Academic Component
Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all, and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy." (UNESCO, 2010)
The main function of Literacy is to help people develop academically to be able succeed and communicate in everyday life, however for children with Special Educational Needs their literacy skills develop at a slower pace and they require extra help and support to develop these skills. In this piece I am going to look at what provisions can be made in the classroom that will support and help further develop the literacy skills of children with Special Educational Needs.
As of 1998 many primary school teachers followed a technique proposed by the central government called The National Literacy Strategy or ‘Literacy Hour’ as it was commonly known. Literacy Hour required teachers to teach at least one hour of Literacy and one hour of numeracy every day, however in June 2009 it was announced that from 2011 Literacy Hour was no longer a requirement which gave teachers the freedom to teach Literacy how they saw appropriate. (Fisher, 2001). At first the Literacy Hour initiative came under as many people felt that it was not long enough as Literacy is such an important factor of life however it did become successful and many primary teachers still use the technique today (Fisher, 2001). However now that teachers now have freedom to teach literacy whatever way they want there are many ways that they can implement literacy in the classroom.
Implementing literacy into children’s play routine can prove to be an effective way of helping them pick up on information. Play is a natural and very important part of a child’s development. By having educational toys or activities available during playtimes it will allow the children develop their literacy skills without feeling the pressure of a teacher marking their progress, it also shows the child that it can be fun. This may also prove positive as during playtime children interact and they help each other this will also contribute to the self-esteem and it will also help the student develop their physical literacy more. For children with Special Educational needs reading and writing can feel like a daunting task as research suggests that many children with Special Educational Needs have a low self- confidence (Renick & Harter, 1989), however if they were to read and write to each other in a comfortable and non-intimidating way if may prove successful in helping them develop confidence in their literacy skills. Examples of this can include simple things like writing birthday cards or drawing pictures for each other. Another effective way of developing the skills would be to group up the students and providing them with an appropriate story that they have to read in their groups. By doing this their confidence in reading will improve and if successful reading will not seem like a chore to the student.
While being in school helps develop children’s literacy skills it has be proven that children learn most literary skills at home. (Hohman & Weikart, 2002).One way the parents can encourage this reading to their child or even helping the child with their homework and providing them with an adequate amount of resources to develop their numeracy, physical and educational literacy. To be literate is a necessity for everyday life, it is needed to communicate and to complete simple tasks such paying for items in a store or talking to your friends. It is highly important that children with or without Special Educational Needs receive all the help and support that is available to help them develop their literacy skills to the best of their ability. However upon completing this piece of work it is clear that there are many techniques that can be practiced in the classroom and at home to help children with Special Educational Needs support and develop their literacy skills.
References
Fisher, R. (2001) Inside the Literacy Hour: Learning from Classroom Experience London: Routledge (2010), 6-8
Hohman, M., Weikart, D.P. (1955) Active Learning Practices for Pre-School and Childcare Programmes Edinburgh: Highscope Press (2002), 361
Unesco (2010) Why is Literacy Important? http://www.unesco.org/en/education-ar/themes/learning-throughout-life/literacy/literacy-important/
Renick, M.J. & Harter, S. (1989) Impact of Social Comparisons on the Developing Self-Perceptions of Learning Disabled Students, Journal of Educational Psychology, (2008) 81, 631-638

Applied Component
Literacy is something I feel you start to develop on from a very early age, from the toys and books you were provided as a baby right up until the point when you go to school where you continue to develop these skills, fortunately I do not have any Special Educational Needs, however during my time in sixth form I was fortunate to have a work placement in my local special needs school. During my time in the school I was able to witness first-hand the help and support that is offered to children with Special Educational Needs and also gained an insight to the different learning styles implemented in the classrooms there and different techniques that the teachers used to help the students learn.
I have always known literacy was related to be able to read and write and throughout my early years I was fortunate enough to have it encouraged upon me and was thought to know how important it was from my parents and teachers. From a very young age I had access to a vast variety of fictional and non-fictional books, I credit my myself on being very well read and I do have an interest in reading and believe that the main reason for this is the resources I had available to me. My mother always encouraged me to read and regularly took me and my siblings to the library, as she too was an avid reader it has been proven that this may to have contributed to my love of reading. (Clark, Osborne and Akerman 2008)
Throughout my education I have adapted to group study as I always found that that was the style that best suited me, however upon coming to University I have had to adapt to a new style of Independent learning which I am finding hard as I have familiarised myself with working in groups and during exam time in secondary education me and groups of friends would meet and study together however I do find there is less distractions. I have also realised that I need to improve on my research skills as my modules in University require a substantial amount more reading and references for my assignments than I am used to.
Despite being literate in reading and writing I realised upon entering third level that I needed to become literate in ICT. The nature and availability of information has changed enormously in the last decade especially since I left primary school and this has impacted on the way I live, learn and work. When I started University the way I submitted work and the way I gathered information and completed work suddenly always revolved working with a computer and while I always felt that I was confident using computer I soon concluded that improvement was needed.

When I moved out of my parents’ home to go to university I gained my own independence, however I soon realised I needed to become both financially and physically literate as I was now supporting myself and had to live on a budget. It was hard to adapt to at first however I soon adjusted to my new lifestyle and hope to stay and the path that I am currently on as I have finally been able to manage my time adequately between University and my own private Life and been able to be responsible with my money. I researched statistics which show that 23% of students drop out due to financial stress (Salary, 2012) and am adamant than I will not be in that statistic.
I always believed that I had a broad knowledge of Literacy as I always believed that literacy was reading and mathematical skills, however since coming to University and researching for this assignment I have realised there is a lot more to literacy that I myself need to develop on, such as financial and physical literacy as before I came to University my parent held the responsibility of my finances and making sure I was eating healthy, but now that I live away from home I need to understand better how to manage my money better because as a student I live on a low budget and also need to take responsibility for my own diet and health by exercising and eating healthier, my confidence and self-esteem has also improved as a result of this as I now have a sense of pride in myself now that I have matured and am able to be independent.
References
Clark, C., Osborne, S. and Akerman, R. (2008) Young People’s Self-Perceptions as Readers an Investigation including family, peer and school influences London: National Literacy Trust
Salary.com (2012) Student dropout rates linked to high stress over finances http://www.salary.com/student-dropout-rates-linked-to-high-stress-over-finances/