Literacy learning and aided communication

• Reading and writing are among the most important acquired skills in our society, permitting us to share information irrespective of distance and time. We need reading and writing abilities in order to take an active part in society, to get information, to keep up to date with new technology, for communicative, educational, and vocational purposes and for leisure activities. Acquisition of literacy skills is thus one of the major milestones in a child’s development. With the ability to read, the child gets access to a whole new world of experiences outside of the here and now, of imaginative worlds, of other persons’ thoughts. In the case of persons who use aided communication, writing could be an excellent way of gaining access to the potentially unlimited vocabulary of the spoken language of their community. However, personal accounts of those who use aided communication, their teachers and parents, in addition to research results, have revealed that many children and adults who use aided communication have great difficulties in this area and that there is an inconsistency between the intellectual level and the reading and spelling abilities (e.g., Dahlgren-Sandberg, 2001, 2006; Lund & Light, 2006; Smith, 2001; Smith, Dahlgren-Sandberg, & Larsson, 2009). Thus, acquisition of literacy skills seems to be a specific problem for individuals who use aided communication.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)