Facilitator Guide- Engaging Families of Children with Disabilities _Final

The toolkit is part of the Reading for All Malawi Activity, which aims to improve literacy skills among children with disabilities. The guide is designed to facilitate family engagement and support learners with disabilities to learn to read. The toolkit emphasizes the importance of family engagement in supporting children with disabilities to learn to read. It highlights the benefits of family engagement for the child, parents and families, and schools. For the child, benefits include increased motivation, higher levels of confidence and self-esteem, and improved social skills. For parents and families, benefits include increased support for the school, increased confidence and skills, and shared understanding of education. For schools, benefits include increased support from parents, improved behavior and attendance, and higher pupil achievement. The guide provides tips for families to improve their child's reading skills. These include conducting after-school reading activities, ensuring books and other reading materials are available, guiding after-school reading lessons, and creating literacy teaching and learning resources. For children with learning difficulties, the guide suggests talking to the child, creating a reading corner, and helping the child to make play materials. For children who are blind, the guide suggests supplying real objects for hands-on experience, offering the child to sort out objects, and recording stories on phones. For children who are deaf, the guide suggests talking to the child, letting the child describe what is seen in the picture, and using gestures or sign language. The guide also provides examples of role-playing interventions for improved literacy at home. These include storytelling, which can take place anywhere, anytime, and can be told to children of all ages. The storyteller can use meaningful, enjoyable, and curriculum-relevant stories to engage the children. The Family Folders are an integral part of the toolkit. The REFAM Family Folders are designed to provide a platform for families to share information and collaborate with teachers. The guide provides instructions on how to use the Family Folders, including how to record observations, set goals, and track progress. The conclusion of the guide emphasizes the importance of family engagement in supporting learners with disabilities to learn to read. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration between schools, families, and communities to ensure that children with disabilities have access to quality education. The guide concludes with a post-test to assess the participants' understanding of the material.