Project Description:
The impetus for this pilot project came from observing difficulty with common sight words among NCBC members. I located the Fry Sights Words lists, and identified two current Next Chapter Book Club members who would benefit from increasing their fluency with these common words. Next, I consulted with Paula Rabidoux PhD, CCC-SLP and Joan Beetstra MS, CCC-SLP regarding effective practices and overall pilot direction. It was agreed that the activity should not only focus on learning sight words, but on assisting the participants in learning to do something in their everyday lives more independently.
I met with participants separately for a total of ten (10) hours each. For one participant, we focused on learning how to access Zoom meetings more easily and opening and using an email account safely. We also filled out an address book with this person's important personal information, as he did not yet know his address and phone number by heart. Additionally, we practiced sight words using flash cards, Scrabble tiles, a small dry-erase board, and various texts. After 10 weeks, the participant had begun to recognize more sight words during book club meetings, and his mother reported, "I can tell he's improved." He is now able to access Zoom meetings without frustration. He has chosen not to spend time emailing because he finds it overwhelming; however he is better able to recite his important information, such as phone number and address.
For the second pilot participant, we also focused on sight words using the same strategies described above. This participant wanted to be able to sign her food orders to servers at restaurants. With the help of a book of common food signs and flash cards with other common ASL signs, we practiced these signs together. Early on, it became clear that she had more experience with ASL than I. We practiced signing for a couple weeks, then decided together to move on to another personal literacy goal: to be able to communicate her grocery needs to her staff and sister. In the end, I created a "grocery key" with images of the foods or household supplies she commonly gets from the grocery store next to the item's name. This key enables her to text the right words to her sister and staff, instead of relying on taking a picture, since often the item she needed was no longer in her home.
I will meet again with colleagues listed above to discuss next steps, scaling the project, and other key learnings from this pilot. I believe the time spent having frequent, back-and-forth conversations with these two participants provided the most benefit. I observed the therapeutic effect of simply having someone who wants to listen to you and get to know you. Both participants became more and more comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions with me while demonstrating small but noticeable improvements in their social skills.
Keyword(s):
literacy, sight words, ADL, independence
