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A Glimpse of What SLPs Can Do!
Literacy and Language
Literacy can be defined as the understanding of the printed representation of the spoken language for functional use in daily life contexts, at an age-appropriate level.
“Writing is talk written down.
If you can say it, you can write it.
If you can write it, you can read it.
And if you can say it, read it and write it, you can understand it.”
Even slight deficits in any component of the speaking-reading-writing triad can change this into a complicated process.
Spoken and written language is reciprocally connected. A solid foundation in spoken language (speech sounds, grammar, vocabulary and comprehension) is crucial for the development of reading and writing. For example, a child with and articulation disorder who substitutes “t” for “c” would likely use the letters “T-A-T” to spell “CAT”. Furthermore, a child with language disorder might produce utterances such as “Me has ball”, in his speech, and write similar sentences at best.
Likewise, children who have trouble recognizing familiar words, decoding unfamiliar words, reading fluently, and understanding written texts may also find oral language tasks difficult, such as describing objects, people, or processes, or giving verbal instructions. The gap between students who perform adequately on classroom language tasks and those who do not widen markedly following the shift from “learning to read” in the early years to “reading to learn” at around grade 3.
Conversely, improvements in oral language skills can result in better writing and more fluent reading, and vice versa – individuals who read well and often, and who are able to improve their written expression via systematic training and practice can become more articulate speakers, who use more complex sentences and possess a richer vocabulary.
Since the acquisition and development of spoken and written language are so closely connected, SLPs have a responsibility in addressing literacy. Spoken and written language difficulties can involve any of the components of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and can occur during speaking or listening tasks, and at different levels of speech and language production (sound, syllable, word, sentence and discourse).
The SLPs knowledge of normal and disordered language acquisition, as well as her experience in developing individually-tailored programs, prepares her to assume roles in reading and writing intervention, which could include identification of children “at-risk” for problems, direct intervention to target speech and oral language skills and/or emergent literacy, assessments, providing assistance to teachers and parents.
Specific Language Impairment
Specific Language Impairment or SLI is a condition where an individual finds it hard to acquire and develop language in the same capacity and pace as most of their peers. It is an exclusionary disorder (meaning that most SLI sufferers have normal or even higher IQ level than their peers). Traits of difficulty frequent emerge early when parents find themselves faced with a child who is a late-talker, and who generally makes more grammatical errors than most of his/her peers when speech arrives. This is even so as parents may provide good models of language.
In school, an SLI sufferer typically struggles to keep up with academia, and is likely to have difficulty understanding his/her teachers. They may also fail to make the grades in school. Unless intervention is provided, SLI sufferers would move on to have difficulty in reading, writing and expressing themselves even through higher grades.
SLI should not be confused with Dyslexia, which is an even more specialized form of difficulty. Commercially, there have been many programmes which have been providing intervention for dyslexia treatment even as child’s central difficulty seems to be SLI. This is unfortunate as treating one disorder for another often ends up as a frustratingly wasted effort.
SLI, when it is detected, is treatable. An SLPs role is not only to provide the necessary and relevant assessment to weed out the difficulty, we are also able to isolate the specific areas of difficulty and work on those areas so that the child makes progress all around – in communication and in learning.
In schools, SLI is slowly gaining recognition as a valid obstacle to learning. Modifications made in terms of style of delivery in lessons, and accommodations, such as exemption from second language learning, or the provision of learning support could sometimes be made as a collaborative effort between the school and the SLP.
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a condition in which one finds it difficult to acquire reading and spelling skills. The past decade of research has shown that dyslexia is linked strongly to poor phonological skills. Phonological awareness is related to sensitivity of the sound structure of a native language. It refers to the understanding that spoken words can be broken down into smaller parts. It is multi-level skill, involving, syllable awareness, onset-rime awareness and phoneme awareness.
Poor phonological awareness can develop as a result of many causes including:
- Poor metalinguistic awareness (poor ability to think about language, and therefore, words)
- Central Auditory Processing Difficulty CAPD (inability to process incoming phonemic sounds even though there is nothing wrong with one’s hearing)
- Poor use of the Visual Processing route (which, to a large extent, relies on phonological route in reading)
- Physical, Sensory or Intellectual Impairment resulting in poor phonological awareness
Is Letter Knowledge enough to help reading?
