How Families can support early literacy
Presented on 21 February 2004
Factors in Supporting Literacy
by Brian Shannan
- Appropriate communication mode in place
- Should be child-led using their own experiences/knowledge
- Appropriate resources
- Level and pattern of support
- Effective collaboration home:shool:ToD:Speech and Language therapist
Factors in supporting literacy using Sign Language
- 90% + of all deaf children are born into hearing families
- sign language may not be the first language of the home
- Lack of confidence/fluency in using sign language in the home
- In the Gregory et al (1995) study, most young people welcomed attempts by their paretns to sign as it gave recognition of their deafness
- Spencer (1993) suggests that signing competence improved if more than one member of the family were involved
Overcoming these barriers
- The need for a standard software package available throughout the service
- The software required to be compatible with digital video/photography
- The software also needed to allow auditory input and output
- Easy to use by staff/parents/children
- Could be used by children using different communication approaches
- Have a significant visual element.