Reading aloud and Disability in the adult’s world: a prosocial approach

Abstract

This study aims to relate shared read-aloud activities to the socio-emotional and prosocial skills of men and women with disabilities. The research involved a two-month read-aloud training session held at the “Orti Felici” Communal Greenhouse in Umbertide (PG), a branch of the Arcobaleno socio-rehabilitative educational center. A group of seven adults with disabilities was selected, who daily, alongside educators, engage in the cultivation of plants and vegetables. This group exhibited particularly complex social dynamics, characterized by confrontations due to the very different personalities of the participants. Given the recognized benefits of shared read-aloud practices, it was therefore very interesting to conduct shared read-aloud training to test its effects on the group's prosocial behavior. Given the group's specific needs, the effects were measured using a checklist with ad hoc defined indicators, and the bibliography for the texts was chosen by selecting simple books with many images and, in some cases, written with symbols of Augmentative and Alternative Communication. The shared read-aloud training took place during times when the participants were not engaged in educational activities, thus either just before or just after lunch. Given the participants' relatively low attention span, in the initial days, the reading activity lasted only a few minutes, later extending up to 20 minutes. The outcome of the research confirms that shared read-aloud is undoubtedly beneficial in multiple contexts, as it has shown a marked improvement in attention span and the social dynamics of the group involved.