What is Supported Literacy?

The term “literacy” is traditionally associated with “having the 3 R’s”- the ability to read, write and use arithmetic.

Supported Literacy is where children with physical, sensory or learning disabilities engage in written communication or literacy based tasks with the assistance of technology. Children may not have full phonic or word decoding skills. However they can communicate written messages when technology supports them with:

• Symbols- representing a word they want to communicate
• speech feedback on the written message they have just composed
• word prediction
• word banks of familiar words.

 



They may need hardware such as switch access, eye gaze, adapted keyboards or touch screen to use a computer effectively.

They may also need literacy software such as Clicker 7 or the Grid 3 to help them build written messages.

Can all children achieve some level of functional literacy with the help of assistive technology?

No- However the majority of children can engage in supported literacy tasks as long as they have:

1)   A reliable system of computer access- e.g. eye gaze, touch screen, switch access or adapted keyboard.

2)   The ability to understand that a symbol can represent a written word.

3)   A level of language development that allows them to want to communicate a message in written form.

Is there a recommended approach to supported literacy development that will help my child?

Working with your child’s teacher and Speech and Language Therapist on promoting the use of symbols for communication and word recognition is a great first step.

This “symbolisation towards literacy” approach has long term benefits in achieving your child’s full potential in supported literacy development.

Introducing Clicker 7 in the classroom can help establish the building blocks to supported written communication in the future. There are many free resources on learning grids.com that can be downloaded to use with Clicker 7.

Other skills to develop to allow your child use programmes such as clicker 7 and the Grid 3 include:

1:  Understanding that a symbol can represent a whole word.                       

2:  Understanding that print represents a message 

3.  Developing initial sound awareness- which will allow for word prediction use                               

4:  Language skills-(i.e. Narrative skills the ability to narrate a story or message.)

What types of supported literacy tasks could a school aged child be able to complete with the use of assistive technology?  

In Sandymount School using assistive technology such as appropriate computer hardware and Clicker 7 software:

Students have written:

• about likes and dislikes using a printed sentence starter and pictures of foods they like and dislike.
• about school themes such as seasons and zoo animals using grids that have pictures to support whole word selection. 
• birthday and Christmas cards using familiar family names and pre-set greetings.

This year we are hoping that some of our older students will start using the Grid 3 to compose and send emails. So the possibilities are endless with the support of assistive technology, teachers, the therapy team along with enthusiastic students and families!