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Teaching Nonverbal Children to Read

The project entitled "Children Who Cannot Speak Learning to Read and Write: Language and Literacy in Children with Multiple Disabilities" is a longitudinal study, which began in January 1992 and will continue through January 1995. Its purpose is to explore the relationships between literacy and language development in nonverbal children, using as its subjects six children with visual and multiple disabilities. The study will investigate the process of learning to read in the absence oforal language, the effects of facilitation and augmentation, and the role of literacy in language development. The research is being conducted in the context of an active teaching program designed for each subject. The teaching uses facilitated and augmentative communication, such as communications boards and the Morse Code; other communication aids used are the Fishburne alphabet, interactive books made with tactile objects, children's books supplemented with personalized stories, and alphabet books. Large print, magnification devices, expanded keyboards, computer programs with speech output, page turners, and tactile story boards are also used. The preliminary results show that nonspeaking children have far more understanding of language than was expected. Some of the findings are that rich literacy experiences seem to provide a framework for learning to read and write and that rhymed verse facilitates sound-symbol associations and spelling. A major finding is that facilitated communication (support of the arm or hand while a child is writing or feeling magnetic letters) enables children to demonstrate their ability to write. All but one child has shown improvement in visual attention since the project began. As a result of the project, a reading and writing program is being developed for children with visual and multiple disabilities.