troduced several poems, songs and hand claps to her class of 5 – 8 year old’s, showing them on the Smartboard, with one learn- er using her switch to advance slides and activate animations and sounds. Eli has CVI and attends far better with movement added. His teacher sets up the computer with a switch so he can listen and look at the nursery rhymes again during independent reading time. See Image 12 below.
Difficulties with Generalization Learners who are non-speaking may have more difficulty with skill generalization after phonological awareness instruc- tion or intervention (Clendon, 2018). As Clendon noted, ‘Chil- dren with disabilities have a history of receiving splintered liter- acy instruction that focuses on teaching skills in isolation’. She further notes that ‘Children with CCN (Complex Communication Needs) often exhibit significant difficulty applying their phono- logical awareness to literacy tasks (Chapter 11). Thus, partners need to make those links explicit through instruction within a comprehensive literacy program. Learners must be helped to actively use the skills they are learning across reading, writing, and communication. Increasing Complexity of Sound Units Literature reviews (e.g., Erickson & Koppenhaver, 2020; Gil- lon, 2018, Sheule & Boudreau, 2008) have shown an increasing complexity of phonological awareness tasks, starting with ‘shal- low skills’ (e.g., word awareness, syllable awareness, rhyme and alliteration) and progressing to ‘deep skills’ (e.g., segment initial / final sounds, blend sounds into words, segment words into sounds, delete/ manipulate phonemes). Remember that these are overlapping steps. That means that learners don’t need to ‘pass a test’ on one step before beginning instruction with the next. The activities described here target the ‘shallow skills’ of word awareness, syllable awareness, the various levels of rhyme awareness, and alliteration (initial and final sounds). These are foundational skills for individuals who are emergent learners. PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS IMMERSION In addition to designing tasks to target specific phonologi- cal awareness goals, students should have rich exposure to lan- guage forms that help develop an ‘ear print’ for features such as rhythm, rhyme and alliteration. Students should have daily op- portunities to engage with phonologically rich language forms. Adults need to seek out age-respectful materials, and help learners listen and respond to them. Multiple repetitions with minor variations across the day or week can engage learners in exploring features of rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration. Several examples are provided below. Nursery Rhymes, Songs, Poetry and Hand Claps Reviewers and researchers have stressed for decades (e.g., Adams, 1994; Bradley, 1988) the importance of immersing young learners in forms of language that highlight features such as rhythm, rhyme and alliteration, as each of those features supports the development of phonological awareness. Mussel- white, Wagner, & Hanser (2020) summarize a wide range of ac- tivities and resources for immersing students in these language forms. Sample strategies for supporting learners with CVI are highlighted below. Animated Step-by-Steps by Carol Goossens: Ms. Sara has in-
Image 12: Nursery Rhyme Poems
Hand Claps & Jump Rope Rhymes: Monique is a third grader with Phase II CVI. She is getting better at integrating vision and learning, but using her vision all day is fatiguing. Recess is in mid-afternoon, when she is often highly fatigued. Her occupa- tional therapist has thought of various ways she can be engaged at recess without stressing her vision. One day each week, they use a Social Script on her TalkSuite app in story mode to help her lead her peers in jump-rope rhymes. Her peers have worked with Monique to program several hand claps that they use, such as Down In the Valley and Ice Cream Soda (‘Ice cream soda/ lem- onade punch/ tell me the name of my honey-bunch/ A-B-C-D . . .’). One peer helps her pick a rhyme each day to use during rope jumping, or as a hand clap. While the student described is a third grader, older students may also enjoy engaging with hand claps and jump rope rhymes.
EMBEDDED PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS INSTRUCTION
The following section will describe instructional tasks to support students throughout the day in building phonologi- cal awareness for specific targets, such as syllable awareness or rhyme awareness. Order of Complexity of Phonological Awareness Targets. As described previously (e.g., Schuele & Boudreau, 2008; Gillon, 2018), there is an order of complexity of phonological
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