Where Communication and Reading Difficulties Meet

The crossroads of speech and reading intervention

Kristin Sankovich, M.S., CCC-SLP Lauren Castro M.S., CCC-SLP

Webinar SeriesNovember 8th, 2013

Learner Objectives

• Participants will:▫ Discuss typical reading development in

monolingual and bilingual speakers ▫ Identify relationships between oral language and

reading▫ Identify language foundations for reading▫ Identify speech and language difficulties that

contribute to reading difficulties▫ Identify speech-language intervention techniques

for children with reading difficulties

What is our goal today?

• Relating Speech-language intervention to reading development▫ Discuss the SLP’s role▫ Review/introduce reading development▫ Present research and statistics on reading▫ Show the relationship between speech and reading Reading development models

▫ Support for why we should intervene▫ How to intervene▫ Conclude with case studies as examples

ASHA GuidelinesResearch on Reading DevelopmentSpeech vs. Language Disorder and ReadingEnglish and Spanish Acquisition

ASHA Guidelines

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ASHA Guidelines• SLPs play a critical and direct role in literacy

development, due to established connections between spoken and written language.▫ Spoken language is the foundation for

reading/writing▫ Spoken language and reading/writing build on

each other▫ Children with speech-language impairment often

have difficulty reading▫ Instruction in spoken language can affect growth

in reading/writing

SLP roles & responsibilities in reading and writing

• Preventing written language problems by fostering language acquisition and emergent literacy

• Identifying children at risk for reading and writing problems

• Assessing reading and writing• Providing intervention and documenting outcomes

for reading and writing• Providing assistance to general education teachers,

parents• Advancing the knowledge base• Advocating for effective literacy programs

“Reading development is a multi-faceted, multidimensional, cognitive process involving the dynamic interaction of a range of related variables” (Stanovich & Beck, 2000)

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Statistics on Reading Deficits

• 52% of children with language impairment also have reading difficulties (Tomblin, Zhang, Backwalter &

Catts, 2000).• Poor reading skills have an ongoing, negative

influence on vocabulary and language development (Catts & Kamhi, 2005).

• Reading comprehension skills in 3rd grade were the best predictors of high school dropouts (California Dept. of Education).

SES as a factor

• Children from higher SES homes (due to social, language, and literacy enhancement abilities) are advanced in later reading achievement ( Wasik& Bond, 2001)

• Children from higher SES homes are more successful in making the transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” (Campbell, Kelly, Mullis, Martin & Sainsbury, 2001)

• Matthew effect

Research on reading development in children

• Frost, et.al, reported the following processes necessary for readingMemoryComprehensionLanguageMotivationAttentionImagination

Research on reading development in children

• Frost, et.al, reported the following processes necessary for readingMemoryComprehensionLanguageMotivationAttentionImagination

Which processes are also necessary for communication?

Research on reading development in children

• Frost, et.al, reported the following processes necessary for readingMemoryComprehensionLanguageMotivationAttentionImagination

Which processes are also necessary for communication?

Research looking at reading fluency

• There is a strong relationship between early language and phonological awareness/sensitivity and later reading and spelling development (Lipka& Siegel, 2007; Snowling ,Adams, Bishop & Stothard, 2001)

• RAN is significant predictor of reading fluency

Research looking at Reading Fluency

• Phonological Awareness▫ Is a strong predictor of reading fluency, especially

in orthographically inconsistent systems▫ Is more taxed in orthographically inconsistent

systems (e.g. English) than in orthographically consistent systems (Spanish, Greek).

▫ Phonological awareness and letter naming in kindergarten predicted at-risk or typical reading development in Grade 3 for ESL and monolingual students1

Research looking at Reading Comprehension

• Early language development is a developmental precursor and good predictor of children’s early reading development (Teal & Sulzby, 1986)

• Improving vocabulary and word knowledge is an important part of developing reading comprehension (Vaughn et al, 2006)

Research Looking at Reading Comprehension

• Semantic skills at age 3 and phonological awareness at age 6 both predicted reading skills at age 16 (Frost, et. al., 2005)

• Letter identification, working memory, rhyme detection and phoneme deletion (phonological awareness) in kindergarten predicted fourth-grade word reading. (Lesaux, Rupp, & Siegel, 2007)

The Ultimate Goal in Reading: Comprehension & Fluency

• Two aspects of reading development▫ Word recognition/decoding words/reading fluency Children are learning to decode in the first two years of

school Phonological awareness, phoneme discrimination tasks,

rhyming, onset-rime, syllable awareness▫ Reading comprehension Children are reading to learn in later elementary years

