“Bonkers”. Increasing Literacy Skills: An Eclectic Electronic Teaching Approach Gone “Bonkers”

This position paper accounts the vision of a former public school speech-language pathologist and present day university clinical director. The vision is for the application of interactive exciting software technology to increase the literacy skills of children and youth with language and literacy disorders. Miss Bonkers, the bouncy and excited teacher and heroine in Dr. Suess’ Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, provides her students with eclectic teaching and learning strategies. Multimedia software is the “Miss Bonkers” of computer learning. Multimedia software provides the student with exciting interactive learning possibilities. This clinician argues that the implementation of various inexpensive multisensory software, offered by publishers such as Dorling- Kindersley Family Learning, Disney Interactive, and MacMillon would aid in the rehabilitation of those children and youth identified with communication disorders- specifically those with the following problems: expressive language delay, reading/ reading comprehension disorder, spelling/writing failure, learning a second language, and attention deficit disorder [4].