AustLit

The provision of literacy education for young adults with intellectual disabilities in Australia has been the focus of human rights and equity battles among the various stakeholders such as parent advocacy groups and state education authorities for many years (Gunn & Bramley, 1989; van Kraayenoord, 1992). While educational opportunities for this group of young adults have grown, the emphasis of such educational provision has been on vocational preparation (Gunn & Bramley, 1999). These programs adopt pedagogical approaches which focus on teaching functional literacy skills such as responding appropriately to written information on safety signs, size labels, and traffic signs, locating information from directories, and carrying out instructions on packages, and machinery (Thornley, 1994). This approach to literacy education has been criticised as both shallow and narrow as it does not consider the recreational uses of reading and writing, as well as those that develop and maintain relationships which are integral to one's life-long leisure participation (Foreman, 1996; Luke, 1996). This article presents poetry written by young adults with Down Syndrome during their participation in a literacy program based on broad socio-cultural approaches to literacy education.

(Source: article abstract)