Literacy Instruction for Children with Complex Communication Needs

Day 1 – Literacy Instruction for Children who are Emergent Learners

All children are readers and writers including those with complex communication and learning needs. We need to pinpoint where they sit on the continuum of literacy learning, identify their strengths and their areas of need, and then work together to differentiate instruction and optimise their learning outcomes. This workshop will equip attendees with a toolbox of ideas and strategies for maximising communication and literacy learning for children with complex communication and learning needs.

The workshop will cover:

• The emergent literacy model
• Guiding principles for facilitating emergent literacy learning
• The importance of access to a comprehensive augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system for children with complex communication needs
• Specific strategies for creating print-rich environments, facilitating shared storybook reading interactions, providing emergent writing opportunities, and building important skill areas such as print concepts, phonological awareness, and alphabet knowledge
• Software, apps, and hardware available for supporting emergent literacy development
• Ideas for older students who are emergent learners

Day 2 – Literacy Instruction for Children who are Early Conventional Learners

This workshop will describe the rationale and principles underlying a comprehensive literacy approach and how it can be applied to children with complex communication and learning needs. This workshop will focus on early conventional literacy learning – so shifting focus from children who need to build their emergent literacy understandings and language skills (covered in Day 1) to a focus on children who can engage and benefit from more formal literacy instruction.

The workshop will cover:

• The Whole-to-Part Literacy Model (Cunningham, 1993)
• Guiding principles for facilitating conventional literacy learning
• Specific strategies  for supporting development in four key learning areas: comprehension strategies, word identification (decoding and sight words), self-selected reading, and writing
• Software, apps, and hardware available for supporting early conventional literacy development
• Ideas for older students who are early conventional learners