This site provides information about comprehensive literacy instruction with a focus on students with complex communication needs and significant disabilities.  The aim of the site is to provide information and resources which will help in your classrooms. Click on the menus above to get information in different areas of comprehensive literacy instruction.

In October 2019 I was one of the plenary speakers at the Angelman UK Communication and Literacy Conference. The topic was Literacy and Complex Communication Needs: Developing Language and is an overview of why literacy is important for every student in our schools.  Below is a video of the presentation.  Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is also a critical component of all literacy intervention for students with complex communication needs.

Blog posts from Jane Farrall Consulting related to Comprehensive Literacy as a general topic:

• Why Do I Believe in Literacy for All?
• Leading to Literacy
• Too late to learn to read & write? No!
• Literacy for All: Blocks for Building Literacy Success

Other Resources

For much more detailed information see: Comprehensive Literacy for All: Teaching Students with Significant Disabilities to Read and Write (2020) by Erickson and Koppenhaver.   

Acknowledgements

• Thanks to all the students, staff and families I have worked with over the years who have taught me so much. 
• Huge thanks to Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver, from the Centre for Literacy and Disability Studies, who changed my life when I first met them in 2000 and who continue to challenge and educate me. 
• Special thanks to Sally Clendon – who teaches me more every year
• And a final, heartfelt thanks to the people who support me almost daily – Helen Tainsh, Mary-Louise Bertram, Clare Dole and everyone else in my tribe.

Jane Farrall, Jane Farrall Consulting