Children's Speech And Literacy Difficulties: A Psycholinguistic Framework

Stackhouse, J. & Wells, B. (1997) Children's Speech and Liteacy Difficulties: A Psycholinguistic Framework' LONDON; Whurr Publishers Ltd.


Speech and language difficulties coupled with literacy problems (pp1)

• delayed speech and language development
• persisting problems with articulation
• word finding and grammar
• visual defecits (may affect reading skills)
• reading comprehension
• spelling and literacy problems

Problems with processing visual to verbal processing defecits

• dyslexia?
• 'children could visually match and select abstract shapes as well as normally-developing children in grades 1-4'
• however, dyslexic children did less well at associating abstract shapes with a verbal response and had difficulty to transferring their verbal codes to new tasks
• (this is the 'verbal defecit hypothesis' of dyslexia)

Speech and language problems generally more common in males
problems often run in families
common recurrence in fathers
highly heritable (twins)

Catts, H. W. (1999) 'The relationship betwenn speech-language impairments and reading disabilities' Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 36:pp948-958

Division of reading measures to define what is meant by 'literacy outcome':

• reading comprehension
• word recognition

'receptive and expressive language skills were better predictors of reading comprehension, while speech processing skills were better predictors of word recognition.'


Relationship between speech and literacy development

Speech Processing System

Speech ---------------------------------                                         ------------------------------Literacy 


Classification of Speech Problems in Children

• Medical
• Linguistic
• Psycholinguistic

Mulloys, N. & Morganbarry, R. (1990) Developmental Neurological Disorders in Grunwell, P. (ed) Developmental Speech Disorders LONDON; Whurr Publishers

The Medical Perspective

Dyspraxia
Difficulty in imitating, in directing and controlling the speed and duration of moves of articulation

Dysarthia
impairment of movement and o-ordination of the muscles required for speech, due to abnormal tone

Stuttering
non-fluent speech

Causes
cleft palate (abnormal oral structure)
hearing loss or environmenta deprivation
medical conditions (downs,autism, pyschiatric disorder etc.)


The Medical Perspective
Positives

• conditions are easier defined
• medical management can contribute significantly to the prevention or remediation of the speeech or language difficulty
• may be helpful to know the prognosis of condition (longterm)

Negatives

• diagnosis cannot always be made
• aietilogy not always clear
• cannot predict what any individual will experience (personal)

The medial perspective can be SUPPLEMENTED by the linguistic approach.

Adults and Autism Census (UK)

NHS Census

On Sept. 22, England's National Health Service (NHS) released the first study of autism in the general population. The findings confirm the intuitive assumption: that ASD is just as common in adults as it is in children. Researchers at the University of Leicester, working with the NHS Information Center found that roughly 1 in 100 adults are on the spectrum — the same rate found for children in England, Japan, Canada and, for that matter, New Jersey.

Time Online (link)

Reaching Out, Joining In: Teaching Social Skills to Young Children with Autism

Weiss, M. J. & Harris, S. L. (2001) Reaching Out, Joining In: Teaching Social Skills to Young Children with Autism BETHESDA, MD, USA; Woodbine House Inc. 


'If a child is nonverbal, there are still skills... that will be relevant for them. Remember that communication is both verbal and nonverbal, and that expression can take many forms besides verbal communication.' (for example, understanding the nonverbal communication of others) (pp70)


 The Language of Social Skills (pp71)

• appropriate social behaviour
• following social rules
• getting and giving information
• maintaining a conversation
• slang, idioms, and expressions
• telling jokes
• using gestures
  

Conversational Exchange 

'As the grammatical complexity of a child's language increases, so too does his ability to carry his own end of a conversation. Initially, it takes a great deal of work from the adult to sustain a conversation with the child. As the child gets older, he reciprocates with an adult more skillfully, and can carry on conversation with a peer.'

'conversations with a peer occur later, because childre are not as aware of the need to create a supportive structure for sustaining the echange. In fact, this is one of the reasons children with autism have a harder time conversing with peers than with adults. Adults have a very nuanced ability to recognise the needs of the child with autism and provide the right prompts. A child, no matter how well intentioned, will not understand how to do this and after a few attempts may give up on the dialog.'

Teaching the Language of Social Skills

'Children with autism are doubly challenged in learning the language of social sills. First, they struggle with understanding social information and with learning how to interact with peers. Second, understanding and using complex language is a significant challenge for many of them. As a result, learning to manage social interaction often presents formidable language demands along with social ones.'

