Innovative programs in special education Essay

Special education departments have introduced a variety of innovative programs for children with sensory impairment (deafness, hard of hearing, and blindness). There has been a good deal of success in opening access to regular school experiences to young people with sensory impairments and in educating their peers about the special concerns for children who are deaf and/or blind. There is a considerable body of evidence that innovative programs for teaching reading and spelling skills to children with disabilities should be both multi-sensory and phonic and that this type of teaching can benefit most children in any class at most stages. These are usually programs that are highly structured. They can be seen as essentially free-standing and can form a central element of the overall strategy for teaching children with disabilities. There are many such programs, often they have a slightly different focus, with different types of materials and strategies but they all include multi-sensory element and metacognitive aspects. The range of innovative programs for children with disabilities is impressive, and this work will provide some of the various types of programs and strategies that can be used in special education. Most innovative programs incorporate some or all of the following principles and approaches: multi-sensory; over-learning and automaticity; highly structured and usually phonically based; sequential and cumulative. Multi-sensory methods utilize all available senses simultaneously. This can be summed up in the phrase ‘hear it, say it, see it and write it’. These methods have been used for many years and have been further refined by Hornsby and Shear (1980) in phonic structured programs that incorporate multi-sensory techniques. Over-learning is deemed necessary for children with dyslexic difficulties. The short- and long-term memory difficulties experienced by dyslexic children mean that considerable reinforcement and repetition is necessary. The structured approaches evident in programs of work for children with disabilities usually provide a linear progression, thus enabling the learner to complete and master a particular skill in the reading or learning process before advancing to a subsequent skill. This implies that learning occurs in a linear developmental manner. Although there is evidence from learning theory to suggest this may be the case, there is still some doubt in the case of reading that mastery of the component subskills results in skilled reading. In reading, a number of cognitive skills such as memory and visual, auditory and oral skills interact. This interaction is the key feature; so, it is important that the skills are taught together and purposefully with the practice of reading as the focus. Sequential approaches are usually appropriate for children with dyslexia because it may be necessary for them to master subskills before moving to more advanced materials. Hence a sequential and cumulative approach may not only provide a structure to their learning but help to make learning more meaningful and effective as well. Programs based on the Orton-Gillingham approach have become a central focus for multi-sensory teaching (Hulme & Joshi 1998). The programs offer a structured, phonic-based approach that incorporates the total language experience and focuses on the letter sounds and the blending of these sounds into syllables and words. The approach rests heavily on the interaction of visual, auditory and kinesthetic aspects of language. Orton-Gillingham lessons always incorporate card drills, spelling and reading and usually include activities such as: card drills, word lists and phrases, oral reading selection, spelling of phonetic and non-phonetic words, handwriting, and composition. Once the child has mastered the letter name and sound, the program then advances to introduction of blending the letters and sounds. This begins with simple three-letter words and the child repeats the sounds until the word is spoken without pauses between the constituent sounds. The visual-kinesthetic and auditory-kinesthetic associations are formed by the pupil tracing, saying, copying and writing each word. Reading of text begins after the pupil has mastered the consonant-vowel-consonant words to a higher automatic level (i. e. , when the pupil can recognize and use these words). The initial reading material is taken from the program and contains words the pupil has learnt from the teacher’s manual. The program gives considerable attention to the learning of dictionary skills as well as development of written language from pictographs to ideographs and eventually to the alphabet. The program does appear to be more suited to a one-to-one situation, and it would be difficult to integrate the program within the school curriculum. As in many of the program derived from the Orton-Gillingham approach, the key principles of over-learning, automaticity and multi-sensory approaches are very apparent. In the USA, Morgan Dynamic Phonics have produced a series of phonic programs that focus on user-friendly approaches using the principles of Orton-Gillingham, which includes the use of humor and interaction (Hulme & Joshi 1998). The following programs are based on the Orton-Gillingham method: Alpha to Omega, The Bangor Dyslexia Teaching System, The Hickey Multisensory Language Course, Dyslexia: A Teaching Handbook, Units of Sound. Letterland, developed by Lyn Wendon, consists of many different elements. The materials are extremely useful for teaching reading, spelling and writing, and for developing and sustaining motivation. The programs are internationally renowned, as well over 50 per cent of all primary schools in England and Ireland rely on this program (Gersten, Schiller & Vaughn 2000). Letterland encompasses a number of teaching elements based on recognized and essential