Learning Opportunities

This 5-day intensive course will assist you to build capacity to develop literacy skills of children and youth with Complex Communication Needs (CCN) including those with significant cognitive disabilities and sensory impairment.

Each region is encouraged to send a team of three participants:

• a classroom teacher who currently has or will have children with CCN in their classroom
• a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) who works directly with children and youth who have CCN
• a regional coordinator who can work to support implementation and scaling of practices learned by their team across their region.

The course objectives are as follows:

• To introduce theoretical models and processes of language and literacy and their relationship to individuals with CCN
• To help professionals recognize oral and written language development in students with CCN
• To describe a range of assessment and intervention strategies that address the emergent conventional literacy needs of students with CCN
• To familiarize you with a range of technologies, and a variety of materials and resources that support language learning and use by students with CCN
• To share a range of resources and strategies for continuing self-education as well as parent and professional support
• To link effective language and literacy instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities with the Alberta English Language Arts Programs of Study
• To guide participating teams in the development of an implementation plan

This learning opportunity is subsidized as a result of a grant from Alberta Education to support implementation and support from the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta.

Target Audience

The institute will be targeted at Regional Collaborative Service Delivery partners with the intent of spreading the learning across the province to support children with low incidence disabilities including communication challenges.