• Is this why echolalia occurs?
• Are children repeating because they are not understanding to the concept?
  

Social Stories

'social stories are brief, written narratives about what will happen or how a child is expected to behave in a specific situation. These stories are written in simple language and capture the essence of a social behaviour.'

'Carol Gray, an educator employed by a school system in Michigan, created social stories as a means to convey complex social information to children with autism... She suggests that one directive (rule) statement be given for every three to five informative sentences that describe the situation or give perspective on behaviour.'

• Will the stories told relate to a social story that has been repeatedly told to the child?
• Will statements given refelct this, or will the program's more open-plan approach mean that the statements won't come up as the system of storytelling is less regimented?
• Should there be more of a 'rule' structure to the overall storytelling process?

Michael Rosen on Children's Storytelling

"All the nitty-gritty of everday life for children can never be written about, but they can do it. They can do it, and they do. They do it with their everyday experience and with their own language."

Children as Story-Tellers: Developing Language Skills in the Classroom

Jennings, C. (1991) Children as Story-tellers: Developing Language Skills in the Classroom MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA; Oxford University Press

Retelling of original stories (pp22)

'Children are always eager to retell a story they have just read or heard and often want to work on the one told at the start of the session. They should be encouraged to select favourite stories from books they have read in the past. This can include any stories read to them by parents, teachers and librarians, or those they have experienced in their personal reading.
There are many advantages of allowing children to retell traditional or contemporary stories, including:

• Children initially select old favourites which can be recalled immediately
• The familiarity which children feel with the known structure of previously shared stories enhances their confidence in their choices
• making a retold story their own by creating a personal interpretation based on their experience of the story'

• Can we tell more about the learner by the way they re-tell a story?
• As far as autism is concerned, can we ientify what stage of the spectrum they are at by their ability to retell a known story? (assessment through storytelling, perhaps)
• Can we assess the ability to communicate through the child's re-telling? Do they 'put on' the act of a storyteller, away from their own persona?
• As far as the project is concerned, should a story be selected for the child to retell, or should it remain open? Should they retell a story personal to them, from their own life?

Personal Experience Stories (pp18)
'Children have an instinctive feel for story, blending instances and episodes from their own experiences into oral narratives, therefore these personal anecdotes are natural items in a story-telling session. Exchanging personal experiences with peers is authentic because childeren identify with the similarity of events in other children's lives.

• Should the project be done with more than one child at a time?
• Should the opportunity to 'feed' off each other's stories be given?
• Should the story being told be collaborative?
• Will there be as much similarity of experience with children with autism, or is it more personal / centered?
• Will there still be a clear oral culture of speaker / listener if it is done with a group?

PLAN: Literature Review

What the FYP guidebook says

You must show clearly you are conversant with what is already known in this area of research. This needs to be organised systematically, and include critical analysis of what you have read. It should be based largely on primary sources. You may find conflicting research evidence. Your discussion of literature should show how you have weighed this up, the theoretical standpoint from which you have done this, and on what you base your critiques. This placing of the work in an actual context thus becomes an aspect of your rationale for undertaking this study.

General questions I need to ask

• What is my theoretical standpoint?
• What do I already expect to happen?
• What do I already know? (previous experience, etc.)
• Are there conflicting views? (in the forms of different strategies, probably?)
• Are there different strategies for speech aquisition in autism?

Language Aquisition (general)

• Different ways of doing it
• What works? What doesn't?
• How LONG does it take in comparison to austitic language development?
• Is it a case of 'do this, but just do it more often and for longer?'
  

Development of Language in Autism

• Various ways of doing it - look at differences
• common practice - what is done?
• Are there misconceptions?
• What is done differently to mainstream language learning - are there different things to focus on?
• What works? What have I seen?
• Models: Medical, psycholinguistic etc.
  

Recollection in Autism / Echolalia

• Differing opinions on echolalia
• Is it as useful / purposeful as it is deemed?
• Is the child realising what they are repeating?
• How can you tell?
• How is this relevant?
  

Beneficial Uses of ICT with Children with SEN

• Creating a barrier (not so social?)
• Is this barrier beneficial for children with autism to focus more on their work/tasks?
• Looking at different programmes available (autism specific?)
  