components of the teaching of reading. The major elements are: language, with an emphasis on listening, speaking and communicating; phonic skills; whole word recognition skills; sentence awareness; comprehension; reading and spelling connections; and preliminary skills in creative writing. The materials consist of teachers’ guides, wall-charts, code cards, flashcards, wordbooks, cassettes and song- books, photocopiable material, workbooks, games and resources, software, videos, and materials specifically designed for use at home. The program may also be seen as a preventative approach, since it is appropriate for early intervention and may also facilitate the reinforcement of important developmental concepts in learning, such as object constancy. The Letterland system essentially grew out of close observations of failing readers, and the materials reinforce the importance of a reading-for-meaning orientation to print (Gersten, Schiller & Vaughn 2000). Letterland focuses on letters and sounds, and by using pictograms encourages children to appreciate letter stages and sounds, thereby reinforcing both shape and sound of letters and words. Integrated within this, however, are the programs and exercises on whole-word recognition, reading for meaning, spelling and creative writing. Spelling is not presented as a series of rules, but instead through a story approach, focusing on the Letterland characters. Progress through the Letterland program is by a series of steps. These steps can provide the teacher with choice and flexibility, and the program can be implemented to the whole class, in small groups or individually. There are a number of aspects about Letterland that make it useful for some children with specific learning difficulties. These include the use of pictograms— which can be particularly beneficial to the learner with difficulties in phonological awareness and auditory skills. The use of the story approach to reading and spelling that encourages the processing of information using long-term memory is particularly beneficial to dyslexic children whose short-term memory is generally weak. The range of activities incorporating different approaches allows the learner to develop imagination and creativity in the use of letters and words. Other useful aspects include the focus on the context aspects of reading and the use of syntactic and semantic cues. Alpha to Omega is a phonetic, linguistic approach to the teaching of reading and can be used as a program or as resource material. It is highly structured and follows a logical pattern of steps that promote the acquisition of phonological and language skills. There is an emphasis on learning the 44 phonemes from which all English words are composed. These consist of the 17 vowel sounds and the 27 consonant sounds. There is also an emphasis on the acquisition of language structure, focusing on content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) and finite words (prepositions and participles). There is, therefore, an emphasis on using words in the context of a sentence. The program provides a highly structured format for the teaching of sentences and for grammatical structure. There are also three accompanying and very useful activity packs designed for different stages. These packs provide appropriate back-up exercises to reinforce the teaching program. There is also an extremely useful program of learning games—before Alpha—that can be used with children under five. These games are in a series of structured stages, are multi-sensory and aim to foster language development and other pre-reading skills such as visual and auditory perception and discrimination, fine-motor control, spatial relationships and knowledge of color, number and directions (Gersten, Schiller & Vaughn 2000). The Hickey Multisensory Language Course recognizes the importance of the need to learn sequentially the letters of the alphabet. The third edition of The Hickey Multisensory Language Coursewas now incorporates aspects of the National Literacy strategy and the requirements of the Literacy Hour. The dyslexic child, however, will usually have some difficulty in learning and remembering the names and sequence of the alphabetic letters as well as understanding that the letters represent speech sounds that make up words. The program is based on multi-sensory principles and the alphabet is introduced using wooden or plastic letters; the child can look at the letter, pick it up, feel it with eyes open or closed and say its sound. Therefore, the visual, auditory and tactile-kinesthetic channels of learning are all being utilized with a common goal. These programs involve games and the use of dictionaries to help the child become familiar with the order of the letters and the direction to go (e. g. , he needs to know that T comes before ‘K’), the letters in the first half of the alphabet and those letters in the second half. The alphabet can be further divided into sections, thus making it easier for the child to remember the section of the alphabet in which a letter appears, for example: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. The Hickey language course includes: activities related to sorting and matching the capital, lower case, printed and written forms of the letters; practicing sequencing skills with cut-out letters and shapes; and practicing positioning of each letter in the alphabet in relation to the other letters (this involves finding missing letters and going backwards and forwards in the alphabet). The course also indicates the importance of recognizing where the accent falls in a word, since this clearly affects the spelling and rhythm. Rhyming games can be developed to encourage the use of accent by placing it on different letters of the alphabet. This helps to train children’s hearing to recognize when a letter has an accent or is stressed in a word. The course includes