Page 36 - SEN113 SEN Magazine July-August 2021-V3

36 are largely phonological. Phonological awareness and phonemic skills (awareness of spoken words, language patterns, syllables and speech sounds in words) are important in learning to read and in reading itself. So are good phonological and phonemic skills a prerequisite of learning to read? Actually studies show that the very act of teaching the child to read using SSP teaches the child the phonemic skills they need to become good at decoding text. This ‘reading readiness’ debate focused on typically developing children in mainstream schools rather than those with complex needs in specialist settings. Could the concept of ‘reading readiness’ (with a completely different perspective) be one to consider for this group of children? We know we can teach phonemic awareness in the context of instruction, but for reading to be possible children also need to be able to: • understand that visual figures or symbols can ‘stand for’ or represent something, • recognise, identify, differentiate between, process, remember and recall visual information, specifically letter forms. The Simple View of Reading (Gough and Tunmer 2015)6 describes the relationship between decoding and understanding spoken language in developing reading and integrates the two. It tells us that children need to: • understand that spoken words convey meaning, • have a lexicon of words that they have heard and understand what they mean, • understand that a sequence of words conveys a greater meaning. “Even these complex pupils can make progress and achieve.” If we view these as a set of criteria, we can see that the majority of the 0.02% of children with complex needs fulfil them and with good quality structured reading instruction can develop reading and literacy skills. Pupils with autism, SLCN, physical disabilities, SLD and sensory needs can all access phonics if presented in the right way. The pace at which these pupils work through the content may be much slower than peers and a good deal of supported retrieval, practice and application (repetition and overlearning) may be required. Materials, activities and resources may need to be adapted and possibly personalised. Some pupils may require alternative communication strategies to access the work and enable them to respond to it. If the right adaptations and modifications are made, even these complex pupils can make progress and achieve. A comparatively small number of children have profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), sensory and multisensory impairments (MSI). According to the DfE census data, January 20202, 0.001% can be described in this way. Some, but not all, of this group of children may be working at a very early developmental level, would not meet the criteria suggested and so may find it difficult to access the written word. Teachers, in consultation with parents/carers, need to consider whether teaching reading is a realistic goal for this very small group of children or whether time is better spent working on other areas of the child’s development. That said, we need to be careful that we do not close any doors to reading for these children. Children grow, develop and change and any decisions should be reviewed regularly so that all children are given the opportunity to learn to read if appropriate. So, the answer to the initial question is surprisingly simple after all. It’s ‘yes’ (with the exception of a very small number of pupils with PMLD). The ability to read is an important part of accessing and participating in the world around us. The majority of children, including those with complex and multiple needs, can learn to read if instruction is appropriate, not just SSP but ASSP - accessible, systematic, synthetic phonics. senmagazine.co.uk ■ reading together. SEN113 Literacy