres...
Picture yourself sitting in a classroom. The teacher calls on you to read the first paragraph of chapter one. You look at the text and suddenly start seeing the words floating around and you’re stuttering on each word not knowing what you are reading, while on looking peers laugh and giggle at your every mistake. You feel embarrassed, ashamed and angry that you cannot read like everyone else in your class. You are someone with dyslexia. About 10 percent of BC students in special education have a learning disability (that’s 17,603 kids), which include disabilities like Dysnomia , ADHD/ADD (Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder), Auditory processing disorder, and the most common, Dyslexia. What most of us do not know is that the government does not fund the schools that these kids are in, so they are stuck coping and trying to figure out how to learn with their learning disability without the help of others.