Accessible literacy instruction with Clicker to help all learners read and write

Educators are tireless champions of literacy. 

They’re working hard to give every student access to reading and writing. And when students use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), have limited fine motor skills, or are still developing early language, that work becomes even more complex.

Teachers face IEP goals, time constraints, and classroom challenges. To manage this, they use structured routines. These routines feel productive, and many times, they are. Activities like letter formation, word copying, and fill-in-the-blanks help build basic skills and provide practice.

But even with the best intentions, it’s easy for instruction to tip toward compliance over communication. Not compliance in a legal sense, but rather tasks that are easy to measure and follow. But, these tasks may not encourage connection, expression, or meaning.

So how do we know if we’re teaching students to form letters… or to use language that matters?

Comprehensive Literacy for All helps educators manage the tension between routine and meaning. It also clarifies the line between explicit instruction and implicit learning.

What is Comprehensive Literacy for All?

Comprehensive Literacy for All (CLFA) was created by Dr. Karen Erickson and Dr. David Koppenhaver. This evidence-based framework helps students with significant disabilities learn to read and write. It challenges traditional views on "readiness" for literacy instruction. It also emphasizes a core belief:

All children can learn to read and write.

CLFA recognizes that literacy starts when access starts. When we create the right conditions for students, they can engage, communicate, and grow.

Its guiding principles are simple:

• Progress begins when opportunity begins
• Emergent literacy depends on the frequency, accessibility, and interpretability of print
• Instruction should support communication over routine-following

Emergent vs. conventional learners: A practical framework

One of the most helpful contributions CLFA makes is the distinction between emergent and conventional literacy learners. Rather than assuming a student’s readiness based on age or diagnosis, CLFA encourages educators to answer four questions:

1. Does the student identify most letters of the alphabet most of the time?
2. Do they engage during shared reading?
3. Do they have a reliable means of communication?
4. Do they understand that print carries meaning?

If the answer is yes to all four, the student is ready for conventional literacy instruction.

If the answer is no to even one, they’ll benefit most from emergent strategies for now.

Emergent strategies build the solid foundation literacy instruction needs. They help students move forward with confidence. When we know where a learner is, we can meet them there and build from it.

How can we turn inclusive literacy theories into classroom realities?

Of course, belief alone isn’t enough. Inclusive literacy instruction also requires thoughtful implementation and supportive resources.

Organizations like the Special Education Technology Center (SETC) and Special Education Technology British Columbia (SET-BC) are doing the work of CLFA. 

These organizations give educators tools, training, and advice that align with CLFA’s vision. It’s a space where research intersects with practical, everyday instruction.

Clicker is often mentioned in the literacy collections of SETC and SET-BC. It is designed with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in mind. The supportive word processor aids so many students in developing their reading and writing skills. This support extends to those with complex communication and learning needs.

Here’s how Clicker aligns with the core ideas of CLFA. Students who use Clicker can:

• Participate in shared reading experiences
  • Clicker texts come with visuals and speech. These tools help students develop background knowledge, enhance comprehension, and create connections.
    
    
• Write with purpose
  • Tools like Sentence Sets and Word Banks help students explore and use tiered vocabulary to construct meaningful sentences, even before writing independently.

• Communicate more effectively
  • Built-in picture support and word prediction reduce frustration and support language development.

• Stay focused
  • Clicker houses thousands of ready-made reading and writing resources. Everything is in one place, so there’s little need for transitions or complicated tech setups.

Clicker, when used with intentional teaching, helps create more than compliant classrooms. Students build language skills, make choices, and share their ideas.

"It’s a literacy tool that allows for immediate expression of ideas. It allows children to go from stock answers to broader self-expression,” Barb stated. “For students with learning challenges, it allowed access that they otherwise wouldn’t have had. It allowed them to access independent reading materials. It allowed them to express themselves in writing, in a way they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do." - Barb Lark

CLFA framework to classroom practice: Shared reading in action

Literacy and how educators teach it has been under a microscope for several years. Many teachers wonder if they’re reading aloud enough to their students or if they’re doing literacy ‘the right way’. 

In the special education lens, one of the most powerful routines in a comprehensive literacy approach is shared reading. It’s a strategy that emphasizes engagement, interaction, and comprehension. When done well, shared reading develops receptive and expressive language. It builds vocabulary and opens doors for all students to get involved.

As Barb Lark, longtime SETC volunteer and advocate of Clicker, explains:

“Everybody can benefit from shared reading strategies where the emphasis is on understanding, engagement, and interaction.”

Using principles from CLFA, Barb develops activity plans that layer in comprehension, vocabulary, alphabet knowledge, and phonological awareness. The same book will be read multiple times but for different purposes.

Example: Shared reading strategy using Clicker

Here’s how an educator might structure a week of shared reading using Barb’s approach and Clicker:

Why it works

This layered approach supports a wide range of learners:

• Emergent communicators get repeated, supported exposure to print and language.
  
  
• AAC users engage with both core and fringe vocabulary in meaningful contexts.
  
  
• Every student benefits from the various ways Clicker offers access. They can use speech feedback, visual aids, or scaffolded writing support.

Most importantly, the routine prioritizes language and interaction over compliance. 

Tell me more. A powerful shift in inclusive literacy instruction

As Dr. David Koppenhaver often points out, inclusion gets wrapped up in physical presence or access. However, it’s more; it’s communication, intention, and invitation. One of his most powerful instructional prompts is deceptively simple:

“Tell me more.”

When a student writes a single word, instead of correcting or filling in the rest, we can simply ask for more. If a student writes ‘wind’? Ask, “Tell me more about that.” Suddenly, wind becomes, “The wind blew the boy’s hat into the street.”

This simple invitation can double or triple a student’s output, especially for beginning writers or those using AAC.

Writing, Koppenhaver reminds us, is inherently individualized. We aren’t doing letter writing “because it’s R Day”; we’re forming letters because it gives students a reason to communicate, to think critically, and to connect what they’re learning to their lives. With the right tools and a responsive approach, all students can become writers, and not because they copy a model, but because they have something to say.

Inclusive literacy instruction calls for communication over copying

When literacy instruction centers on compliance, students become passive participants: coloring in letters, copying words, or repeating tasks. But when we center communication, something else happens: students begin to see themselves as readers and writers. They become collaborators and makers of meaning.

That shift doesn’t happen overnight. But with frameworks like CLFA and tools like Clicker, educators can take clear steps to create inclusive, intentional literacy instruction, without needing to start from scratch.

Explore additional resources:

• View SETC Clicker Resources and SET-BC’s