What is literacy?

What is literacy?

NALA defines literacy as listening and speaking, reading, writing, numeracy and using everyday technology to communicate and handle information. Literacy includes more than the technical skills of communication: it also has personal, social and economic dimensions. Literacy increases the opportunity for individuals and communities to reflect on their situation, explore new possibilities and initiate change.

What is a spiky profile?

It is important to note that if a person needs to develop confidence and skill in particular literacy practices, it does not mean that the individual has difficulties with all of the basics of reading, writing, verbal communication and number work. We all have things we are good at and other things we have to struggle with and it works in much the same way with basic skills.

People's skills tend to be 'spiky', which means that we can be very good at one thing but have a real difficulty with another, which can have an adverse affect on our overall performance.