Training in letter knowledge alone, does not result in improved word decoding (Adams, 1990) and there is evidence that an initial level of phonological awareness is necessary for children to be able to use letter name knowledge in word recognition (Tunmer et al., 1988)
The Dyslexia Myth
We want all children to succeed in reading and writing. Very often, Dyslexia is a highly complex yet treatable disorder. Dyslexia is best treated with the assistance of an SLP who knows the entire spectrum of disorders relating to this – so that careful diagnosis could be made to weed out areas that are sound and target areas that are impaired so no time is wasted.
Recently, questions have arisen to whether behavioral optometry would solve issues of dyslexia. Unfortunately, there is paucity of controlled trials to support behavioral optometry approaches.
Some studies are showing that dyslexia is not related to visual difficulty.
Stuttering and Stammering
“Stuttering is a speech disorder where disruptions occur and interfere with normal communication” (Onslow, 1998).
Some of these interruptions include:
- Repetition of sounds, syllable or words e.g. “M-m-m-mummy or bu-bu-bubbles or I want- I want- I want a sweet!”
- Blockings; that is silence as the person tries to speak.
- Prolongations e.g. “where is the d-o-o-o-o-g?”|
- Verbal disruptions may be accompanied by a body, head, and facial movements such as eye-blinking or other signs of struggle and tension.
The speech disruptions of stuttering range from mild to severe and stuttering may vary among individuals. Onslow, M. (1998) Behavioral Management of Stuttering. USA: San Diego, CA Stuttering is Dynamic and Multifactorial. Research has established that stuttering is a motor speech disorder and most people who suffer have a genetically inherited predisposition to stuttering. Stuttering also affects more males than females, with reported ratios varying from 3:1 to 5:1 (Onslow, 1998). Stuttering may also be influenced by environmental factors and may be worse in situations which produce anxiety or stress.
Onset of Stuttering
Stuttering may start gradually or suddenly, and severity of stuttering ranges from mild to severe. The onset of stuttering typically occurs in the early years of life, between 2-5 years old or as soon as the child starts putting words together in short sentences. Sometimes, stuttering onset may be ‘acquired’ in late childhood or early adulthood. “Acquired” stuttering may occur due to psychogenic reasons or neurological trauma such as head injury or stroke.
Spontaneous Recovery
There is research to suggest that children may recover naturally or outgrow stuttering on their own without speech therapy. However, as the exact rate and average time taken to recover is not known, it is essential to start treatment within 6-12 months from the onset of stuttering. All children can benefit from therapy, although outcomes vary for each child. A speech language therapist specializing in the area of stutter therapy can help bring about changes.
GLUE EAR
Glue ear is fairly common childhood condition where fluid builds up in the middle ear. The medical term for glue ear is otitis media with effusion.
The most common symptom of glue ear is some loss of hearing, which can range from slight to mild to moderate.
Even after Glue Ear has subsided and hearing returns to normal, the auditory processing difficulties may continue indefinitely…
Research has shown that abnormalities binaural processing continue even after hearing thresholds are returned to normal post-surgery. Hall, Grose and Pillsbury (1995) in a longitudinal study of the glue ear with effusion reported that abnormalities of auditory processing continue up to 2 years following post-operation. It is important that an SLP is involved during this period of time to monitor and track the child’s language acquisition and provide therapy if necessary to prevent learning issues from emerging.
The brain has plasticity throughout life
Neuroplasticity involves the changing of neurons, the organization of their networks, and their function via new experiences. This means that every individual has the capacity for growth, improvement and learning of a new skill depending on how you have been trained and where your experiences take you. The theory of effectiveness of training only within the window of opportunity (early childhood) no longer holds. Essentially, research is showing that neuroplasticity, thinking, learning, and acting actually change both the brain’s physical structure (anatomy) and functional organization (physiology).
Research is showing that making children gesture brings out implicit knowledge and leads to learning
Researches wanted to find out if gesturing would help in relieving implicit knowledge and enhance learning. They found out in an experiment that children who were unable to solve math problems presented earlier often added new and correct problem solving strategies, expressed only in gesture to their repertoires. When the children were given instructions on their math problems later, they were more likely to succeed on the problems than children told not to gesture.
Research shows an importance in a Father’s role in training…
Did you know that research is showing a strong correlation of father’s involvement in their children’s lives with success in academic performance? Research suggests that even when fathers have limited schooling, their involvement in children’s school and school lives is a powerful factor of the children’s academic achievement. In one study, (Nord, C.W., Brimhall D., & West. U., 1997) there were findings that fathers who were involved in some ways enjoyed higher grades, enjoyment of school and never had to repeat a grade.
