The Effective Use of Symbols in Teaching Word Recognition to Children with Severe Learning Difficulties: A comparison of word alone, integrated picture cueing and the handle technique

Abstract

The use of logographic symbols to teach word recognition is controversial. Whilst educational advice typically promotes this practice, the results of controlled studies show it to be ineffective and potentially detrimental to student learning. This study partially resolves this con ict. A comparison is made between a new technique (the Handle Technique), Integrated Picture Cueing and a Word Alone method. The results show that using a new combination of teaching strategies enables logographic symbols to be used effectively in teaching word recognition to children with severe learning dif culties who had previously failed to develop a sight vocabulary. Symbols and Word RecognitionFor the majority of children, learning to recognise simple words is a task that is accomplished relatively easily and a range of methods and strategies exist to support their learning. However, for some children with severe learning dif culties it is a skill that they fail to learn after many years of teaching (Sheehy, 1995). The term severe learning dif culties in this context refers to children with a signi cant and general developmental delay, often associated with additional dif culties in communication and behaviour. This study addresses the need to develop successful teaching approaches for children such as Anthony, who was a participant in this study. Anthony (pseudonymn) was a 15-year-old boy who had experienced signi cant learning dif culties throughout his school career. He was able to understand simple sentences containing two key elements but his own speech was dif cult to under-

Use of Writing with Symbols 2000 Software to Facilitate Emergent Literacy Development

“…For most children, learning to recognize simple words in print is a task that is accomplished relatively easily (Sheehy, 2002). However, for children with atypical development or other learning issues, skills in traditional word recognition may be difficult to acquire even with intensive instructional support.…”

“…Using picture-supported text in conjunction with picture-supported writing can help emergent readers successfully engage in literacy activities long before they are able to read and spell individual words or even recognize letters (Abbot & Lucey, 2005;Fossett & Mirenda, 2006;Hill, 1995;Sheehy, 2002). Abbot and Lucey (2005) conducted qualitative research in the United Kingdom to gather data regarding 'symbol literacy' in special schools.…”

“…The ease with which picture symbols are learned has led to symbols becoming an integral and successful component of many effective early reading skills programs. Sheehy (2002) investigated the efficacy of picture symbol use in teaching word recognition skills. This work concluded that these symbols can be effective in enabling students in acquiring word recognition and associated early literacy competencies.…”

Teaching word recognition to children with severe learning difficulties: an exploratory comparison of teaching methods

“…This sees children with severe learning difficulties as learning to read words in a different way to other children. Its success, albeit in a single study, seemed to undermine the 'local feature' explanations which had been given for how the handle technique worked (Sheehy and Howe 2001;Sheehy 2002b). There was therefore a need to make a direct comparison between these two approaches.…”

“…'this' might be represented as a tongue shaped when saying the word or a pointing finger ). This technique has been explored and refined through a series of experiments (Sheehy 2001(Sheehy , 2002a(Sheehy , 2002b. The optimum site for a handle emerges as around the first or final letter (2002b) and there are several ways in which a handle might be faded or removed.…”