reading and spelling packs that focus on securing a relationship between sounds and symbols. This process begins with single letters and progresses to consonant blends, vowel continuations and then to complex letter groupings. The reading packs consist of a set of cards; on one side, the lower case letter is displayed in bold with an upper case (capital) letter shown in the bottom right-hand corner in order to establish the link between the two letters. The reverse side of the card indicates a keyword that contains the sound of the letter with the actual sound combination in brackets. Rather than providing a visual image of the keyword, a space is left for the child to draw the image. This helps to make the image more meaningful to the child and also utilizes and reinforces visual and kinesthetic skills. The spelling pack is similar in structure to the reading pack. On the front of the card the sound made by the letter is displayed in brackets, while the back contains both the sound and the actual letter (s). Sounds for which there is a choice of spellings will in time show all the possible ways in which the sound can be made. Cue words are also given on the back as a prompt, in case the child forgets one of the choices. Spelling is seen as being of prime importance by the authors of the program since they view it as an ‘all round perceptual experience’. This process involves over-learning and multi-sensory strategies. The Bangor Dyslexia Teaching Systemis a structured, sequential teaching program developed for teachers and speech and language therapists involved in supporting children with dyslexia. A useful aspect of this program is the division between primary and secondary pupils. Although it is acknowledged that some secondary pupils are still ‘beginning’ readers and need to go through the same initial stages of acquiring literacy as ‘beginning readers’ in the primary school, the program makes some special provision and adaptations for secondary students. This helps to make the secondary material more age appropriate. The basic philosophy of the program is not unlike that of other structured, phonic programs. It focuses on phonological difficulties and the problems dyslexic children have in mastering the alphabetic code. The program attempts to provide children with some competence, at the earliest stage possible, in recognizing and categorizing speech sounds. It is not possible for children to benefit from ‘top down’ language experience approaches to reading if they have not mastered the basic principles of literacy. Some of these principles, which the program for primary aged children focuses on, include: the teaching of basic letter sounds and the structure of words, long vowels, common word patterns, irregular words, alphabet and dictionary skills, grammatical rules and silent letters. The program shares the same principles as that utilized by other similar programs for dyslexic children. It is highly structured and the teacher has to proceed systematically through the program. The aspect of over-learning is acknowledged to be important, and therefore revision of material already learnt occupies an important place in the implementation of the program. One of the difficulties inherent in following the principle of over-learning is the aspect of boredom, which may result from repetitive revision of material already learnt. This program acknowledges that pitfall and suggests ways of overcoming it through the use of games and other adapted materials. The multi-sensory teaching element is also crucial in this program. Some of the exercises attempt to engage all the available senses simultaneously, thus acknowledging the accepted view that dyslexic children benefit from multi-sensory learning. The program also utilizes the particular benefits of mnemonics for dyslexic children as well as the notion of reading and spelling as an integrated activity. Some emphasis is also placed on encouraging dyslexic children to use oral language to plan their work. It is felt that such verbalizations help children clarify their thoughts and planning before embarking on a course of action. The secondary component of the program provides useful advice on dealing with the problem of teaching basic literacy to older students. Some effort is made to ensure that the student is familiar with polysyllabic words in order that the potential for creative writing is not unduly restricted. At the secondary stage the aspect of reading for meaning is of great importance in order to ensure sustained motivation. The Bangor Dyslexia Teaching System acknowledges this and suggests a range of techniques that can help to support the student through the decoding difficulty in order that maximum meaning and pleasure can be derived from the text. Such suggestions include: supplying difficult words; introducing the story and the book’s background and characters; pointing out clues such as capital letters and titles; encouraging fluency by reading from one full stop to the next; omitting words that are difficult, thus encouraging the use of context to obtain meaning; practice; and reading rhymes and limericks that aid sound and syllable awareness. The key principles found in the majority of individualized programs for dyslexic children-multi-sensory techniques, automaticity and over-learning-are all found in the Alphabetic Phonics program. Additionally, the program recognizes the importance of discovery learning. Opportunities for discovery learning are found throughout this highly structured program. The program, which stems from the Orton-Gillingham multi-sensory approach, was developed in Dallas, TX, by Aylett Cox. Alphabetic Phonics provides training in the development of automaticity through the use of flash cards and over-learning through repetitive practice in reading and spelling until 95 per cent mastery is achieved. The program also incorporates opportunities