Access Technology: Making the Right Choice

Day, J. (e)(1995) Access Technology: Making The Right Choice COVENTRY; NCET

Types of Access for IT

• Physcial Access

Technology provides independent access to a world of communication and learning that has been closed until now. It is no wonder than we consider IT in the context of physical access as a lifeline.

• Cognitive Access

By experiencing learning in an active way, they are helped to identify similar situations in the world around them. The common factor in these experiences is that IT is providing an additional resource to facilitate the learnig process for these pupils.

• Supportive Access

The power of technology to support pupils in different areas of difficulty.
The pupil who is wary of failure in the learning process can explore ideas on the computer in a supportive environment.


Framework for ICT-based Provision

• Context
• Purpose
• Resourcing
• Support
• Expectations
• Management
• Monitoring
• Transition

(this could be used as a basis to ensure the progression from stroytelling using the ICT program into written / drawn stories, or recalling a story without a visual prompt)


IT and Emotional / Behavioural

• IT can provide a non-threatening environment in which to achieve success
• The computer provides a neutral setting... the pupil is controlling the pace and level of work
• for the learner who is unsure about the acceptability of his work, the computer constitutes a private world in which to experiment safely

Speech and Language

• For some learners with speech and language difficulties, information technology is a lifeline, enabling them to communicate with the world around them.
  

Teaching Children With Autism: Strategies to Enhance Communication and Socialisation

Quill, K. A. (1995) 'Teaching Children With Autism: Strategies to Enhance Communication and Socialisation' LONDON; Delmar Publishers

Echolalia

• Repetition of other's speech, may occur immediately after or significantly later than the original production of an utterance
• 85% of children with autism use echolalia if they manage to acquire speech

Wetherby, A. M. & Prizant, B. M. (1989) 'The Expression of Communicative Intent' Seminars of Speech and Language, 10, (pp77-91)

Communicative intent with echolalia

• used for normal children, but also useful in identifying underlying echoic utterances in chidren with autiss

1. No awareness of goal
No emotion
Not directly involved
Passive behaviour / verbal interaction limited

2. Awareness of goal
focus of attention
manipulates object / vocalise towards
may relate a sentence to the task, but not directly to a person

3. Simple plan to achieve a goal
focus of attention
direct language towards a person for a desired outcome
echo to question = the answer to the question

Common Bonds: Storytelling in the Classroom

Howe, A. & Johnson, J. (1992) Common Bonds: Storytelling In The Classroom LONDON; Hodder and Staughton




Types of Storytelling

Form
The way the story is told or written
eg. a fairy tale in comparison to a recounted style

Length
The way the story progresses, and where it will end up depending on the length.
How the length will affect the story overall.
eg. an anecdote

Source
Does the story come from a fresh persepctive or memory?
Is it a much-told story from a long time ago?
What changes may occur in the story because of the way it is being told?

Content
Difference in what is included in the story?
Is it mainly fantasy-based, or more true-to-life?
Is there a mix in content?

Anecdotes

'The speaker who uses anecdote in not only developing a personal storytelling experience, but also an understanding of the place and purpose of anecdotal narrative in the modes of discourse, and the skills to operate within it.'

Functions of Anecdotal Narrative

• 'The stories we tell others give shape and meaning to the experiences of our own lives'
• 'stories constructed out of or as part of specific school experiences'
• 'the stories others tell us of their lives which in turn become part of experiences... and impinge on our overall ideas and attitudes'

Storytelling and Identity

• 'Pupils build a self-image and learn about themselves'
• 'Teachers see pupil's identities developing and learn more about them'
• 'Teachers can learn about individual pupils and aspects of their lives'

Storytelling and Equal Opportunities

'If... storytelling and storymaking are essential aspects of psychological and linguistic development of all children, then all children must be offered the opportunity to develop and exploit these skills to the full'

DISABILITY
'Storytelling can be equally liberating for children with different physical, aural, or visual disabilities'

DISABILITY AND TECHNOLOGY AS AN AID
'Matthew has needed the help of the word processor to fully communicate his 'speech' '

Curriculum Guidance 3
The Whole Curriculum
(The National Curriculum Council)

'In order to make access to the whole curriculum a reality for pupils, schools need to foster a climate in which equality of opportunity is supported by a policy to which the whole school subscribes and in which positive attitudes to gender equality, cultural diversity and special needs of all kinds are actively promoted'

Hope Lodge School for Autism

Hope Lodge Website


Hope Lodge is a residential school offering specific support in the care and education of students of both sexes between the ages of 6 and 19 who are described as having an autistic spectrum disorder or similar needs. Our pupils have associated learning difficulties and some may display inappropriate and/or challenging behaviours.

