A Virtual Repository of Learning Objects to Support Literacy of SEN Children

Literacy development is an essential process for special education needs children. Otherwise, they will have additional difficulties in their daily life activities and hence their social inclusion. It is a big challenge for parents and teachers, but it is easier if the process begins since childhood. In this paper, we present Tic@ula, a virtual repository for creating, centralizing, and sharing learning objects based on the IEEE learning object metadata standard. The framework aims to enhance the adaptation of the resources for literacy to the Costa Rican reality and extend its application to children with moderate intellectual disability. The educational resources are based on the literacy method proposed by Spanish authors in their book Down Syndrome: Reading and Writing. The method and the resources were evaluated in a case study. The preliminary results showed that the method cannot only be applied in local context but also assists teachers and parents in the design and use of literacy resources for special education. © 2013 IEEE.