Revisiting rethinking literacy

This chapter revisits our manuscript “Rethinking Literacy: Broadening Opportunities for Visual Learners” (Kuntze, Golos, & Enns, 2014), which represents our attempt to formulate a visually based model of literacy development. The core principle of the 2014 article is based on the notion that literacy is more than simply reading or writing and that, at least for deaf children, literacy development should be embraced as a multi-faceted process. In this chapter, we attempt to look at the model through the prism of interactive communication in an accessible language. The growing literature on language deprivation and its impact on deaf children has put a sharper focus on the critical relationship between early opportunities for full access to communication and the prospect for literacy development. The chapter draws on the principles of the whole child approach, which is based on the notion that quality education is delivered by ensuring that each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged (Slade and Griffith, 2013). For deaf children, we need to be mindful of the need to make communication fully accessible. Fully accessible communication is indispensable for creating a learning environment that will enable a deaf child to be all the child can be. Communication that is rich, socially satisfying, and intellectually nourishing is key to robust development in certain areas a child needs for becoming literate.