Original Research
The teaching of Blissymbols as a bridge into literacy for children with cognitive impairments: A comparison of two training approaches
South African Journal of Communication Disorders | Vol 44, No 1 | a229 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v44i1.229
| © 2019 Enid Moolman, Erna Alant
| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 12 October 2016 | Published: 31 December 1997
Submitted: 12 October 2016 | Published: 31 December 1997
About the author(s)
Enid Moolman, Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Department of Communication Pathology, University of Pretoria, South AfricaErna Alant, Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Department of Communication Pathology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Full Text:
PDF (376KB)Abstract
This study compares the learning of Blissymbols by six mildly cognitively impaired children by means of a global and an analytic approach. Training consisted of two stages. The first was the training of eight compound symbols and the second the training of seven single configuration symbols. The study concludes that Blissymbols as an entrance into literacy can be taught successfully to cognitively impaired individuals by means of either an analytic or a global approach. The analytic approach seems to have greater long-term benefits, as the subjects instructed by the analytic approach consistently performed better in the generalization and re-evaluation procedures. The analytic approach, however, was much more time consuming than the global approach in terms of the length of training required. The implications for literacy development and augmentative and alternative communication systems are discussed.
Keywords
Blissymbols; literacy; global approach; analytic approach
Metrics
Total abstract views: 1762Total article views: 786
Crossref Citations
1. Translucency and Learnability of Blissymbols in Setswana-speaking Children: An Exploration
Juan Bornman, Erna Alant, Anlie Du Preez
Augmentative and Alternative Communication vol: 25 issue: 4 first page: 287 year: 2009
doi: 10.3109/07434610903392456