Reading, Writing, and Friendship: Adult Implications of Effective Literacy Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disability

Reading and literacy are important not only for instrumental reasons such as knowing exit signs and recognizing initial consonants but also have tremendous human functioning implications in areas such as initiating and sustaining friendships, communicating care and affection, and enhancing work, leisure, and play. Many people with intellectual disability are denied opportunities to learn literacy, which in turn denies richness in life opportunities. This article describes one friendship in which reading and literacy play an important part. We describe some of our experiences learning to read and engaging in lifelong literacy and how literacy affects our friendship and our ability to express affection for others and brings us enjoyment.