Endeavour latches onto literacy

A unique literacy program for young adults with intellectual disabilities called Latch-On is catching on.

Queensland disability services charity, the Endeavour Foundation, has been teaching 12 students the Literacy and Technology Hands on (Latch-On) program from Endeavour’s head office in Bowen Hills, Brisbane.

The two-year teaching program, created by a team of University of Queensland researchers, improves reading, writing and speaking of young adults with intellectual disabilities by using popular culture such as magazines and web sites about their favourite TV and pop stars.

Endeavour has signed a five-year-licensing agreement with UQ’s main commercialisation arm, UniQuest, to Latch-On and plans to expand the program to some of its regional offices next year.

The Endeavour deal includes Latch-On’s four teaching and learning folders, teacher training, program support, monitoring and an annual conference.

A Western Australian parent group, Canadian college and northern NSW church group are also interested in using Latch-On.

Program founder Dr Anne Jobling from the School of Education, said Latch-On was created to combat the literacy challenges faced by adolescents with intellectual disabilities.

Some Latch-On students have improved their reading, accuracy, speed and comprehension by two years and one student improved her reading fluency by five years.

It is the first project from the School of Education to be commercialised by UniQuest.

Additional data from Latch-On site licensees will support the work of the world’s longest continuous study of Down Syndrome also from the School of Education.

For more information contact Dr Karen Moni (phone: +61 07 3365 6872, email: k.moni@uq.edu.au), Dr Anne Jobling (phone: 3365 6405, email: a.jobling@uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (phone: 3365 2619, email: m.holland@uq.edu.au)