Uncracking the Literacy Code: Programs that Boost Language & Literacy.
Kate Morling - Certified Practising Speech Pathologist at Communicate with Kate Speech Therapy
Let’s face it, from a distance, the English language looks like an uncrackable code when presented in written text. Unlike Spanish for example, which is largely phonetic in nature (i.e. the words are spelt how they sound - thank you Spanish!), written English has a whole array of common spelling patterns and sound representations (over 175 in fact!) to represent the 44 sounds we use in speech. How on Earth are our brains meant to learn all that!
As Speech Pathologists, we work with children whose difficulties with reading and writing stem from specific learning differences or whose literacy skills are impacted by their difficulties with language (expressive and/or receptive), pragmatic skills or even speech skills.
When learning to read in English, it’s important to use a systematic and structured approach to explicit instruction which is underpinned by teaching children not only the ‘code knowledge’ (i.e. letters are symbols which represent sounds, sounds can be represented in more than one way, a spelling can represent more than one sound etc), but also the foundation phonological skills needed for reading; blending, segmenting and manipulating phonemes or ‘sounds’.
Speech and language are biological. We, as humans, are primed biologically to communicate. Writing systems, however, are an invention humans developed over 10,000 years ago in order to accurately record communication. It makes sense then, that when teaching children to read and write, we use a Linguistic Phonics Approach -- an approach to learning reading and spelling which builds on the very thing children innately know - speech sounds!
But literacy skills go well beyond simply understanding the code. Ultimately, reading and writing are an extension of our language skills -- our understanding (comprehension) and our ability to express our ideas (expression).
Scarborough’s Strands of Early Literacy Development shows the strong, interdependent relationship of Language Comprehension and Word Recognition (understanding of the code) in literacy development. When students have difficulty with language skills such as vocabulary and word finding, using correct tense or grammar, understanding different social contexts or text types, or comprehension of basic concepts or sentence structures, these difficulties are all transferred to their reading and writing skills.
Scarborough, H. S. (2001). Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities: Evidence, theory, and practice. In S. Neuman & D. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook for research in early literacy (pp. 97–110). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Can we expect a child who has difficulty verbally expressing the sequence of events they experienced on a recent trip to the zoo, to then be able to accurately write a retell of the experience? No! With the added pressures of pencil grip, page orientation, sounding out the target word they wish to write, sound to letter correspondence, organizing their ideas in a formal way… agh! What a cognitive load to carry…
Equally children who have difficulties with higher level language skills such as inferencing and predicting will have a much more difficult time making predictions about what might happen next in a story, or using context clues to determine the meaning of a new word they haven’t heard/seen before, or even answering inferential questions which ask them to use information given in the text combined with their own knowledge to make a ‘guess’ or inference about the text.
And speech sounds? Children with difficulties pronouncing the sounds for speech are at a much greater risk of difficulties with phonological awareness and later literacy skills. Why? If I’m sounding out the word /fish/ as “fis” or /that/ as “dat”, chances are I’m going to attempt to write the word how I hear it.
Language and speech sound skills are fundamental to literacy development. Choosing a program that will support ALL the key elements of research-based literacy instruction is paramount in supporting your child to be a successful reader and writer. Programs such as Sounds-Write and the Ascend SMARTER Intervention Program are structured, systematic intervention programs which use a Linguistic Phonics Approach to literacy instruction in English.
If your child is having difficulty learning the skills needed for strong literacy development, reach out to your local Speech Pathologist today for more information.
Coming in September: ‘Sounds-Write’ small group intervention programs for literacy skills and development. Contact us today for more information or to save your spot!
Written by Kate Morling
Kate is the CEO and Senior Speech Pathologist at Communicate with Kate Speech Therapy. Kate has 10 years experience working across the globe with children with communication and learning differences as well as supporting early career speech pathologists.