Assessing Student's Needs for Assistive Technology (ASNAT)

Chapter 5 – Assistive Technology for Reading, Studying, and Math
Using the Nonverbal Reading Approach to Teach Reading to Students with Severe Speech and
Physical Impairments (SSPI)
Teaching reading to students who are unable to speak is possibly the most challenging of all
instructional tasks. Reading is essentially a process where students decode letters and words. They
demonstrate that decoding process by speaking those words aloud. When the student cannot speak due
to a severe physical disability it is very difficult both to identify current level of performance and to
monitor progress. Consequently students with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI) often
experience significant reading and writing difficulties.
Many factors may contribute to the literacy difficulties of students with SSPI, including:
♦ Lack of experience with literacy activities
♦ Difficulty holding or manipulating books and other materials
♦ Limited language experiences due to the lack of speech
♦ Reduced expectations for the development of literacy skills by both teachers and parents
♦ Restricted participation in “typical” literacy activities in school and home
♦ High levels of absenteeism from school due to health issues
Heller, Fredrick, and Diggs (2000) demonstrated the effectiveness of the Nonverbal Reading Approach
to teach reading to three students with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI). The Nonverbal
Reading Approach uses internal speech, diagnostic distractor arrays, and error analysis in conjunction
with individualized adaptations including assistive technology. Part of that study will be summarized
here. For more information on the nonverbal reading approach go to
http://education.gsu.edu/PhysicalDis then choose monographs or newsletter.
Internal Speech–When students are unable to verbalize phonemes when sounding out a word, they can
be taught to use internal speech (Bigge, 2001). Internal speech is the process of silently speaking to
oneself.
Distractor Arrays–Because these students are not able to verbalize an answer, they must be provided
with an array of choices from which to indicate an answer. Heller et al. (2000) describe the importance
of the distractor array.
“A distractor array is a list of alternative choices provided to the student, either orally,
or in writing (on paper, computer or AAC device). Distractor arrays are diagnostic
when the alternative choices are carefully selected to include the correct answer and
two or more additional items that can indicate a student’s misunderstanding. For
example, if the student is learning the word, “ball” and the choices are ‘bill,” “ball,”
“doll,” and “bat” and the student chooses “bill,” the error indicates that the student
knows the first and last consonant, but not the vowel. If the student chooses the word
“bat”, it indicates that the student knows the initial sound and/or consonant, but not the
ending. If the student chooses “doll” it indicates that the student does not know the
beginning sound or vowel (p. 7).
Assessing Students’ Needs for Assistive Technology (2004) 133