"There is a need to train operators to look for literacy opportunities. We support this idea because we have been using the strategies listed below and we are finding that they work. We have an 85% success rate of training mentally handicapped individuals to live with minimum support in the community.
Methods we are using:
- Food Charts — which include pictures of main courses, side dishes, vegetables, fruits, snacks and beverages with the word below each picture — to plan menus using sight vocabulary.
- Groceries — lists — using small pictures beside each item so the list can be compared to the menu and food charts.
- Picture Recipes — in simple to follow steps with the words under each picture.
- Microwave Chart — with pictures of food items and time/temp beside each item.
- Personal Shopping List — using picture cards for everyday personal needs with the word for the picture underneath.
- Pictorial Cash Sheets — for recording income/expenses and for planning monthly budgets.
- Flash Cards — to teach Survival Words and Hazardous Products.
- Symbols for Laundry — to teach water temp, use of machine, care of clothing."
Sherri
Wallace & Jean Alexander
Program Coordinators Touchwood Park Association for the Mentally Handicapped
(Neepawa, MB) April 2, 1993