Break down the barriers to successful literacy instruction and empower students with special needs with these insightful tips, tools, and examples.

An essential resource for educators, speech-language pathologists, and parents--and an ideal text for courses that cover literacy and significant disabilities--this book will help you ensure that all students have the reading and writing skills they need to unlock new opportunities and reach their potential.

With this practical guidebook, teachers will help students with disabilities meet academic standards for literacy. Appropriate for use in all settings, including inclusive classrooms, this book is the lifeline every K-12 teacher needs to Teach every key literacy component--phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, text comprehension, and oral language--to students with disabilities. Implement proven strategies. The practical teaching techniques and suggestions throughout the book are backed by research and field tested. Plan better lessons that get results with simple organizational tools like the Literacy Planning Matrix. Teach students with a wide range of disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disabilities, and multiple disabilities. Understand the research. The authors highlight reliable research on effective literacy practices and put it in the most accessible terms. A must-have resource on one of today's hottest topics, this easy-to-use book will help educators raise expectations for all students and teach those with disabilities the crucial literacy skills they'll use for the rest of their lives.

Packed with instructional strategies for students with significant disabilities, this research-based resource helps teachers adapt their curriculum, work collaboratively, develop accurate assessments, track student progress, and more.

Apply the "science" of reading to students with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities, including autismThe Early Literacy Skills Builder program incorporates systematic instruction to teach both print and phonemic awareness. ELSB is a multi-year program with seven distinct levels and ongoing assessments so students progress at their own pace.Five years of solid research have been completed through the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, proving ELSB to be a highly effective literacy program and more effective than a sight-word only program. ELSB is based upon the principles of systematic and direct instruction. It incorporates scripted lessons, least-prompt strategies, teachable objectives, built-in lesson repetition, and ongoing assessments. The seven ELSB levels contain five structured lessons each. All students begin at Level 1. If a student struggles here, go back and administer Level A. Instruction is one-on-one or in small groups. Teach scripted lessons daily in two 30-minute sessions. On the completion of each level, formal assessments are given. ELSB includes everything you need to implement a multi-year literacy curriculum.

"Practical and accessible, this book provides the first step-by-step guide to cognitive strategy instruction, which has been shown to be one of the most effective instructional techniques for students with learning problems. Presented are proven strategies that students can use to improve their self-regulated learning, study skills, and performance in specific content areas, including written language, reading, and math. Clear directions for teaching the strategies in the elementary or secondary classroom are accompanied by sample lesson plans and many concrete examples. Enhancing the book's hands-on utility are more than 20 reproducible worksheets and forms"--

The how and why of teaching literacy skills to children with autism