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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, wenevertheless rely heavily on one to establish the level of the other. When we try todetermine 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 interactivesupports 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 weensure 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 inprint.

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. Usingsign 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 ofexpression are key to instruction in reading and writing for non-verbal students. Absent

verbal communication skills, alternative methods of expression for students and teachingprocedures 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 verbalbehavior, other modes of communication become even more critical to these students.

Many non-verbal students have an extensive receptive oral language vocabulary. Thismeans 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 writingskills using non-verbal expression behaviors. Remember that reading out loud is not the

reading behavior; it is our window into the reading behavior.

Procedures

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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 objectsin 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. Theteacher 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-onematching, 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 thatword.

2. Modeled WritingTeacher models writing of letters, words, or sentences.

3. Shared Reading

Teacher reads, the student points to the text word by word. Again, monitor byasking the student to point to a word or the illustration of the word.

4. Interactive WritingSharing the pen with the teacher, the student is asked to write the word(s) thatthey 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

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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 ReadingAsk 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.