Supporting Literacy Learning for Non-Verbal Students

Most of our teaching methods for reading and writing rely on verbal behaviors or verbal responses from students. For example, when we listen to students read out loud, observing their reading behaviors is the teacher window on the skills that students bring to the task. Even though reading out loud and reading to oneself are different skills, we nevertheless rely heavily on one to establish the level of the other. When we try to determine student comprehension we typically ask students to talk about what they have read in ways that help us assess their level of understanding of what they read. In writing, teachers typically use extensive conversations, modeling, and interactive supports as methods to help students as they attempt to write their own messages. Our usual teaching methods are all heavily invested in verbal interaction with students. Using phonics as a source of information for decoding and understanding text assumes that if can use letter/sound correspondence information to call a word correctly, comprehension will follow. Our instruction begins with phonemic awareness where we ensure that students learn to distinguish the sounds of the language and proceeds to attaching these sounds to the letters that represent them when they encounter them in print. Students who are deaf are an exception to this method of teaching and learning. Graphic representation of letters and words are used exclusive of the associated sounds. Using sign language as their expressive mode involves using signs for words and concepts and a different syntax that are not an exact translation of the written text. Word by word decoding is not emphasized in this instruction. Instruction for non-verbal students has more in common with instruction for verbal students than for students who are deaf in that they share the auditory receptive skills. Teaching procedures that use these receptive skills but employ alternative modes of expression are key to instruction in reading and writing for non-verbal students. Absent verbal communication skills, alternative methods of expression for students and teaching procedures to monitor decoding and comprehension in reading and encoding and expression in writing are used. Nonverbal Students The inability to communicate is the primary source of behavior problems in non-verbal students. The lack of reading and writing skills in non-verbal students is a function of little or no direct teaching. With communication limited because of the lack of verbal behavior, other modes of communication become even more critical to these students. Many non-verbal students have an extensive receptive oral language vocabulary. This means that both phonics and comprehension can be accessed as sources of information. Our goal is to use this receptive language as the basis to develop both reading and writing skills using non-verbal expression behaviors. Remember that reading out loud is not the reading behavior; it is our window into the reading behavior. Procedures

Letters of the alphabet should be taught using alphabet charts and books that have both upper and lower case letters, illustrations of common objects, and the label of the objects in print. These illustrations can begin with the letter in the first position, b (boy, box) and progress to words with the letter in other positions (table). Integrate reading and writing by combining letter recognition with letter formation as both reinforcement and to monitor learning. The child points to the letter when called by the teacher and then writes the letter. Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Emphasis is given to hearing sounds in words with a direct connection to print. The teacher voices alternative sounds for vowels, vowel combinations, consonants, and consonant blends with the student directed to point to the correct letter or combination. Asking the student to clap as the teacher reads can assess recognition of syllables. Concepts About Print Direct instruction is provided in concepts about print such as directionality, one-to-one matching, return sweep, concept of first and last part of word, sentence, and story, locating know and unknown words, and comparing sources of information.

Modifying the Strategic Literacy Support Cycles in Reading and Writing: Combining the cycles for individualized instruction 1. Interactive Read Aloud You read, point to text, ask the student to follow the text with his eyes. Monitor by asking the student to point to a word or the illustration of that word. 2. Modeled Writing Teacher models writing of letters, words, or sentences. 3. Shared Reading Teacher reads, the student points to the text word by word. Again, monitor by asking the student to point to a word or the illustration of the word. 4. Interactive Writing Sharing the pen with the teacher, the student is asked to write the word(s) that they identified in the Shared Reading. 5. Guided Reading Ask the student to point to the text as they read. Tell the student to stop on words they don't know and look to you for support. Use both phonics and

comprehension as sources of information for vocabulary. Instruct the student to remember high frequency words. 6. Guided Writing With teacher support, the student is asked to write his own words about the text. Teacher observes and prompts at point of difficulty. 7. Independent Reading Ask the student to point to the text as they read. Monitor by asking the student to point to letters and words and or the word illustration for comprehension.

8. Independent Writing Independent Writing is assessed to monitor progress and design next steps in instruction. These steps can be repeated singly and in combination and both Independent Reading and Writing can be assessed to determine next stops for instruction.