Literacy Activities Handbook - Saskatchewan Association of Rehabilitation Centres

Visual Scaffolds: There are a number of visual scaffolds that can assist the learner to better comprehend a passage of text or to assist the learner to generate ideas. Photographs, cartoons, illustrations and other visual materials provide scaffolding for stories, poems, and so on. One idea is to use a sequence of photographs as the basis for composing a text. Guided questions can be a further way to scaffold the composition of a text based on photographs or illustrations.
Oral Scaffolds: The tutor can ask the learner to complete a sentence or thought that the tutor begins orally. For example, the tutor can begin, "More than anything in the world, the thing I wish I could have is...." Oral scaffolds assist the learner to generate ideas on a particular topic. Activities for written scaffolding easily can be adapted orally, which is particularly helpful for beginning or hesitant learners.
Decision-Making Scaffolds: Ranking activities can be used to scaffold decision-making. Examples are ranking a list of movies according to how good they were or choosing places to eat according to overall cost or types of food preferred. Offering a set of choices can assist learners with intellectual / developmental disabilities to better exercise control over elements of their own lives.

Adapted from:
Gerard Girodano. Literacy Programs for Adults with Developmental Disabilities. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group, Inc., 1996, pp. 145-156.

Karen B. Moni & Anne Jobling, "LATCH-ON: A Program to Develop Literacy in Young Adults with Down Syndrome," in Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Vol. 44, No. 2 (September 2000), p. 44.