Dr. Andrea Barton-Hulsey, Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders, received a seed grant from the Florida State University Council on Research and Creativity (CRC) for her project, “Pilot Testing a New Early Literacy Intervention for Preschool-Age Children with Developmental Disabilities with Limited Speech.”

The project will study the impact of the Play and Read with Me intervention, which aims to teach vocabulary and early literacy skills to children with developmental disabilities who use limited speech.

“Early literacy skills of vocabulary, letter and letter-sound knowledge are key predictors of later reading and writing. Children with developmental disabilities who use limited speech do not often have access to instruction in these fundamental literacy skills,” said Barton-Hulsey.

The intervention offers accessible instruction to children utilizing speech-generating devices (SGDs) to teach early literacy during natural play-based communication interactions and shared reading. SGDs display picture vocabulary and letters while producing speech output when selected to aid in the learning process and provide a means of expressive communication.

A focal point of the study is the phonetic keyboards used during instruction. These are a recently developed technology within SGDs that produce letter sounds (e.g., “buh” for b). This technology allows children with limited speech to access phonics-based strategies for reading instruction alongside their peers who use speech.

“No research to date has explored the use of this phonetic keyboard technology for early literacy instruction during naturalistic play-based activities or during shared reading with preschoolers,” added Barton-Hulsey.

The CRC grant will fund the pilot stage of the project to determine if the intervention is feasible to teach pre-service speech–language pathologists and each child’s caregiver to deliver consistently so that the study may be scaled up to include a larger sample of children.