Literacy before and after inclusion in general education settings: A case study

Abstract

This 7 year case study describes a young woman with moderate to severe disabilities and her use of literacy (i.e., reading, writing, listening, and speaking) during various stages of her educational career. Her use of lit-eracy is described (a) when she was 15-years-old, after having received special education and related services in self-contained special education classes for 10 years and (b) during the proceeding 7 years, after the location in which she received services was changed to general edu-cation settings with nondisabled classmates, first in middle school, then high school, and finally in college. This change in location of services resulted in changes both in her instructional content and in the manner in which instruction and assessment occurred. Concomi-tantly, observable changes occurred in her social and learning behaviors. Significant changes resulted in the student's reading, writing, listening, and speaking across settings, people, content, and activities. In addition, the student's prior inappropriate social behaviors and refus-als to participate in learning activities were replaced with appropriate behaviors in both instructional and social situations. Finally, the implications of the findings from this case study are discussed and recommendations are made for providing effective educational programs for students with moderate to severe disabilities, including literacy development. DESCRIPTORS: disabilities, literacy, special educa-tion, social and learning behaviors Traditionally, literacy has been viewed as an indi-vidual's ability to read and write. To assist students in developing reading and writing skills, schools predomi-nantly adopted a reading readiness approach, contend-ing that a learner needs to reach a certain level of men-tal, physical, and emotional maturity before profiting Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to Di