I recently had the pleasure of attending the 3^rd annual University of Florida Summer Seminar on Literacy and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) sponsored by the University of Florida College of Education, The Center for Autism and Related Disabilities and the Florida Outreach Project for Children and Young Adults Who are Deaf-Blind.  The course was held at the University of Florida campus in Gainesville and taught by Karen Erickson and Sally Clendon from the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and David Koppenhaver of Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.

            The course was attended by about 30 individuals including parents of children with disabilities, special education teachers, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, and school administrators. The message of the week long course was clear: all children can learn and all children can benefit from literacy instruction. The manner of providing literacy instruction for all children, regardless of their perceived level of disability, must include direct instruction in both reading and writing, and it must occur on a daily basis. 

            Make no mistake, this was not a week of "all means all" rhetoric heavy on philosophical premise and short on "how-to". Quite the contrary; we rolled up our sleeves for learning and doing, and kept it up for five days, usually going from early morning until well into the evening. Karen, Dave and Sally kept us engaged, teaching us ways to assess and most importantly to teach students with the most significant disabilities how to read and produce written communication using a variety of alternative and augmentative communication devices and strategies. Confident in their determination to step away from the "readiness" model that often holds children with communication needs back, the presenters showed over and  over throughout the week that children with the most significant disabilities can and do respond to literacy instruction.  The key to success in teaching to all is to find what sparks the student's desire to learn and to match the instruction to that desire. Simple in theory, but so seldom embraced in the standards-based readiness model of education.

            This course offered not only an opportunity for learning strategies to teach reading to students who benefit from it the most but receive instruction in it the least, but it also rendered an opportunity to meet with others from around the world who devote their lives to teaching, living with and loving some of the most remarkable children in this world. It was a rare and rewarding experience to learn alongside so many diverse perspectives. This course will be offered again next summer and it is a unique opportunity to spend time learning from the best-of-the-best when it comes to leading the research and practice of teaching reading to students with communication disorders.

            For further information on this course and for resource information on teaching literacy to children with disabilities visit The Center for Literacy and Disabilities Studies, UNC  http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds/about.html

© 2005 ConnSENSE Bulletin