8

Experiences in Fundamental Skills

LONG, involved sentences, abstract words, and abstract

number ideas are usually beyond the comprehension of mentally retarded children. They should not be asked to waste time trying to master all the academic skills required of intellectually normal pupils. Only those skills which are instrumental in the development of a useful adult life, as well as a happy childhood, should be attempted. As with social and civic experiences, the child learns to read, to write, and to add more readily when the need for learning arises out of an experience through which he is living at the time. He becomes so interested in the situation or in the manipulation of objects connected with the experience that he is either unaware that he is learning or is definitely tackling a difficult piece of work as a means toward reaching a goal which this new experience has opened up to him.

Reading

Reading is an important factor in helping the child to take his place with normal people in the community. Yet adult reading needs in their simplest terms are few. In order of importance they are: (a) Reading for protection; (b) reading for information or instruction; and (c) reading for pleasure. Some mentally retarded children will be able to master only enough reading for their own protection. Others will be able to add reading for information and instruction. A few will read for pleasure.

Reading for Protection

The child should be able to recognize instantly such signs as DANGER, CAUTION, EXIT, KEEP OFF, EXPLOSIVES. He should be able to read pedestrian traffic signs such as KEEP TO THE RIGHT, WALK FACING TRAFFIC, WATCH YOUR STEP. He will need to be able to read streetcar, train, or bus signs, showing their destination; also such signs as NO SMOKING, DO NOT PUT HEAD OR ARMS OUT OF WINDOW, DO

NOT TALK TO THE MOTORMAN, SPITTING PROHIBITED, NO SPITTING. All but the children of lowest grade of intelligence will have need to learn auto traffic signs. These will include such road signs as SCHOOL GO SLOW, STOP-LOOK-LISTEN, CROSSROADS, CAUTION-MEN WORKING AHEAD, ROAD SLIPPERY WHEN WET, DANGEROUS CURVE, STEEP GRADE, NO LEFT TURN, CAR STOP. Reading for Information and Instruction

In order that the child may find his way about the community, he must be able to read street signs, streetcar signs, transfers, timetables, and official signs and warnings. He must also know how to find a name through the alphabetical lists given in the telephone and the city directories. Any other reading items should be introduced that are common to the social and industrial or agricultural environment of the child. He should be able to read labels and names of all household necessities such as names of articles of clothing, drugs, groceries, and common tools. He should be able to read the names of stores or departments in stores that carry such items. His reading vocabulary should include the names of common plants and animals. He should be able to read newspaper advertisements such as announcements of sales, "Help Wanted" and "Lost and Found" columns.

Some of these items will be common to the lives of both city and rural children, others only to one or the other group. Each group should have a vocabulary suited to its own particular needs. Each child should go as far as he is able. A very deficient child in the city may be able to learn only the names of streets in his immediate vicinity. Others with more ability will learn the geography of the city and will be able to learn the names of all principal intersecting streets, of all parks in the community, and of the important buildings. Still others, especially those whose families use the automobile as a means of travel, may be able to learn the geography of the entire State, as well as of neighboring States. There is no limit set except the child's ability and interest.

The rural child of very low ability may be able to learn only the names of crossroad signs of his immediate vicinity and the name and destination of the bus that passes through. Others may learn the names of the towns through which the bus passes and the destination of other busses met at junction points. To rural children the physical geography of the State should be of special interest.

The type of vocabulary for either city or country will be built naturally and with ease through many units of experience in which the need to know the geography of the locality arises. Such experiences include:

1. Walks about the vicinity of school and home.

2. Trips about the city to

(a) Market.

(b) Dairy.

(c) Bakery.

(d) Art gallery.

(e) Parks or playgrounds.

3. Tracing the progress of farm products to their markets.

4. Tracing some manufactured article from the factory to farm or home.

Reading for Pleasure

Children of low intellectual ability may read for pleasure if carefully guided and directed to material that is within their comprehension and interest. Among the first sources to which they turn are the "Funnies" and at least the headlines of the "Sports Pages." Some booklists have been made out by librarians and others interested in the reading of retarded children indicating the books most frequently preferred by them. Even commercial publishing companies have begun to include in their catalogs of books for boys and girls a classified list of "books for retarded readers," specifying age and vocabulary level. Any teacher can find or develop such a list for himself, being careful to offer the children only those books which they can handle with ease.

