Communication and Literacy

Part 2: Communication Partners and the Physical Environment

Successful Communication

Now, we will explore the role of the communication partner, the physical environment, and strategies to ensure access.

Communication Partners (1 of 7)

Communication by definition requires at least two people—a sender of the message and a receiver—who understand each other. Source: Downing, 2005

Communication Partners (2 of 7)

• Parents, caregivers, and teachers are the earliest communication partners for children who are deaf-blind.
• They must provide receptive communication that children understand in order to build their vocabularies.
• Partners must understand a child's communication attempts and respond to let them know the message has been received.

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Communication Partners (3 of 7)

In “Steps to Literacy,” we can identify skills and strategies related to communication partners.

• Skills demonstrated in early emergent literacy:
• Attending to a communication partner
• Participating in turn-taking activities
• Showing interest in books, stories, and others engaged in literacy activities

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Communication Partners (4 of 7)

Matching instructional reading strategies:

• Modeling reading and writing behaviors

Writing strategies:

• Engaging children in writing activities for identifying and remembering objects, tasks, and events

William shows interest in his book and uses gestures to communicate to his mom that he wants to look at it together. This reflects early emergent literacy skills.

Communication Partners: Video 1

Communication Partners (5 of 7)

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Skills demonstrated in emergent literacy include:

• Letting someone know they want to look at a book or be read to
• Participating in story reading using the child’s preferred communication method(s)
• Noticing and protesting when adult leaves or changes part of the story

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Communication Partners (6 of 7)

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Matching instructional reading strategies:

• Providing multiple opportunities to interact with text through shared storybook reading

Instructional writing strategies:

• Engaging students in writing activities for identifying and remembering objects, tasks, and events

Nia participates in story reading using a communication device to read repeated lines in a book. She has opportunities to interact with both the text and objects paired with the story to build her understanding. After reading, she uses symbols to communicate her comprehension of what happened in the book. These skills reflect emergent literacy.

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Communication Partners: Videos 2 - 4

Communication Partners (7 of 7)

• Did you notice how Nia’s book has object symbols and the communication partner brings the objects closer to Nia’s field of vision? Nia uses her residual hearing and vision during this literacy activity.
• When Nia communicates her choice, she uses object symbols with a black background to support her vision. Her communication partner affirms Nia’s response verbally by either acknowledging a correct answer or correcting a mistake.

Environments (1 of 2)

• Communication interactions take place in the home, school, and community.
• Children need to learn how to communicate within and about a specific environment, as well as across environments.
• Literacy activities can broaden access and environmental awareness and promote communication that generalizes across environments.

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Environments (2 of 2)

• The importance of environments in literacy instruction is not necessarily embedded in particular skills and strategies.
• Instruction should include opportunities to address skills in different environments.
• For example, consider using the same object or photo symbol in a familiar routine across environments.
• In the video of Isaiah in Part 1 of this presentation, he used his spoon symbol for meal routines in the classroom, cafeteria, home, and community.

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Environments - Video

Alex’s team uses a home and school journal to build communication across environments. This tool provides content to support his memory of the day’s events and share them with his family at home.