The school currently offers 13 day places and 33 residential places to pre 16 students. Most of our residential places are weekly, although a small number of termly places are available. Students are accommodated at The Lodge (weekly) The Cottage (weekly) and Whitworth Crescent (termly).

Article Search Details

Found various articles today by searching:

ERIC search terms:
Autism
Computers
Talk

Questia search terms:
Education
Autism
Talk
Stories

Dialog DataStar search terms:
(found through Uni Library research databases)
Education
Autism
Talk
Stories
Computers

Autism, Art, And Children: The Stories we Draw

Link to Questia Article

Autism Websites

Human Givens Institute - Autism
The concept of choice
If you can't make a choice, you have no sense of autonomy or control. Biting and spitting and swearing only give apparent, in the moment, control. It does not last. The price is loss of self esteem or, as Tina saw it, sadness. With no autonomy and no sense of personal control, a vital human need, essential for emotional health, remains unmet. For children with autism have just the same needs as any other human.

TEACCH

Examining the structural approaches of the TEACCH programme
How autism is specifically catered for
Communication approaches

Authorship

Pearson, N. in Hall, N. (ed)(1989) Writing with Reason: The Emergence of Authorship in Young Children LONDON; Hodder and Staughton

Setting a context

Sharing Ideas
- What is your favourite story?
- why is it YOURS?
- picking up individual details

What are they key features? (fairy tales)
- Good guy / bad guy
- scary parts?

Adapting
- creating our own stories from existing features
- changing the path of the story
- using pre-scripted rules

Dialogic Teaching

Mercer, N. & Hodgkinson, S. (2008) Exploring Talk in School LONDON; Sage Publications

'Dialogic Teaching'
3 main areas

- organising interaction
whole class,
collaboration,
collective groups,
one to one (teacher),
one to one (pair)

- Teaching Talk
rote (repetition),
Recitiation (cue questions, clues),
Instruction, exposition (telling them what to do)

- Learning Talk
oral expression and interaction of the child
various different abilities
listening, being receptive
giving other time
thinking about what they hear

'The Art of Storytelling for Teachers and Pupils'

Grugeon, E. & Gardner, P. (2000) The Art of Storytelling for Teachers and Pupils: Using Stories to Develop Literacy in Primary Classrooms LONDON; Fulton

One good chapter on Oral Storytelling
- Good pointers about TELLING a story, differences to writing, or reading one from a book
- Developing a repertoire, creating a system for telling stories from what you have previously read
- Developing specific styles, language use, pacing etc. for specific stories
- 'Oral culture'. Using stories, told on TV, radio, parents etc. to for a code for storytelling. 'The right way to do it'.

'The Boy Who Would Be A Helicopter'

Gussin Paley, V. (1990) The Boy Who Would Be A Helicopter: The Uses of Storytelling in the Classroom LONDON; Harvard University Press

Excellent in-depth look at a storytelling project in a KS1 classroom.

Detailed accounts of each child and their relationship with storytelling
Good details on teacher and assistant persepctives
Specific strategy on storytelling
Language use - specifically documented
Good for translation of meaning - 'what do they mean when they say this'

'Releasing The Gift of the Gab'

Blaney, R. (2005) 'Releasing The Gift of the Gab' The Primary English Magazine (October 2005)


Focuses a lot more on HOW to talk...
Successful use of voice
- Tone
- Volume
etc.

'A Voice For Life'

Hendy, L. (2005) 'A Voice For Life' Primary English Magazine (June 2005)

More of a focus on strategies for promoting good use of voice
- expresssion
- creating interest
- pauses
- pitch and tone
- speaking for an audience

'Let's Share Our News and Learn To Talk'

Maine, F (2004) 'Let's Share Our News and Learn To Talk' The Primary English Magazine (December 2004)

Talk projects in the classroom

- 'giving a higher status to talk in the classroom offers motivating and purposeful ways of learnig to many children'
- The spoken language 'codes' of home and school

'First steps' organisation of oral language
- language of social interaction
- language and thinking
- languag and literacy

Choosing a context for talk
- focusing aims
- 'newstelling' time, choosing appropriate things to talk about

Overall outcomes and success
- allows children to bring more structure to written work
- write like they say
- the more they say, the more practice they get for writing?

