READING AND SPELLING AMONG NONVOCAL CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL-PALSY - INFLUENCE OF HOME AND SCHOOL LITERACY ENVIRONMENT

In literacy research, home literacy experiences and exposure to print have been ascribed a contributing role in later reading development al ong with metalinguistic and other cognitive skills. In a study on read ing and spelling skills in nonvocal children the home and school liter acy experiences of 35 children with cerebral palsy were studied by mea ns of questionnaires. The questionnaires were completed by the parents and teachers. The answers from the disability group were compared wit h the answers from two comparison groups, one matched for mental age a nd sex and the other for sex and IQ. The results revealed few differen ces in the home literacy experiences of the three groups. The children of all three groups had access to a variety of printed materials, and there were no differences in the parents' reading habits or in their values and high priority given to literacy. The disabled children took a passive role in story reading with little linguistic interaction, a nd the parents took the active part. The results indicated that home l iteracy experiences in the groups studied at best had a marginal influ ence on reading development. Individual differences in speech and lang uage abilities were proposed to have higher explanatory value of the l ow literacy skills found among nonvocal children.