Assessing Student's Needs for Assistive Technology (ASNAT)

Chapter 5 – Assistive Technology for Reading, Studying, and Math
Transitional Reader
♦ develops chunking strategies, reading more words together (becoming fluent reading)
♦ uses more than one strategy (fix-it, checking for meaning, decoding, etc.)
♦ refines self-monitoring and self-correction
♦ realizes spelling includes visual coding as well as spelling by sound
♦ invents fully phonetic spelling of words
♦ remembers spelling of shorter, regularly spelled words
♦ decodes unfamiliar words
♦ uses known words to read unknown words
♦ reads practiced words automatically and accurately
♦ spelling-phonetic tends to over generalize BAK (back) MAL (mail) PECT (peeked)
♦ can read text independently
♦ skill in reading and writing depend on complexity and meaningfulness of task at hand
♦ shares thoughts and feelings in writing
♦ silent reading starts to exceed oral reading
♦ beginning to use conventions of print (capitalization, punctuation)
Functionally Literate
♦ begins to use basic paragraph structure
♦ metacognitive about using strategies
♦ develops strategies for comprehending a variety of text structures (cause-effect, sequence, main ideadetail)
♦ decodes multi syllabic words by chunking letters
♦ decodes unfamiliar words rapidly
♦ remembers the spelling of words
♦ knows spelling patterns as they symbolize blends of sounds (igh, tious)
♦ edits, revises and prepares final draft
♦ uses critical thinking sills to organize thoughts in writing
♦ uses conventional spelling
It is critical that children with disabilities are read to on a regular basis with an opportunity to see and
touch the books as much as possible. Talking to the child about the story, pointing out various aspects of
the pictures, labeling items and actions are all helpful in developing these early emergent literacy skills.
For students who are non-speaking, provide some form of communication alternative for the child to
label objects and actions, to request more or to comment about the content of the reading material.
BookWorm Literacy Tool from Ablenet, Inc. provides a device that makes almost any book a "talking
book." Simply record a book into the BookWorm literacy tool and press the keypad or an external
switch. Now all students can enjoy their favorite book. Using the headphone jack makes independent
reading easy.
Assessing Students’ Needs for Assistive Technology (2004) 119