TECHNOLOGIES TO SUPPORT LITERACY LEARNING IN CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

David A. Koppenhaver and Karen A. Erickson

Center for Literacy and Disability Studies
PO Box 3888
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC 27710
Tel. (919) 684-3740 Fax (919) 681-5738

Web Posted on: December 8, 1997

Identifying and securing appropriate technologies represents a considerable challenge to families, professionals, and children with disabilities. Equally challenging, though often less obvious, are the difficulties involved in training a child how to use the technologies secured. Literacy activities represent one purposeful context in which children can learn to use technologies while simultaneously using technology to learn. This paper and presentation are intended as starting places to facilitate more systematic exploration and understanding of not only how to engineer materials and the environment for children with disabilities but also to provide a clearer sense of why and when such engineering is most effectively employed.

We hope to address this goal in three ways:

• (1) by explaining a framework for thinking about literacy and technology in the education of children with disabilities;
• (2) by outlining the wide range of technologies (from homemade materials to the Internet) useful in promoting literacy and technology learning and use; and
• (3) by introducing strategies and resources useful in promoting literacy learning in children with disabilities.

Each objective is addressed with reference to elementary school-aged children who range from apparent inability to read or write to typical performance for their age. Copies of the presentation handout which details more specific applications, adaptations, and strategies than the general issues and questions presented below may be requested from the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies (literacy@acpub.duke, address above).

LITERACY, TECHNOLOGY, AND CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES

Technology is defined not only as the materials but also the systematic or scientific methods used to achieve an objective (in this case we seek enhanced communication, learning, and independence).

In order to implement effective literacy and technology programs for children with disabilities, parents and practitioners must consider both learning and use issues. Historically, schools have done far better with instruction in than use of literacy. Numerous studies document the near-absence of self-selected reading or writing by adults after they leave school. We believe that the principal reasons for this state of affairs are:

• (a) a lack of attention by instructional programs to motivating reading and writing through interesting and diverse activities;
• (b) a lack of opportunity and encouragement for students to engage in self-selected reading and writing to achieve personal purposes; and
• (c) a failure to model the wide applications of reading and writing in daily life.

Beyond careful consideration of both learning and use in addressing literacy and technology needs of children with disabilities, parents and practitioners must consider the individual and interactive influences of the reader, writer, text, technology, and communication context. Readers and writers possess individual talents, interests, difficulties, and histories. Likewise texts and technologies have specific characteristics and purposes. The interactions of reader/writer and text/technology characteristics occur in the comprehension and composition of text.

Our goal as parents and practitioners is to provide children with the supports, skills, strategies and problem- solving processes necessary to engage text with a minimum of difficulty and a maximum of attention to meaning. The principal means by which we provide these supports is through communicative interaction. We ask questions, comment on particular text characteristics, direct attention to particular details or strategies or processes, and respond in particular ways to children's spoken and unspoken questions and comments. Ultimately the patterns and details of these interactions are internalized by children as their understanding of the content, form, and use of text and technology, and their ongoing motivation to learn and use print in their daily lives within and beyond school.

TECHNOLOGIES FOR PROMOTING LITERACY

Rather than inventory specific technologies here, we would like to highlight three areas of particular importance to technology implementation that supports literacy learning and use.

First, an important barrier to be aware of in the selection and use of assistive technologies is the tendency to unintentionally set higher standards for the use of the technology than the original function it replaces or assists. For example, we do not withhold pencils, crayons, or markers from children until they can recognize every letter of the alphabet with 100 percent accuracy and print each letter clearly. However, we have observed in classrooms where children are not provided opportunity to write (or scribble-type) before they demonstrate keyboarding proficiency. Likewise children should not have to demonstrate competency in brainstorming and webbing in order to use a software program such as Inspiration, which supports development of such skills.

Second, both classroom and clinical research make clear that no technology implementation succeeds without an ongoing educational and technical assistance component. Instructional technology sits idle in school closets and school basements, or is employed as an expensive, electronic workbook, because teachers have not been trained in its basic operations or wider applications. Assistive technologies sit idle in labs and clinics or are grossly underused ("I know you nodded yes, but tell me on your communication device now.) for the same reasons. Fortunately, this educational and technical assistance is increasingly available via the Internet, distance education, and conferences such as this.

