“Projects worked on during the first 3 months included: individual books, using family pictures, story telling, or catalogue pictures of things each person would like to purchase. The words in turn become spelling exercises, word identification (through use of a letter game), and practised on the computer.

Students that were physically incapable of writing were able to print the words on the computer, these were printed and cut out, and the student would paste them into their books.

Flash cards were developed with survival words, which were again, turned into games and computer work.

An existing program of building blocks, on the computer, was very helpful in assisting with word, colour, and object identification. It would have been really beneficial to have had other computer programs that would build on these skills and were geared for the beginner.

Some students were able to incorporate their sign language into the letter game, word recognition, and computer learning, thus building on existing skills.

During the months of March through June students were involved in individual projects, some of which included selecting a topic, getting pictures to demonstrate activities, and developing a story line, and then putting it together in book form. All students had fun with this and this still remains one of their favourite projects.

Others used the series of “pictures without words,” and a story was developed and printed in the captions.

In the case of 2 people with special needs, the use of pictures to indicate the activity was used with the appropriate word and signed word.”

Shirley Hollingshead
Catherine Janossy, A Needs Survey & Program Description: Program Delivery for the Developmentally Channelled Adult in Grey, Bruce and The Georgina Triangle. Walkerton, ON: The Walkerton & District Literacy Council, p. 57-58.