(second grade and up). Syntax, semantics, and discourse skills required

Reading Comprehension Model

Reading Comprehension Model

Reading Fluency Model

Reading ComprehensionReading Comprehension

Reading FluencyReading Fluency

Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness

Syllable ID (Spn)

Syllable ID (Spn)

RhymingRhyming

Onset-RimeOnset-Rime

Phonemic AwarenessPhonemic Awareness

Syllable Blending/Segmentation

Syllable Blending/Segmentation

Orthographic Coding

Orthographic Coding

Rapid Automatic

Naming

Rapid Automatic

Naming

Letter-Sound Correspondence

Letter-Sound Correspondence

Rapid Serial NamingRapid Serial Naming

Listening ComprehensionListening Comprehension

MorphologyMorphology Oral Vocabulary

Oral Vocabulary

Word Meanings

Word Meanings

Word RelationshipsWord Relationships

SyntaxSyntax DiscourseDiscourse

Narrative StructureNarrative Structure

Conversational Patterns

Conversational Patterns

ExpositoryExpository

Procedural Procedural

Phonological Memory

Phonological Memory

English and Spanish systems

• English is opaque (orthographically inconsistent)▫ Onset-rime

• Spanish is transparent (orthographically consistent)▫ Syllable

Efficacy of Intervention

• Language of instruction should be kept at a suitable level of complexity and clarification to better accommodate children’s speed of oral language processing (Bishop & Leonard, 2000; Nation, 2005) Engaging children in reciprocal verbal interactions that

support the child in producing more linguistically complex dialogues directly facilitates the development of children’s language proficiency and indirectly the development of their reading skills

Both visual and verbal models of intervention resulted in gains in reading comprehension for adequate decoders/poor comprehenders2

Common traits of effective intervention

• They are comprehensive• Varied teaching methods• Theory driven• Opportunities for positive relationships to

develop

A word on dyslexia

• A disorder in reading and writing despite ostensibly normal oral language abilities.

Language Impairment Dyslexia

Specific Language Impairment

Typical Development

Language Difficulties

Yes

Yes

No

No

Rea

ding

Diff

icul

ties

Ongoing Collaboration between Educators and SLPs

Speech and Language Interventions:Supporting Reading Fluency

• Phonological Awareness Intervention▫ Blending and Segmenting Syllables▫ Phonological Sound Inventory-take words from a story

for the child to blend and segment

• Minimal Pairs▫ Distinguish between rake/wake or huele/duele

• High Frequency Word Lists▫ Support sight word recognition

Speech and Language Interventions:Supporting Reading Fluency

• Core Vocabulary Model▫ Relating concepts through categories

• Story Grammar Instruction▫ Teaching identification of characters, setting,

initiating event, a sequence of events and a resolution

Speech and Language Interventions:Supporting Reading Fluency

• Literacy Kits▫ Pre-teach story vocabulary/articulation word lists▫ Create games to provide additional exposure to

content

• Graphic Organizers for Story Comprehension▫ Semantic mapping▫ Venn Diagram

Overview of Reading ProgramsEsperanza Estrellitas Voyager/

PasaporteVisualizing & Verbalizing

Attention Low High Moderate High

Motivation Low High Moderate High

Memory High High Moderate Moderate

Imagination Low Low Low High

Language High Low High High

Spanish Yes Yes Yes No

English No No Yes Yes

Speech vs. LanguageSpeech Impairment

• Articulation Disorder• Phonological Delay• Phonological Disorder

Language Impairment

• Expressive Language Impairment

• Receptive Language Impairment

• Impaired Discourse skills

Case Study:

• 2nd grader ▫ Significant phonological and articulation delays▫ Highly unintelligible▫ Higher language/highly verbal▫ Low reading fluency -> Decreased reading

comprehension▫ High comprehension of material read to him

▫ Intervention targeting core vocabulary and high frequency word lists paired with a phonological approach

Case Study:

• Kindergartener▫ Phonological awareness difficulties▫ Needs help identifying story grammar

components and answering questions about stories appropriately.

▫ Incomplete syntax▫ Limited vocabulary in amount and variety

▫ Audio File

Conclusions

• Overall goal: academic success• Our current intervention often addresses

reading and writing foundations and it is important for us to be able to explain how.

• Knowing that our students may additionally have reading difficulties, we can more efficiently address their difficulties, we benefit by providing them with academic success, giving them more opportunities to practice what we teach them and gain knowledge for themselves.

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