Supporting Literacy for Students with

Developmental Disabilities

Literacy Development

2

Getting (Re)Connected

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Continuum of Literacy Instruction

Emergent Literacy

• Learning about print and sound

Early Literacy

• Learning to read

Conventional Literacy

• Reading to learn / comprehension

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Components of Reading

Code Related Reading Process: reader’s ability to understand the structure of print

Meaning Related Reading Process: refers to global understanding of printed words and sentences

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Learning to To Read

Code related reading process

Phonological awareness

Alphabet knowledge

Print concepts

Emergent writing

Meaning based reading process

Listening comprehension

Vocabulary

Grammatical understanding

Background knowledge

Text structures: narrative, informational

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Literacy Development

Emergent Literacy

Joint attention, interaction

turn taking, print concepts

Early Literacy

Literacy partner guiding reading

Written symbols have

meaning

Conventional Literacy

Independence when

interacting with text

Reading for different purposes

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Learning to readO Reading is complexO Supporting a student to learn to read means

working on multiple areasO Balanced Literacy: focus on interests with both code

related and meaning making skillsO Improvements in one area don’t cross over to the

other areas (only working on sight words or decoding will not improve comprehension skills)

O It doesn’t matter what age a student is at – it matters what stage of literacy development s/he is at!

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Instructional Challenges

O Differences in life experience and background knowledge

O Social communication differences

O Differences in cognitive processing and learning style

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Instructional ChallengesO Cognitive Processing

O Slow speed of information processing

O Limited short-term memoryO Narrower focus of general

knowledgeO Difficulties with languageO Poor attention skillsO Distracted by other stimuliO Difficulties with

generalization and problem solving

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At the classroom level① Print in the

environment

② Opportunities for reading and writing

O Adapted booksO Visual supportsO Balanced literacy

experiences

③ Interactive instructional strategies for book reading

④ Direct instruction

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At the individual level1. Knowledgeable

educators

2. Student has a means of communication / interaction

3. Repetition with variety

4. Cognitive engagement / active participation

5. Cognitive clarity

6. Personal connection with the curriculum

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At the community level

1. Provides / supports participation in employment,

post secondary, community

and living on own opportunities

2. Gives a means to express /

explore personal interests

3. Facilitates connections to

others

4. Offers access to technology

for personal and work related reasons