Experience Reading

Experience reading, involving items common to the activity being carried on in class, is the best approach to the development of reading skill. For example, if a class activity centers on "Household Pets," the child must acquire many new words for his reading vocabulary. Together teacher and pupils will develop phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that will be printed on charts and in turn become the next day's reading lesson. Through discussion and work periods the new words will be made a part of the child's vocabulary. They will have real meaning for him. When he encounters them again in another reading situation, they will give meaning to the new subject matter.

The experience and vocabulary used should always be in terms of the psychological maturity of the child. The experience must be real to him,

and to be real it must be well within his ability to understand it. Household pets interest most children. To the child with a mental age of 6 years, a dog is little or big, black or brown. His reading experience may center on the following ideas:

1. The dog as a playmate.

2. His habits (what he eats; where he sleeps).

3. How to take care of a dog.

4. Why take care of him.

5. Tricks he can learn.

6. How to punish him.

7. How to reward him.

The child with a mental age of 8 or 9 will be interested to go further and learn about the different breeds of dogs, the native country of each breed, the different characteristics and uses of each breed.

Again, in carrying out a "Post Office" unit, the interest of the child who has a mental age of 6 will not go beyond the postman, the letter, and the stamp. The child of a mental age of 8 or 9 years will want to learn about the duties of the local postmaster, the train mail, the air mail, and the ocean mail. The boy who is 14 or 15 years old and who has a mental age of 10 or 11 may be interested in mail rates, routes, and perhaps in subsidies to airplane and ship companies for the carrying of mail.

The child who is not ready to build up reading concepts should share in the group's unit of experience, develop his own background of experi ence, and increase his speaking vocabulary. His reading activities should be of kindergarten or preprimer level, involving largely the matching of words and objects or of words and pictures.

Language and Spelling

Since spelling is the medium of written language, these two phases of work are here considered together. Language is the mode of expression of the child growing out of his activities and interests. Oral expression is the chief aim of language instruction for mentally retarded children. As adults they should have clear, distinct speech, be able to express their thoughts in simple sentences, be able to speak over the telephone, and to ask for or to give simple directions.

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In the classroom the child's facility with language will grow under the teacher's guidance as his field of life experience enlarges. His speaking vocabulary should increase and his meaningful reading vocabulary will increase accordingly. He should learn to speak clearly and to express complete thoughts. He should use his language ability in reading, arithmetic, social science, arts, and other fields. The fact that language is so general a subject makes it important that a checklist be used constantly to evaluate the work that has been done. Such a list can be formulated by the teacher on the basis of the activities carried on in class, supplemented by standard word lists.

Written language grows out of the use of oral language. The pupil should be able to say first that which he wishes to write. A need for written language will arise when he wishes to write a letter to his mother inviting her to a school party, or to a firm asking for information, catalogs, folders, or exhibits. He may wish to write a simple account of an activity being carried on in the classroom or to compose a greeting for Christmas or Easter. Every experience carried on under the teacher's guidance provides opportunity for developing written language in conformity with the probable demands that will be placed upon the retarded child as he grows up. Among the common activities that will demand written expression will be: Application for a job; ordering goods from a mail-order house; writing letters to relatives or friends; and other experiences that may be peculiar to his own social environment.

Spelling needs are simple, and demands in this direction should involve only those words which are likely to be included in the pupil's adult writing vocabulary. Numerous standardized spelling scales have been published which may be used as basic checklists. The limit of progress should be determined only by the child's own ability to master the mechanics of the spelling of words common to his needs. In some cases it is the one field in which a mentally retarded child seems to excel.

The activities carried on in the classroom should be the basis for introducing new words. Words so derived will be meaningful to the child. They will already be a part of his speaking vocabulary, and he will readily recognize the need for making them a part of his writing vocabulary. Their correct spelling should not stop with the so-called "spelling lesson," but should be a part of every writing activity in which the child engages.