Unlock Your Child's Reading Potential: How Speech Therapy Can Enhance Literacy Skills
In this resource article, we will explore how speech therapy sessions can support a child’s literacy development.
What are “literacy skills?”
Literacy skills include listening, speaking, reading and writing. Literacy skills also incorporate the awareness of print and sounds of a language and the fundamental relationship between sounds and letters. Other literacy skills you may have heard of are vocabulary, spelling, reading fluency and comprehension. Literacy skills are important for navigating various aspects of life, enabling effective communication, information comprehension, and participation.
The Science of Reading
The science of reading is a body of research that shows us the leading methods of how to teach children to read. The research draws on many disciplines such as educational and developmental psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and more. The research has taken place worldwide over several years. As a result, the science of reading can provide us with information about how children learn to read and which part of the brain is used when they are learning to read.
The five pillars of reading were discovered from this research. The pillars have been recognised as the key skills children need to develop in order to become efficient and confident readers.
These five pillars are identified as:
Phonemic awareness (PA)
Phonics
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Fluency
How is speech therapy relevant to literacy skills?
A Speech Pathologist's expertise in language development, combined with their ability to assess and intervene using diagnostic approaches, is important for enhancing a child's literacy skills. Our knowledge of language and its subsystems including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics is relevant for the identification and prevention of a child’s literacy challenges.
Furthermore, we can assess a child’s language and literacy skills to determine if intervention is required and provide the appropriate intervention that will target a child’s spoken language, spelling, reading, and writing skills. We also work closely with the child’s family and educators to recommend strategies for ongoing support. At Wonder Words Speech Pathology, we understand that literacy and communication are important life skills to have, as being able to read and write ensures an individual has the choice to make the most of their opportunities.
Assessment
At Wonder Words Speech Pathology, we can assess your child’s literacy skills by using various assessment tools. We often use a combination of both standardised and informal assessments depending on the presenting concerns.
These assessments often investigate a child’s code knowledge, phoneme (sound) manipulation and identification, syllable awareness, blending, segmenting, rhyming, as well as nonword reading/spelling in order to determine the best-suited early literacy intervention to help achieve your child’s literacy goals.
Intervention - Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programs
At Wonder Words Speech Pathology, we use Sounds-Write as our preferred method of teaching. Sounds-Write is a structured synthetic phonics programme based on the science of reading targeted for children in their first year of schooling to Year 6. Founded in the United Kingdom, their mission is to improve the life chances of children by ensuring that they have the best chance of becoming proficient readers and writers. In doing so, Sounds-Write aims to provide the highest quality, evidence-informed training for educators to teach children how to read and spell effectively. At Wonder Words Speech Pathology we have clinicians who are trained and therefore are able to deliver ongoing intervention using the Sounds-Write approach to help your child with their literacy skills.
It is also imperative that a child has access to decodable readers. These simple, decodable texts enable the child to practice the skills and code knowledge they are learning, without overloading them with words they are not ready to read/decode. Pictured in this blog are some of our favourite non-fiction decodable texts, from Little Learners Love Literacy.
How WWSP incorporates our values into our literacy sessions
At Wonder Words Speech Pathology, we have a number of therapists who are trained in literacy intervention. Here is how they incorporate our values into their therapy:
We Find the Fun:
Our speech pathologists utilise a variety of multi-sensory tasks, games, toys and movement breaks when working on literacy goals. In doing so, these sessions become a fun experience for the child and increase their motivation to participate in sessions.
We Hustle:
The value of "We hustle '' aligns with the dedication our speech pathologists provide when working with a child who has literacy difficulties and their family. Our speech pathologists work alongside caregivers by providing education about how to best support their child’s literacy needs and how to support caregivers in implementing frequent and correct practice at home when completing a particular homework task.
We Respect and Connect:
Respecting and connecting with the child is essential when implementing speech therapy, specifically when supporting a child with their literacy skills. Our speech pathologists prioritise building a strong rapport with the child, creating a safe and supportive space for them to express themselves independently during sessions. This is created through play that follows their interests or discussions about their favourite topics. In doing so, this ensures children are engaged and happy to participate in sessions and get the best possible outcomes.
We're in it Together:
We work alongside caregivers and educators to provide education and support. This includes supporting parents and educators in their skills to assist a child’s literacy needs, the specific feedback to use, and how to implement practice in a home and school setting. We work closely with our families to ensure we can get the most out of each child and how to make home practice work for their lifestyle. Together, we form a team, collaborating and working towards a mutual goal which is to help the child become an efficient and effective reader and speller.
