Abstract
M.Bibl.
The ability to read has particular psychological and educational value for the mentally handicapped pupil. This entails amongst other things the raising of the achievement
ceiling of the pupiI because of stimulation and enrichment arising from contact with reading material, as well as achieving of academic goals and the opportunity of becoming and remaining functionally literate. The latter provides the opportunity for dignified adaptation in society.
The reading-ability of mentally handicapped pupils can be improved with practice. Mentally handicapped pupils do however have particular characteristics and not just any
reading material can be made available to them. Reading material provided for these pupils should be in concordance with their capabilities, needs and interests to ensure that mentally handicapped pupils come into contact with books that they can master and derive benefit from.
The formative value of reading and the characteristics, needs and interests of mentally handicapped pupils were identified and were used as a base for the formulation of a variety of criteria that can be used to select reading material for these pupils.
A questionnaire was designed based on Fry's readability graph and the identified criteria for selection. This questionnaire can be used for evaluating books to determine
whether a book is a high interest low vocabulary book such as is needed for mentally handicapped pupils. This questionnaire provides a useful method for collecting suitable reading material.
The questionnaire was used to identify fifty Afrikaans stories with various topics and content, as examples of suitable reading material for mentally handicapped pupils. The conclusion that was drawn is that there are enough high interest low vocabulary stories available in Afrikaans to provide for mentally handicapped pupils in special schools.
The selection of such books is time consuming and should be undertaken on a co-operative base by teachers and librarians. The discerning selection of reading material is essential because mentally handicapped pupiIs can be motivated to want to read continuously if they perceive books to be manageable and interesting rather than threat.