Life Long Literacy

Format

Poster Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Augusta University

Second Presenter's Institution

Augusta University

Third Presenter's Institution

Augusta University

Fourth Presenter's Institution

N/A

Fifth Presenter's Institution

N/A

Strand #1

Family & Community

Strand #2

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

Training adults to use puppets to reach children and youth who are gifted and yet have reading and learning disabilities.

Brief Program Description

Our objective is to reach and teach adults from families and communities to use puppets as puppets bring literacy to life for children and youth who are gifted but suffer from reading and learning disabilities.

Summary

Our objective is to reach and teach adults from families and communities to use puppets as puppets bring literacy to life for children and youth who are gifted but suffer from reading and learning disabilities. Intellectually gifted individuals with specific reading and learning disabilities are one of the most misunderstood student populations in our families and communities. Teachers, school counselors, parents, mentors and stakeholders too often ignore the major characteristics of intellectual giftedness and instead emphasize deficits of children and youth who experience such learning related disabilities as difficulties in spelling, reading, writing, and mathematics. Our practical model will focus on providing volunteers, educators, parents, and other stakeholders with information for identifying gifted students who are twice and thrice exceptional due to learning and reading disabilities. Tips for teachers and parents will be provided so that strategies that they incorporate will reach the unique needs of gifted students with reading and learning disabilities. Gifted students with reading and learning disabilities are truly a subgroup which combines giftedness in terms of superior intelligence and dually exceptional due to their difficulties associated with reading and learning disabilities. Since such students are seldom identified for ether gifted or special education services, it is imperative to identify a way of reaching these students in terms of their reading and learning disabilities at early ages. According to Renzulli, gifted students display characteristics that include creativity. Children with learning disabilities display discrepancies between their ability and their performance. Gifted students with disabilities often experience social emotional problems when they know answers but are unable to speak or write those answers correctly. Such social emotional behaviors result in low frustration tolerances and high impulsivity which results in the need for hands-on activities that build on creativity and compensate for the low frustration tolerances and high impulsivity (Reis & Colbert).

Puppets help gifted students with learning and reading disabilities understand those disabilities. In this presentation, we will show adults how to use puppets to build on gifted children’s creativity while at the same time compensate for their low frustration tolerances and high impulsivity.

Evidence

Research evidence over the last 35 years has demonstrated through empirical findings that puppets positively impact the social-emotional development of gifted students with reading and learning disabilities. This statement is based on known research and promising practices from a myriad of studies: To, Q. G., Le H. K., Dao, T. T., Magnussen, C. G., & Le, Q. T.. “Effectiveness of a puppet show on iodine knowledge, attitudes and behavior of elementary students and the indirect effects on their parents and households in Ho Chi Minh City: A pilot study”. Public Health, 124 (9), 538-541. September, 2010. and Simon, S., Naylor, S., Keogh, B., Maloney, J., & Downing, B. “Puppets promoting engagement and talk in science”. International Journal of Science Education, 30 (9), 1229-1248. July, 2008.

Biographical Sketch

Paulette Harris: She is a Cree-Walker Endowed Professor at Augusta University and the founder and director of the Augusta University Literacy Center where puppets have been used with students with reading and learning disabilities.

Linda Smith: She has over 35 years of experience as an educator in South Carolina. She has presented at the national, state, and local levels including South Carolina ETV and CNN.

Sarah Wong: She is a Professional School Counselor whose theoretical orientation aligns with that of Alfred Adler who specialized in play therapy with children and applies them to practices that address social-emotional needs of students in Pre-K though 5th grade.

Keyword Descriptors

puppets, literacy, puppet therapy, gifted, exceptional, learning disability, reading disorders

Presentation Year

2018

Start Date

3-6-2018 4:00 PM

End Date

3-6-2018 5:30 PM

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
Mar 6th, 4:00 PM Mar 6th, 5:30 PM

Life Long Literacy

Our objective is to reach and teach adults from families and communities to use puppets as puppets bring literacy to life for children and youth who are gifted but suffer from reading and learning disabilities.