Special Needs Dolls

Article from Time.com about the increase in special needs dolls sales, and whether or not they encourage stereotypes.

Interesting when looking at things like persona dolls, and what message a disabled persona doll would give out.

Would this make a difference in the stories children tell?

Would it influence them to tell a different story?

What about special needs, do they see it as a difference, or is it just a normal doll?

Sales of Special Needs Dolls Increasing

My SEN Resource

Am in the process of making a computer program for interactive whiteboards which would give a sort of 'choice tree' for children looking to start writing their own stories.

The choices will be very limited (probably 2 at a time), and each choice will lead to another which should (in theory!) progress the story a little more. After a few choices, their 'route' will be shown up, and hopefully be able to be saved or printed off for later use.

It's still really early days, so not much has been done yet and i'm still ironing out some details, but I was just looking for a bit of feedback to see if anyone had any experiences of situations with children with SEN and story telling and writing, or specifically children with autism.

Social Stories (Specifically for Autism)

Although are mainly written, alternative social stories can be recorded on video, spoken aloud, or used as 'scripts' to re-enact events or stories.

PURPOSE

1. Social avoidance -- Kids who would fall into the category of socially avoidant might be those who tantrum, shy away from, or attempt to escape from social situations. Often, kids that are this avoidant of social situations are doing so because they have some hypersensitivity to certain sensory stimuli. Consequently, those sensory needs must be addressed prior to attempts at teaching social skills. A kid who is constantly overwhelmed by his environment is likely not going to be successful in many interventions. Social stories may well prove to be useful tools with such children, but only after the sensory needs of those children have been met (through sensory integration, vision therapy, auditory integration, etc.).
2. Social indifference -- Social indifference is the social impairment common to the majority of children with autism. Children who are socially indifferent are those who do not actively seek social interaction, but at the same time, do not aggressively avoid such interaction. Social Stories are often quite effective with socially avoidant kids: they can simplify and illustrate social interactions, with the hope that increased understanding of those situations will make them more attractive and reinforcing for the child.
3. Social awkwardness -- Socially awkward children are typically higher functioning kids who may try very hard to gain and keep friends, but are hindered by a lack of reciprocity in conversation and interest -- they focus on their favorite topic or topics to the exclusion of most everything else -- and an inability to learn social skills and taboos by observing others. Social stories are often very effective with these individuals as they teach explicitly those skills and taboos that these children do not just pick up from their environment. Social stories provide them with a framework for successful social interaction: perspective on the thoughts, emotions, and beliefs of others in their environment, and suggestions of appropriate behaviors.

PRESENTATION

• Illustrations -- The child (or parent/teacher) can illustrate each page of the story, or photographs can be taken of the child and his peers in the social situation. These pictures can add interest and visual support for the presented ideas. Be wary, though, of images that are too complex. Children with autism do not always focus on pictures as we would expect (they sometimes fail to focus on a prominent object in the foreground in favor of some other item in the background), so the pictures (photographs, especially) should be as visual uncluttered as possible.
• Symbols -- The text of the story can be augmented with pictures representing various words or ideas. The Mayer-Johnson Picture Exchange symbols (often generated through their Boardmaker computer program) are typically good choices for this use. For beginning readers, PECS symbols or simple blackline drawings can be substitutes for written words not yet mastered. Or a single, large symbol can represent a complete idea on a particular page.
• Social Stories on tape -- A reading of a particular story can be recorded on audio tape with a tone or verbal cue for the child to turn the page.
• Video -- A film could be made of the student and peers acting out applicable scenes from the story. The text of the story should be edited in before the applicable scene, and the written story presented along with the video when it is presented to the child, however, with the hope of eventually fading the video for the written text (as the text is much less labor intensive to create and use than a video).
• Story boxes -- The child and an adult can act out scenes from the stories with small figures, rooms made of shoeboxes, etc. This too, can add interest and increase understanding of the concepts for children who are not strong readers.

(polyxo.com - A resource for teaching children with Autism)

Literacy and Learning Through Talk

Corden, R. (2000) Literacy and Learning Through Talk: Strategies for the Primary Classroom BUCKINGHAM; Open University Press

Good chapter on 'exploratory talk'

Ideal chapter on 'storytelling'
'Through voice and eye gesture the listener is drawn into a story, woven into the tale as a participant, to feel anger, fear, despair and joy. Storytelling is interactive: it moves the listener back and forth from spectator to participant. The storyteller achieves this through inflection, emphasis, cadence, pace, pause and register.'

