The general education classroom is filled with academic vocabulary, and individuals with developmental disabilities benefit from explicit vocabulary instruction (Browder et al., 2008; Marzano, 2020; Smith et al., 2013). Picture-based alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) can encourage academic skills development (Ahlgrim-Dehzel et al.,…

Including gesture in instruction facilitates learning. Why? One possibility is that gesture points out objects in the immediate context and thus helps ground the words learners hear in the world they see. Previous work on gesture's role in instruction has used gestures that either point to or trace paths on objects, thus providing support for this…

A study was conducted to examine the interrelationships between drawing, early writing, and the context of talk in which both phenomena occur. Participant observation methodology was used in a self-contained public school kindergarten in order to gather daily data during a 3-month period. Specifically, children freely drew and wrote in an…

THIS UNIT GUIDE WAS DESIGNED FOR DEMONSTRATING TO THE PREREADER THAT WRITING IS A CODE FOR SPEECH AND THAT LETTERS ARE SYMBOLS FOR SOUNDS MADE IN SPEECH. IT WAS DEVELOPED AS A PREREADING UNIT UNDER "PROJECT LITERACY," A BASIC RESEARCH AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IN AREAS OF EDUCATION RELEVANT TO THE ACQUISITION OF LITERACY SKILLS.…

A NEW CURRICULUM OF CODING GAMES WAS DEVELOPED FOR BEGINNING READERS. THE CURRICULUM'S CONTENT EMPHASIZED TEACHING THE CHILD TO DECODE LETTERS INTO SOUNDS THAT REPRESENT LANGUAGE. THE PURPOSE WAS TO SHOW THE CHILD THE REASONABLENESS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WRITING AND SPEECH. THE CODING GAMES BEGAN WITH AN EMPHASIS ON LANGUAGE AND THE VARIOUS…