Finally, the Internet represents a powerful vehicle that teachers can no longer afford to ignore in promoting interactive technology and literacy learning and use. The Internet provides local access to tens of thousands of databases, library services, software repositories, electronic publications, photographs, and movie and sound clips. Internet users may correspond with known individuals (through e-mail) or groups of people who may be unknown but share similar interests (through listservs and newsgroups), engage in search and manipulation of data sets, and do so in topic areas of great personal interest. At the same time, the Web, the fastest growing and most dynamic part of the Internet is devoid of editing and publication standards. If you have the technical know-how, you can create a Web site, whether you have anything worth saying (and an ability to say it clearly) or not. As a consequence, users are forced to engage in a good deal of mining in order to find the gold nuggets.

We suggest four resources to assist initial exploration of potentially productive Web sites for literacy learning and use. The National Center to Improve Practice in Special Education (http://www.edc.org/FSC/NCIP) is perhaps the best information source for individuals just getting started in exploring the Internet. Information, video samples, and links to many other selected sites for parents and practitioners are presented in well-organized and clearly identified topical areas. A resource for more experienced Internet users is a newsletter entitled, "Classroom Connect" (http://198.51.81.98/webworld/CLC/htm). Previous issues have included articles explaining how schools with a single phone line use the Internet, on-line school newspapers, Internet curriculum ideas, and downloading Internet files to your computer. Third, a wonderful resource guide for experienced computer users is entitled, "Way of the Ferret: Finding Educational Resources on the Internet." Providing guidance in sifting through the intimidating array of Internet information and services, the guide is available from the International Society for Technology in Education (iste@oregon.uoregon.edu, tel. 503-346-4414). Finally, Chatback (drz@sjuvm.stjohns.edu, 718-990-6447) provides a variety of electronic mail options for students with disabilities to correspond with peers and retired adults around the world.

MATERIALS, STRATEGIES, RESOURCES

The principal means at our disposal in implementing effective and interactive literacy and technology learning and use is the individualized education plan (IEP). The key seems to be in writing IEP goals and objectives related to processes that children learn and apply across content areas and school activities instead of as isolated skills. So, for example, a typical literacy-related IEP goal often reads something like, "Anita will identify 10 sight words with 80 percent accuracy on four out of five school days." An objective with broader application might read, "Anita will participate in print-based activities in order to use loop tapes, light-tech communication displays, and her voice-output device to volunteer information or comment without prompting." Achievement criteria could include daily attempts to initiate communication.

Additionally, we apply a six-month rule in determining the specific course content to be taught. In essence, we ask, "What will the average child in this class be able to tell me about this activity six months from now?" This enables us to focus more specifically on the broader and more important concepts with children working at slower rates or requiring greater repetition or more varied instruction. We further ask what the goal is of any given learning activity in order to determine appropriate adaptations and technologies to support the learning. That is, our decision-making is driven by cognitive or linguistic goals not behavioral expectations. That is, it is unnecessary to adapt a multiple-choice worksheet on sequencing to multiple-choice eye-gaze format for a child with severe physical disabilities if instead the child could demonstrate understanding of sequence after reading a short text by putting three pictures in the order in which the events occur in the text.

There are a growing number of resources for persons wishing to enhance interactive literacy and technology learning and use in children with disabilities. Two manufacturers who have produced a wide variety of materials applicable to a wide variety of children with disabilities are Don Johnston Developmental Equipment (tel. 800-999-4660) and IntelliTools (tel. 800-899-6687). The National Center to Improve Practice offers a wide variety of informational and interactive learning opportunities via their web site, described briefly above in "Technologies for Promoting Literacy." Finally, the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies continues an active and ongoing research and educational focus in this area. An annual symposium on literacy and disabilities is held the last weekend in January; an annual summer course is offered in literacy and augmentative communication; and staff conduct mini-courses and workshops based on demand. Additional information, including a publications list, is available from the Center (address above).