Supporting Alphabet Knowledge and Phonological Awareness for

gaze) or partner-assisted scanning. Concern: This may in- crease the difficulty for students with CVI, as they must look at multiple letters, increasing the visual demands of the task. Tips for the Helper: Depending on the severity of the CVI, a student may have difficulty visually perceiving the differenc- es when offered a group of items during randomized multi- ple choice tasks. When asked to focus on the cognitive task of naming letters, students need to have automatic recognition of the array of choices as well as the physical skill to point to the letter. Performance may be affected by the number of items an individual student can process at once, the amount of time it takes to look at all the choices, trouble seeing all items at once if they are presented outside the limitations of their visual field, and difficulties the student may have with visual novelty when a few items are selected at random. Performance data should reflect how choices of items are presented, and provide guidance as to how to group items when necessary to accommodate for vision challenges. 2. Two Possible Responses . The partner shows an item, then asks a question (e.g., “Is this a C?”) or shows two items and asks a question (e.g., “Do these two rhyme?” or “Do these start with the same sound at the beginning?”). The student can answer with a gesture (e.g., head nod or shake, look up for yes, down for no) or through partner-assisted scanning. Some tasks might ask the student to indicate if two items are the SAME or DIFFERENT. The same approach could be used. Tips for the Helper: This technique depends on partners who are skilled at recognizing the learner’s signals without giving additional cues or trying to assign YES/NO responses to behavior that is unclear. In addition, performance data may be unreliable based on 50% probability of getting an answer right (or wrong). 3. Only one thing to say - “That’s It!” For this strategy, the partner gives the verbal target (“Let me know when you see the <tar- get>”), then shows only one item at a time, placing less visual demand on the student. When the student sees the target s/ he touches a symbol or uses a device to say “That’s it!” Tips for the Helper: This strategy presumes accurate and timely device activation. Identifying the target requires thinking through the options (cognitive processing) as well as the physical task of activating the device (motor coordination and timing). If student activations of the switch are not yet automatic performance data may be affected. ALPHABET INSTRUCTION FOR STUDENTS WITH CVI Students with significant CVI are likely to encounter access barriers to developing alphabet knowledge, but strategies are available to support their success. While learning the alphabet can be a highly visual task, it is important to strike a balance for students with CVI between the visual demands and the need for learning through auditory channels. When the tasks are too vi- sually taxing, learners will need auditory input in order to get

access to the broader, richer literacy concepts. Roman-Lantzy (2019) coined a technique called “word bub- bling” to help students with CVI learn to quickly recognize the shape of whole words by drawing around the outside using a color that glows (https://roman-word-bubbling.appspot.com). This technique is not recommended for use during alphabet in- struction, as it does not support learning the important concept that words are made up of individual letters as well as identify- ing the letters themselves. The following sections address each of the goals of alphabet knowledge instruction, and suggest possible supports, followed by sample tasks for explicit instruction and embedded all-day instruction. EXPLICIT ALPHABET INSTRUCTION: OVERCOMING ACCESS BARRIERS TO INSTRUCTION FOR STUDENTS WITH CVI Erickson & Koppenhaver recommend an approach to ex- plicit alphabet instruction based on the work of Jones & Reut- zel (2013). This approach is also integrated into all units of the Readtopia curriculum Don Johnston Inc, Readtopia as Learn- ing Letters (Erickson et al, 2019). This routine provides about 10 minutes of instruction per day of rapid cycling through the alphabet (one letter per day), allowing for at least seven cycles during the school year. The order of the cycle changes based on research (e.g., 1st – letters most frequent in student names; 2nd – alphabetic order). Within each cycle, the routine emphasiz- es: letter name ID, letter-sound ID, recognizing the letter in text, and producing the letter form (by writing or using an alternative pencil). See Erickson & Koppenhaver for a detailed explanation of this instructional routine (2020, pp. 36 – 40). The following section discusses access barriers related to at- tending to letters, naming letters and identifying sounds that letters represent. We also suggest ways that students who have both CVI and CCN can ‘show what they know.’ Remember that assessing what students know should be ongoing, and students should not have to give responses to every item. The goal must be teaching, not testing, and partners should be writing down observations, rather than constantly checking to make sure that students are getting the ‘right’ answers. In addition, the errors that students make often give us important information about what they do not understand, which can help us modify our in- struction. Below are suggestions for overcoming barriers and identifying possible ways in which students with CCN and CVI can show what they are learning. In general, the amount of al- phabet instructional time should be brief, taking into consid- eration the amount of visual effort required. Alphabet instruc- tion is one small component of daily literacy instruction and students need to have enough visual endurance for a range of literacy tasks. For example, the Learning Letters component of the Readtopia curriculum (based on Jones, et al., 2013) is only suggested to take 10-15 minutes per day.

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