[Dialogue] Teaching reading to Developmentally Delayed adults

[Chagnon@comcast.net]

>From Lucille Chagnon in Wilmington, DE

This is the two-page proposal that I presented to the Delaware Division of Developmental Disabilities Services and to the adult day habilitation center (see the previous e-mail).



A SIMPLIFIED APPROACH TO READING FOR ALL

A Pilot Program for DDDS at The Edgemoor Center, Wilmington, DE
 
The great paradox is this: Reading, one of the world's most solitary exercises, is initially about relationships.  Children who are read to regularly in a safe, warm environment become readers almost automatically.  Even three-year-olds can learn to read if they feel safe and if the one reading with them makes learning fun.  Yet three-year-olds are certainly not ready for “classroom” learning. 

How is it then, that many older children and adults come to believe they cannot learn to read or cannot learn, period?  Could longstanding beliefs about intelligence have anything to do with it?  Or the fact that for decades special needs funding for schools has been tied into government-imposed negative labels?

Fortunately, with a strong belief in the power of the human heart and brain and with simple multi-sensory methods, reading is a lifeline that any willing reader can extend to just about any other human being who wants to give it a try.     

But what about IQ?  The correlation between IQ and reading difficulties can no longer be taken for granted, thanks to the ground-breaking work of Dr. Renee Fuller, former Director of Psychological Services at Rosewood, the Maryland state institution for individuals with developmental disabilities in Owings Mills, MD.  

 In Fuller's seminal research between 1968 and 1974, 24 of 26 Rosewood residents, ages 11 to 48, learned to read with understanding.  Their IQs ranged from the 30s to 72.  Almost all saw their official prognosis change.  Some taught themselves to write.  Some moved out of the institution.  

Fuller's secret is a system of manipulative capital letters embedded in a series of amusing stories originally written for students with normal intelligence who had not learned to read.  She never planned, nor believed that it could be possible to teach institutionalized youth and adults to read.  Yet she and her eager staff did precisely that.  In fact, her work has been replicated with individuals with IQs in the 20s. 

The Rosewood story is documented in Fuller's book, In Search of the IQ Correlation, the expanded version of a lengthy American Psychological Association symposium in 1972 devoted to the implications of her work for intelligence theory.  Formerly a strong believer in the IQ correlation, her research now focuses on the relationship of what she calls the Story Engram to the growth and transformation of real world intelligence. 
 
A Pilot Literacy Program for the Edgemoor Center

	The most important factor in deciding whether or not to test Fuller's hypothesis with any new population is staff willingness to give it a real try with the belief that it is going to work.  Ironically, it was Fuller herself who did not believe it would work with the Rosewood residents.  Because it took a year for her staff to convince her to give it a try, skeptics are in good company.  

	The simplicity of Fuller's methods are complemented by an easy time-frame:  tutoring sessions are no more than 20 minutes and can be as brief as five, with Learning Partners meeting as often as they wish.  The following 16-hour pilot is suggested as an introductory program for the Edgemoor Center on behalf of the Delaware Division of Developmental Disabilities Services.

1.	A one-hour Information and Q&A Session for staff, interested parents, relatives, and other potential volunteer Learning Partners (Tutors);
2.	Three one-hour Tutor Training Sessions focused on Fuller's Ball-Stick-Bird books, with role playing and with supplementary materials on hand;
3.	Ten one-hour weekly Tutor Support Group sessions, with the Consultant as one member of a debriefing Learning Circle that encourages peer sharing of what worked and what didn't, in an atmosphere of group problem-solving designed to enhance knowledge, skill, and insight;
4.	A two-hour Debriefing and Planning session to conclude the Pilot Literacy Program, with DDDS staff and decisions-makers also in attendance.
 
The total is a 16-hour, 15-week pilot spread over 3 1/2 months.  During the final session, the Consultant will engage the participants and decision-making Managers in a two-hour debriefing and planning workshop whose first goal is to critique the program to see how it can be improved.  The second goal is to see if staff wishes to continue and to expand the program, with the Consultant on call only if and when necessary.

	The ultimate goal is to hand the program totally over to staff-or to staff and volunteers-who, because they have been part of a lifeline whose transformative power has begun to change people's lives and self-image, are ready to encourage their DDDS colleagues to consider expanding the program's reach beyond the Edgemoor Center pilot site.

Lucille T. Chagnon, M.Ed., Literacy Acceleration Consultant
302-762-0282    lifeline248 at aol.com    www.teachtwo.net