to develop creativity in expression and in the sequencing of ideas. DISTAR (Direct Instruction System of Teaching Arithmetic and Reading) was originally designed for socially disadvantaged children in the USA as part of the Project Follow Through scheme launched by the US government in 1968 (Hulme & Joshi 1998). The program is orientated to achievement in basic attainments and tasks and skills to enhance effective learning. Some of the features of DISTAR include: the transfer of learning from specific examples to general concepts; continual, positive reinforcement to enhance motivation and success; and the monitoring of progress through the use of criterion referenced assessment. In addition to reading skills, the current DISTAR program covers language, spelling and arithmetic. Evaluation studies display impressive progress in attainments among students undertaking the DISTAR program – results that appear to continue through to secondary education. Some criticism, however, has been raised that the teacher’s manual is too prescriptive and places too much restriction on teachers. The focus of the program on transferring skills from the specific to the underlying general task concepts is, indeed, commendable and can make the DISTAR materials a useful resource. Three recent studies trained phonological awareness in children with reading disabilities using the Lindamood Auditory Discrimination in Depth program (ADD), a method that first encourages awareness of the articulation of speech sounds. Two studies used no control groups, but reported good progress for students who had made little progress with other programs. The third study used matched groups of children with severe reading disability at a private school. The control group received the school’s well-reputed program, which included auditory training and strategies for encoding and decoding written symbols. The trained group spent 6 weeks learning ADD before merging it with the regular program. All children improved substantially by the end of the year. The ADD group did not gain significantly more than controls on standardized tests of reading and spelling, although trends favored the ADD group. Compared to controls, ADD children did make significantly greater improvement in the phonetic quality of their errors in spelling and nonsense word reading. Besides being a well-structured phonemic-awareness program, the ADD approach holds theoretical interest because of its strong emphasis on developing concrete articulatory (speech-motor) representations to distinguish phonemic differences. The program includes associating articulatory labels, pictures, letters, and sounds, and using these articulatory concepts in phonological awareness work and manipulating letters and sounds in reading and spelling exercises. This work described some of the innovative programs that may be utilized in special education. The programs are logical and consist of small steps. They also incorporate elements of all the modalities—visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile. Teaching is not only about providing information, but about accessing useful and transferable skills as well—for example, phonological awareness skills can be later transferred and utilized in writing skills. Essentially, the approaches involve thinking about thinking and the learners with disabilities consider how a particular response was arrived at. Children with disabilities is a whole-school concern, and not just the responsibility of individual teachers. Innovative programs require an established and accessible policy framework for consultancy, whole-school screening and monitoring of children’s progress. It is important to consider the rationale for using particular programs and strategies. Within the areas described here of individualized learning, support approaches and strategies, assisted learning and whole-school approaches, there are many effective means of dealing with disability. Therefore, the criteria for selection—the context, the assessment, the curriculum and the learner—must be carefully considered. It is important to link programs and strategies together because, while there are a considerable number of well-evaluated and effective commercially produced programs in special education, it is very seldom that the program can be used by untrained teachers. Even if a program has clear instructions, there is some skill attached to implementing such programs. Therefore, the teacher needs to be aware of strategies that can be used to reinforce the program and to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning that can take place through the use of the program. One of the main challenges facing teachers is the need to find varied approaches to learning that will motivate children and will provide the key elements that the child requires as well. If the child does not respond to a structured program, the teaching program should then be reevaluated. This would help to decide whether it is the most appropriate program to use. It is also important to consider other factors as the child may not be responding because she or he may only need a longer period to achieve the objective of the program. References Gersten, R. , Schiller, Vaughn, S. (2000). Contemporary Special Education Research: Syntheses of the Knowledge Base on Critical Instructional Issues. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ. Hulme, C. , Joshi, M. (1998). Reading and Spelling: Development and Disorders. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ. Hornsby, Shear. (1980). Alpha to Omega. Heinemann Educational Books. London. Lindamood, P. , Bell, N. , & Lindamood, P. (1997). Achieving competence in language and literacy by training in phonemic awareness, concept imagery and comparator function. In C. Hulme & M. Snowling (Eds. ), Dyslexia: Biology, cognition and intervention (pp. 212–234). London: Whur.