Assessing Student's Needs for Assistive Technology (ASNAT)

Chapter 5 – Assistive Technology for Reading, Studying, and Math
Five Components of Reading Instruction
The information in this section is a synthesis and summary of Adler, C. R. (2001). Put Reading First:
The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. Free copies of that publication are
available from their website.
Phonemic Awareness – sub category of a much bigger group of skills, phonological awareness. It is the
ability to hear, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words.
Phonics – an understanding of the relationship between phonemes (the sound of spoken language) and
graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language). Most students
require about two years of systematic phonics instruction.
Fluency – the ability to read text quickly and accurately. Fluency provides the bridge between decoding
and comprehension.
Vocabulary - the words we know and use effectively in communication. Vocabulary is important in
learning to read because young readers use the words they have heard to help them make sense out of
the words they are trying to read.
Text Comprehension – Students must comprehend what is read.
These five components of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and
text comprehension are critical in learning how to read and write. They must be part of a child’s
instruction during the primary grades. If the child about whom you are concerned is not going to be an
active participant in the academic curriculum, but will be included in the regular classroom, you may
wish to look at A Book of Possibilities, from AbleNet, Inc. This is an excellent resource for ideas for
including children in academic activities even though they are learning a more functional curriculum.
Simon S.I.O. is a software program from Don Johnston Incorporated that provides instruction and skillbuilding
activities to assist with learning sounds, building words, increase word recognition and fluency.
Simon S.I.O. stage 1 consists of 33 levels and 300 words emphasizing single consonants and common
blends. Simon S.I.O. stage 2 includes an additional 33 levels while the focus is on more complex blends
and diagraphs. SoftTouch Software has developed a series of software called Teach Me Phonemics that
gives students experiences with words, sounds and letters while they are mastering cause and effect and
choice making. Teach Me Phonemics helps students hear the sounds they are working on. The teacher
chooses the presentation - the word, the phoneme and the word or the onset and rime, in the case of
initial sounds. The pupil chooses an image and sees a large photo accompanied by text, movement and
music. The photo magically changes (morphs) to the Mayer-Johnson symbol. Simon S.I.O .includes
options for single- or two-switch scanning.Simon S.I.O . is appropriate for all pupils learning to make
choices, practicing speech articulation, engaging in literacy experiences and developing language.
Assessing Students’ Needs for Assistive Technology (2004) 122