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Thursday, 17 March 2016

How literate is our society?

There has been some discussion in tweets and blogs and at various conferences about literacy recently.

A range of researchers have talked about literacy from different perspectives. Each of these is important to gain a fuller understanding of what you need to consider for inclusion and participation for the people with whom you engage.

There was a discussion on RadioNational this week about the PIAAC, 2013 data which tells us 44% of the Australian adult population has non functional literacy. Listen to the broadcast to hear about 2 individuals’ issues and needs when they had non functional literacy.

Easy English is needed as part of a broad plan to engage with adults of all backgrounds so they can be included, participate and make meaningful decisions about their own lives. This may be for medical information, housing or organising a new mobile phone contract and many other things. Some examples of Easy English are here. Think about what documents you need in Easy English, and ask me how to make this happen.

Today I read about The World’s Most Literate Nations data.

This is an interesting analysis and worthy of discussion. It does address the issues about what constitutes literacy and evidence of literacy in a community. The report does agree the aspects reviewed could impact on the results. However, for this review the researchers used

- access to a computer (Percentage of households with either desktop or laptop computer and excludes other devices such as cell phone, personal digital assistant, or T);

- input to education (compulsory yrs of schooling and amount spent per student related to GDP);

- output of education (Data from PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) literacy, data from PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and data from YOA for 15-18yr olds);

- Libraries (Number of academic libraries, public libraries, school libraries, volumes in all (only) public libraries);

- Newspapers (including: paid-for dailies, circulation, online editions, export of newspapers)

More details about each of these areas is in the research report. What other areas do you think need to be considered when you wonder whether Australia is a literate nation?

On the data analysed where does Australia fit in the overall schema of being a literate nation?

Where would you expect them to be?

Australia is not in the top 10 overall. Nor is it in the top 10 on any 1 of the parameters analysed.

Australia is 16th overall according to this data. Have a look at the countries above and below Australia. Would you expect this is where our literacy is, as a country? If you agree, this is accurate, what do we need to do to develop into a more literate society? What resources, what research, what support needs to be in place? What infrastructure, what training, what else needs to be done. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Cathy

Cathy Basterfield

Access Easy English

Consultant – Speech Pathologist
Telephone: 0466 579 855
Email: cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au

Website: www.accesseasyenglish.com.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/accesseasyenglish (our recent projects)

Twitter: @accesseasyengli

Thursday, 3 March 2016

Implementing communication in the classroom, home or worksite

Implementing Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a journey for everyone in the persons environment. It needs buy-in from all parties.

These 2 YouTube clips are good reminders about what needs to happen.

1. Think about Skills, Knowledge, Policy, Practice and Attitude (Miranda). A light hearted, but important message. Language Stealers

2. Implementing new vocabulary or core vocabulary. This YouTube clip uses aided communication, but the way to teach core vocabulary, the support materials and record keeping is relevant to unaided communication too. Teaching a Core Vocabulary

Talk to me about other strategies for implementing AAC

Cathy

Cathy Basterfield

Access Easy English

Twitter: @accesseasyengli

Wednesday, 3 February 2016

Disability, Human Rights & Social Equity

This week in Melbourne is the inaugural Disability, Human Rights and Social Equity Conference.

The hosts are the Social Equity Institute, which is part of the University of Melbourne.

Check out the program. It makes incredible reading. There is such a diverse range of issues to hear about.

The Plenary sessions are:

Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo, Disability Advisor in the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice of the World Bank Group. Disability rights a trigger for social equity

and

Emeritus Professor Ron McCallum AO, University of Sydney, former Chair, United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Monitoring Committee: A Domestic and International Analysis

and

Professor Mary Crock, Professor of Public Law, University of Sydney
Making Every Life Count: International Law and the Protection of Persons with Disabilities in Displacement

And that is just the start.

There are various streams and topics to keep the conversation going, including

Conflict, Violence and the Right to Safety

Mental Health

Language, Literacy and Behaviour

Governance and Service Provision

Acquired Brain Injury & Supported Decision Making

NDIS

Creative Arts

Health

Financial Issues

Criminal Justice

I have the privilege of having my poster accepted for the conference. I look forward to catching up with familiar and new faces. Later, I will share some of the amazing thoughts, ideas and discussion from the conference here.

The Twitter handle for the conference is #socialequity16

Cathy

Cathy Basterfield

Access Easy English

Twitter: @accesseasyengli

Friday, 22 January 2016

Parental engagement in education

Parents can be bombarded with information about how to support their children in school, and in the home environment. This includes areas such as how to set up a home study space to techniques for reading, to helping their child with assignments.

As students prepare to return to school in the next week, Graham Jaeshke, the Opinion Writer in The Advertiser, South Australia, reminds us all about the school/home partnership and the value of engagement by parents in their child's education.

However, for some parents this is extremely difficult.

When 44% of the Australian adult population has non functional literacy (ABS #4228, 2013) there will be many parents in the school environment who would have difficulty being engaged with their child's education, no matter how much they want to. Start to make a list of all the documents and information parents need to read and understand to be able to participate.

Here is the start of your list

Enrolment form

Open Day - meetings, school, visits

Uniform policy and uniform rules

Photo permission forms

ICT Policy and permission

Excursion notices

Parent teacher information letters and appointments

Acceptable behaviour policy - students and parents

Newsletter

Illness Rules

Management of Lice

Mobile phone school policy and rules

Asthma and Epipen regulations and rules

Volunteer requests

Reading at Home expectations

What else do you expect parents to be able to read, understand and use functionally?

This is the beginning of your journey with Easy English.

Contact me for further details or to request a quote to begin your own journey introducing Easy English to your school or organisation.

Cathy

Cathy Basterfield

Access Easy English

Twitter: @accesseasyengli