King-DeBaun, Pati. Using Stories to Promote Beginning Communication / Language and Emergent Literacy Learning. Paper presented at the 20th Annual Southeast Augmentative Communication Conference, Birmingham, AL, October 1-2, 1999.

This paper discusses how to use stories to promote beginning communication and language in students with severe communication and/or cognitive impairments. It describes a layering approach for building emergent literacy and augmentative and alternative communication skills. This layering approach is used with professional staff to introduce strategies or layers of facilitation techniques including technology in a gradual manner. The approach is designed to allow consultants to address the needs of a broad range of students, reinforce layers that already exist within a particular classroom or program, and/or compliment or move the facilitator to the next level or layer of implementation techniques. The paper begins by providing general philosophies on using stories to support language and literacy development and then describes the following layers for implementing aided-language stimulation techniques: (1) supported story retelling; (2) supported story readings; (3) independent story readings; (4) supported story construction; and (5) skill development, including word matching, phrase matching, phonemic awareness, and recognizing punctuation. Strategies for using books for learning in inclusive settings are also addressed.

 Koppenhaver, D.A, Coleman, P.P., Kalman, S.L. & Yoder, D.E., “The Implications of Emergent Literacy Research for Children with Developmental Disabilities,” American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology: A Journal of Clinical Practice, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1991), pp. 38-44.

Reviews research in the emergent literacy of nondisabled children and the home and preschool environments of children with developmental disabilities. Draws implications for parents, practitioners, and researchers.