What Does a Speech Pathologist Know About Language and Literacy?

Jamie Putnam, speech language pathologist and owner of Capital Area Speech Therapy, has been providing in-service opportunities to preschool/kindergarten programs around our area. The following is information gathered from Jamie’s lectures.

Speech pathologists are often portrayed as the ones who “fix the sounds”. There is no doubt we spend time working on the “r” sounds, a lisp, or a number of other sounds. Those sounds, however, are only a small percentage of our qualifications. 

What about language and literacy? Are they related? What do speech pathologists know about language and  literacy?

Language and literacy is a symbiotic relationship. These skills develop together. Research shows  that children who enter school with strong oral language skills learn to read and write easier and excel in school related to their peers who struggle with language skills.

Language disorders are seen in as many as 1 in every 5 children. Research indicates that the majority of children with language disorders will go on to having reading difficulties or disorders. 

What does early language and literacy development look like?

AGE	LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT	LITERACY DEVELOPMENT
12-18 mos.	Rapid language acquisition & word explosion	Enjoys books as toys Likes to turn pages Loves predictable stories Points out familiar objects in pictures Likes the same book over and over
18-24 mos.	Rapidly expanding word base and word combinations	Chooses books Knows that books go front to back and right side up-will orient a book Loves predictable repetitive stories Will fill in words
24-36 mos.	Awareness of sentence structure and vocabulary continues to explode	Will correct adult if story is read differently Will fill in words or attempt to tell story Likes repetition and predictability in stories
3-4 years	Uses complex sentences & understands word structure (tense)	Understands that words may be changed and manipulated Rhyming and word play Recognizes name in print Recognizes environmental symbols
4-5 years	Clearly communicates about remote events	Simple sound letter correspondence Letters have meaning Experimental writing, spelling, and story telling

There are five predictors of literacy success.

1. Oral Language

2. Alphabet Awareness

3. Phonemic Awareness

4. Concepts About Print

5. Early Writing With Inventive Spelling

A professor in early childhood education describes these predictors in detail in this You Tube video.

 

 

 

 

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