Accessible Literacy Learning (ALL™)
Evidence-based approach to teach basic reading skills to non-verbal students.
The Accessible Literacy Learning (ALL) is a reading program to help non-verbal students to learn how to read. ALL is designed to make literacy instruction easy, accessible and engaging for children with disabilities.
90% of students in America with complex communication needs enter adulthood without acquiring functional literacy skills.* The ALL Reading Program is an evidence-based approach designed specifically to teach basic reading skills to students who are non-verbal and require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
The ALL™ Reading Program Approach
The ALL Reading Program is an evidence-based approach designed specifically to teach basic reading skills to students who are non-verbal and require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Developed by researchers Dr. Janice Light and Dr. David McNaughton of Penn State, it enables students to bypass oral responses at all stages of instruction, allowing even the most challenged students to learn to read. However, by following the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) philosophy, the ALL program is able to support learners with a broad range of ages and abilities.
We’re excited that the team at Tobii Dynavox was able to realize the vision of software that can effectively support students with severe disabilities in their journey to literacy.
The ALL Reading Program is based on the recommendations of the National Reading Panel, which state that literacy skills should be taught using the principles of effective instruction – combining direct instruction with application in the context of meaningful and motivating reading and writing activities. This program follows these recommendations by providing:
- Bottom-up instruction that builds component skills (phonological awareness, letter-sound correspondences).
- Top-down instruction focused on meaningful reading experiences and reading activities based on student interest.
A comprehensive reading program
The ALL Reading Program teaches the six foundational skills of reading:
- Sound-Blending – Build words by blending their component sounds
- Phoneme Segmentation – Break words down into individual sounds
- Letter-Sound Correspondence – Recognize sounds represented by each of the letters and vice versa
- Single Word Decoding – Apply knowledge of letter-sound correspondences and sound blending skills to “sound out” regular words
- Sight Word Recognition – Recognize a word without sounding it out (e.g., light, dinosaur)
- Shared Reading – Decode or recognize each word in sequence, access the meaning of the words/sentences, process the words/sentences together in sequence to derive the full meaning of the text. Then learn/take meaning from the text and relate it to prior experience and knowledge.
We’re excited that the team at Tobii Dynavox was able to realize the vision of software that can effectively support students with severe disabilities in their journey to literacy.
-Dr. Janice Light and Dr. David McNaughton, Pennsylvania State University researchers and creators of ALL
Dr. Light and Dr. McNaughton’s extensive research in the field of literacy for learners with complex communication needs can be viewed here. To help support their mission, a portion of Accessible Literacy Learning sales goes to fund ongoing AAC research at Penn State.
Next generation of ALL
The ALL Software Edition is an app that includes the entire ALL reading program in an easy to use software package and delivers clear instruction that is accessible through touch, eyegaze, and scanning. Fully customizable to meet the needs of a broad range of students, ALL can easily be integrated with current literacy curriculums and provides teachers, aides, and parents with automated instruction supported by research.
Benefits of ALL
- Multi-platform availability – ALL software is available for use on the technology you already have – iPads, Windows operating systems, and Tobii Dynavox T-Series and I-Series AAC devices.
- Student tracking – ALL tracks student responses during sessions, so you don’t have to. Tracking is available for an unlimited number of students and gives you the ability to adjust instruction as you go. You can also review overall results for each session or for individual activities within each session.
- Three modes of instruction – ALL has three modes of instruction. In Independent and Practice Modes, ALL provides the instructions and prompting to the learners, so that they can work as independently as possible. Teacher Assisted mode provides an opportunity for the teacher to provide all or some of the instruction and prompting with ALL providing the rest.
- Customizable instruction – Customizing instruction in ALL is easy and helps to increase the learner’s interest. Do so by entering high interest words and creating custom books all right in the app.
- Student insight – Viewing where a student is in the process is straightforward which makes it easy to quantify instructional goals and get them ready for IEPs.
Seasonal reading books added
The ALL Software currently contains over 40 reading books, and with more books being added, that teach CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words. The seasonal books help students to participate in and read about time-relevant topics while working to build literacy skills. Also, they help to add more topics and additional opportunities to learn new concepts.
What is included in the ALL package!
One license of ALL includes:
- The ALL Reading Program Software (six skill areas)
- Progress reporting
- Unlimited students
- Embedded video help
- Electronic user manual
- Access to myTobiiDynavox.com (accounts are free) for backing up and restoring users
- 20+ shared reading books (new books will be added when published by Tobii Dynavox)
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* Foley, B. & Wolter, J.A. (2010). Literacy intervention for transition-aged youth: What is and what could be. In McNaughton, D., & Beukelman, D. (Eds.), Language, Literacy, and AAC Issues for Transition- Age Youth (pp. 35-68). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
ALL Software Edition is available on different platforms and devices - standard Windows computers, speech generating devices in the I-Series+ and the T-Series as well as for iOS.
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