Triveni Goswami Vernal
Registered Special Educator (CRR No. A64010)

Literacy Skills in Functional Academics include Reading as well as Writing. In this blog, I will touch upon Writing and will expand writing as a literacy skill to incorporate the use of various Augmentative and Alternative Communications (AACs) such as apps (Avaz, Jellow, Proloquo2go etc), or Letterboard Communicaton techniques such as Rapid Prompting Method (RPM), Spelling 2 Communicate (S2C), Typing etc, as a means of communication.

Writing is a complex skill to master. Care has to be taken to ensure that the child’s fine motor skills, gross motor skills, eye-hand coordination, body posture etc., are adequately worked upon, before introducing Writing to a child.
In my blog on Hand dominance, Pencil control and Handwriting: Approaches and Strategies (https://specialsaathi.com/2023/05/11/by-triveni-goswami-vernal/), I have written extensively on this. Sharing some information from it below,
“PRE-WRITING SKILLS: Pre-writing skills comprise of three main areas: Sensory-Motor Fine-Motor and Visual-Motor skills (https://www.theottoolbox.com/preschool-pre-writing-skills/ ).

A child should Practice various kinds of strokes, before they are made to practice various letters of the alphabet. Some of the basic strokes that they need to know are –Horizontal, Vertical, Diagonal, Spiral etc. There are several pre-writing worksheets that are available online. Some free printables:

https://www.3dinosaurs.com/wordpress/index.php/free-prewriting-practice-printables/
https://www.worksheetsplanet.com/prewriting-activities/

Besides practicing various kinds of strokes, the child also needs to work on HAND STRENGTHENING. This can be done through various activities in Play—rolling clay dough, using the fingers to put small objects in a jar, squeezing a ball, rolling the dice, threading beads on a string etc.”


The OT Toolbox, an amazing resource on everything related to Occupational Therapy has provided a comprehensive list of all the factors that shape the development of pre-writing skills in an individual.


Source: https://www.theottoolbox.com/preschool-pre-writing-skills/

“As one can see, in the table, pre-writing skills include an extensive set of skills across various areas—Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Sensorimotor skills, various kinds of Visual Perception, Attention, Memory and Imitation of movements, amongst others. Thus, for a seemingly simple skill on the surface, there is an entire foundation, that needs to be established and worked upon, first” (https://specialsaathi.com/2023/05/18/by-triveni-goswami-vernal-2/).

If for some reason, the child is not able to master the ability to write, he or she can be taught to Type, or use other AAC’s like the Avaz app (https://avazapp.com/products/avaz-aac-app/), Jellow (https://www.jellow.org/), Proloquo2go (https://www.assistiveware.com/products/proloquo2go. Most of these apps use Text and Symbols/Visual Images to facilitate Communication. Besides these, there is Sign Language (https://www.islrtc.nic.in/), Jolly Phonics (https://www.jollylearning.co.uk/jolly-phonics/) etc. and various kinds of Letterboard Approaches, such as Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) (https://www.halo-soma.org/) , Spelling 2 Communicate (https://i-asc.org/s2c-spelling-to-communicate/get-started-with-s2c/), that use Spelling as a means to communicate.
Whether the child/individual types, spells, signs or writes, the idea is to Communicate their thoughts, feelings, emotions and basic needs, for the day to day functioning with minimal assistance.

FUNCTIONAL WRITING/TYPING/SPELLING/GESTURING:
So, what does Functional Writing/Typing/Spelling/Gesturing under Functional Academics incorporate? It includes:
a) Being able to express their basic needs (feeling hungry, thirsty, using the toilet, bathing, brushing teeth, grooming oneself, wanting to go out, entertain oneself etc).
b) Being able to express important information regarding oneself/family (Own name, names of family members, contact details, phone numbers, home address etc).
c) Being able to express one’s emotions (anger, frustration, happiness, sadness).
d) Being able to express pain or feeling hurt.
e) Being able to ask for help.
f) Being able to recognize signs of danger and communicate if they find themselves in such a situation.
Thus, we see, that Communication (whether through writing, typing, spelling or use of an app), is of utmost importance and it has to be taught in various modes to persons with disabilities, to help them live their lives as independently, as they can.

REFERENCES:
https://specialsaathi.com/2023/05/11/by-triveni-goswami-vernal/
https://www.theottoolbox.com/preschool-pre-writing-skills/
https://specialsaathi.com/2023/05/18/by-triveni-goswami-vernal-2/.
https://niepid.nic.in/Functional%20Acadamics%20For%20Students.pdf

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Author Triveni Goswami Vernal

Triveni Goswami Vernal is an Autism advocate, registered Special Educator (CRR A64010) and an Independent Researcher. Her areas of interest include Autism, Disability Rights, Gender, Art and Northeast studies. She is a mum to an 12 year old on the Autism Spectrum.

Artwork- “Rainbow”, Artist – Kabir Vernal
Acrylic on Canvas