Could be most relevant in an autistic context?
- Eye contact
- Participation

Start With A Story

Clark, R. & Sylvester, R. (2002) Start with a story: supporting young children's exploration of issues BIRMINGHAM; Development Education Centre

Good examples of how to use stories in context
'The role of the story'

Establishing key foundations of storytelling:
'creating an environment for talk'
'listening and taking turns'
'audience'
'decision making'

Stories for Thinking: Using Stories to Develop Thinking & Literacy

Fisher, R. (2004) 'Stories for Thinking: Using Stories to Develop Thinking and Literacy' in Fisher, R. (2004) Teaching Thinking LONDON; Continuum

Following the opinion that a literate person makes a more 'able child' in comparison to 'less successful learners'. Using stories to create a backbone for social practice, learning rules and life skills from telling stories and looking at their structure.

I think these are relevant to creating a context in which to tell stories, as well as covering the ways in which stories are a base for different types of questioning.

Relates to SEN in the 'community of enquiry' aspect, creating a classroom environment where children can explore a text read to them, or come up with their own oral stories based on previously established community 'boundaries' set up by enquiry and questions.

'by interrogating a text in a community of enquiry children learn that a story usually contains many more questions or problems than they first thought, and that questions (and answers) beget further questions in a dynamic and potentially endless process of enquiry.'

Oral Storytelling within the Context of the Parent-Child Relationship

Cutspec, P. A. (2006) 'Oral Storytelling within the Context of the Parent-Child Relationship' WASHINGTON; Talarin Research Institute (1) 2

Good for establishing foundations of literacy in special needs as well as in the early years - could continued reading and storytelling before school effect not only ability, but willingness to understand in later years?

ABSTRACT
(1) using oral storytelling to build a foundation of motivation for emergent literacy;
(2) using oral storytelling as an approach based on the home environment and parent modeling behaviors.


MAIN
'We emphasize that reading to young children is important for language and literacy growth, but it can be overdone. After several days of too many hours of reading every day, the reading experience might well start to become distasteful for a child.'


'Vocabulary, language skills, and knowledge about the world are acquired during interesting conversations with responsive adults. Talking about books, about daily happenings, about what happened at day care or at work not only contributes to children’s vocabularies, but also increases their ability to understand stories and explanations and their understanding of how things work – all skills that will be important in early reading.'


'During the first months and years of life, children’s experiences with language and literacy can begin to form a basis for their later reading success (Bergin, 2001; Burns et al., 1999). Therefore, vocabulary, language skills, and knowledge about the world are acquired during interesting conversations with responsive adults - most importantly, parents. The key to building motivation as a foundation for emergent literacy is to keep in mind that knowledge about and love for literacy can develop only through experience.'

LOTS OF RESEARCH INFLUENCED / TAKEN FROM BURKE

Writing As People; Voice, Poetry and the Special Needs Student

Blake, B. E. & Kuhn, S. (1997) 'Writing As People; Voice, Poetry and the Special Needs Student' EDRS; Scottsdale (US)

Good for establishing ideas and linking to literacy through reality. Good case studies of special needs.

ABSTRACT:
'Poetry is a powerful avenue in which students can learn to express their voices and 'write like people'. In the special needs classroom, where students specifically have problems with narrative structure... developing voice through poetry becomes especially crucial.'



POETRY
'poetry, as a special way of knowing can help students to learn about [their] feeling selves, [to] learn how to give audience to others and become members of a culture, to ultimately learn how to use words in the company of others, to reconstruct reality' (Blake, 1990)


'it is precisely because there are fewer or 'no' rules for creative expression, that the structure seems less inhibitive, affording students genuine opportunities to 'control' or to 'own' what they write.'


'because we have not traditionally listened to the voices of special needs students, poetry as a way of knowing and learning affords these students even greater opportunities to teach us about who they are.'

People to look up

Jacqui Harrett

Teresa Cremin

Kieran Egan

Vivian Gussin Paley

Teachers TV - Storytelling in RE

Look at later - has some information on different ways stories can be told.
Inportance of telling not just reading stories.

Storytelling Workshop

Teachers TV - Storytelling for Independence

Includes short section on interactive storytelling.
Could link to social stories - learning key social skills through storytelling rather than mainstream curriculum-based stuff.

Teaching Independence (Special Schools)