their letter. This should be a social activity, and students should find items that are personally meaningful. Mussel- white, Wagner, & Hanser (2020, pp. 38 - 44) suggest strate- gies to maximize learning through these hunts such as: • Using Alternative Pencils. Students can use alternative pencils tailored to their CVI and motor needs to pick letters for this activity. • Use AAC Systems to Pick Items. Partners can help students explore their light or high tech AAC systems to pick items to share with the group, and judge whether they start with the target letter. • Make A Social Script. Partners can co-construct Social Scripts (Musselwhite & Burkhart, 2001) to support students in asking for items that represent the target letter. • Make A Book. Partners can co-construct a book so that students have their own alphabet books to re-read, either light tech or (ideally) both light and high tech. Alphabet Games Students can engage in alphabet games through card games or PowerPoint games, using LessonPix or Boardmaker Online to show target letters. Students can play ‘I Have / Who Has’ using a voice output aid that announces their letter, and asks a peer for a different letter. Then the student must listen for her letter the next time. LessonPix is a wonderful resource that allows pro- fessionals to build a range of engaging instructional materials, including PowerPoint add-ins, such as game spinners, dice or drawing from a hat. See Image 11 below.
nological awareness may be easier to teach because it allows students with CVI to use their auditory strengths. This section will provide examples of embedded phonological awareness ac- tivities. If interested in information about explicit instructional programs, see: Clendon (2018), Erickson & Koppenhaver (2020), and Schuele (2008). Musselwhite, Wagner, & Hanser review key points regarding phonological awareness instruction including: a) Phonological awareness is a metalinguistic skill, meaning that students must let us know (in some way) that they hear dif- ferences such as syllable beats in a word, words that rhyme, or words that start with the same sound. b) Phonological awareness represents progressively smaller units, starting with dividing sentences into words, progressing to syllables, then recognizing rhymes, dividing a word into an onset (everything up to the first vowel in the syllable) and rime (vowel to the end of the syllable), then phonemes (individual sounds within a word, often referred to as phonemic awareness). c) Levels of phonological awareness are overlapping, mean- ing that this is not a ‘step-lock’ sequence, in which students must master an earlier level before progressing to the next level (Musselwhite, Wagner, & Hanser, 2020, p. 49).
INSTRUCTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
Pair Instruction with Print, When Possible and Appropriate to the Task Research has found that phonological awareness instruction is more effective for some goals when paired with print. How- ever, for some students with Phase I or II CVI, having the visual and the auditory input is too much. In addition, for some tasks, such as matching initial sounds, adding print is not desirable . Students should match pictures so that they must say the sound (out loud or in their head) for each picture, then decide if the sounds are the same. Use of Pictures Pictures are frequently used during phonological awareness activities to represent sounds and words. Learners who have CVI may not be able to process an image in the same way as their typical peers. This does not mean that they can’t benefit from the activities, however. Carefully assess whether the images need to be adapted to highlight specific visual features, reduce clutter or verbally described. In some cases, an object can be substituted. While students may not be able to visually process the details of pictures, pictures may still be used as a visual placeholder or visual referent to aid the memory of the choices. For more infor- mation about assessing and using 2D images, see Tietjen (2018). Be sure to consult with your TVI regarding the best way to pres- ent print and pictures to your students.
Image 11: Matching letters – uppercase & lowercase: PowerPoint + LessonPix Spinner
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS INSTRUCTION FOR STUDENTS WITH CVI Phonological awareness is an auditory skill that requires students to become consciously aware of different sounds in sentences and words. Compared to alphabet instruction, pho-
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