Literacy and Language
Literacy can be defined as the understanding of the printed representation of the spoken language for functional use in daily life contexts, at an age-appropriate level.
“Writing is talk written down.
If you can say it, you can write it.
If you can write it, you can read it.
And if you can say it, read it and write it, you can understand it.”
Even slight deficits in any component of the speaking-reading-writing triad can change this into a complicated process.
Spoken and written language is reciprocally connected. A solid foundation in spoken language (speech sounds, grammar, vocabulary and comprehension) is crucial for the development of reading and writing. For example, a child with and articulation disorder who substitutes “t” for “c” would likely use the letters “T-A-T” to spell “CAT”. Furthermore, a child with language disorder might produce utterances such as “Me has ball”, in his speech, and write similar sentences at best.
Likewise, children who have trouble recognizing familiar words, decoding unfamiliar words, reading fluently, and understanding written texts may also find oral language tasks difficult, such as describing objects, people, or processes, or giving verbal instructions. The gap between students who perform adequately on classroom language tasks and those who do not widen markedly following the shift from “learning to read” in the early years to “reading to learn” at around grade 3.
Conversely, improvements in oral language skills can result in better writing and more fluent reading, and vice versa – individuals who read well and often, and who are able to improve their written expression via systematic training and practice can become more articulate speakers, who use more complex sentences and possess a richer vocabulary.
Since the acquisition and development of spoken and written language are so closely connected, SLPs have a responsibility in addressing literacy. Spoken and written language difficulties can involve any of the components of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and can occur during speaking or listening tasks, and at different levels of speech and language production (sound, syllable, word, sentence and discourse).
The SLPs knowledge of normal and disordered language acquisition, as well as her experience in developing individually-tailored programs, prepares her to assume roles in reading and writing intervention, which could include identification of children “at-risk” for problems, direct intervention to target speech and oral language skills and/or emergent literacy, assessments, providing assistance to teachers and parents.
Specific Language Impairment
Specific Language Impairment or SLI is a condition where an individual finds it hard to acquire and develop language in the same capacity and pace as most of their peers. It is an exclusionary disorder (meaning that most SLI sufferers have normal or even higher IQ level than their peers). Traits of difficulty frequent emerge early when parents find themselves faced with a child who is a late-talker, and who generally makes more grammatical errors than most of his/her peers when speech arrives. This is even so as parents may provide good models of language.
In school, an SLI sufferer typically struggles to keep up with academia, and is likely to have difficulty understanding his/her teachers. They may also fail to make the grades in school. Unless intervention is provided, SLI sufferers would move on to have difficulty in reading, writing and expressing themselves even through higher grades.
SLI should not be confused with Dyslexia, which is an even more specialized form of difficulty. Commercially, there have been many programmes which have been providing intervention for dyslexia treatment even as child’s central difficulty seems to be SLI. This is unfortunate as treating one disorder for another often ends up as a frustratingly wasted effort.
SLI, when it is detected, is treatable. An SLPs role is not only to provide the necessary and relevant assessment to weed out the difficulty, we are also able to isolate the specific areas of difficulty and work on those areas so that the child makes progress all around – in communication and in learning.
In schools, SLI is slowly gaining recognition as a valid obstacle to learning. Modifications made in terms of style of delivery in lessons, and accommodations, such as exemption from second language learning, or the provision of learning support could sometimes be made as a collaborative effort between the school and the SLP.
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a condition in which one finds it difficult to acquire reading and spelling skills. The past decade of research has shown that dyslexia is linked strongly to poor phonological skills. Phonological awareness is related to sensitivity of the sound structure of a native language. It refers to the understanding that spoken words can be broken down into smaller parts. It is multi-level skill, involving, syllable awareness, onset-rime awareness and phoneme awareness.
Poor phonological awareness can develop as a result of many causes including:
- Poor metalinguistic awareness (poor ability to think about language, and therefore, words)
- Central Auditory Processing Difficulty CAPD (inability to process incoming phonemic sounds even though there is nothing wrong with one’s hearing)
- Poor use of the Visual Processing route (which, to a large extent, relies on phonological route in reading)
- Physical, Sensory or Intellectual Impairment resulting in poor phonological awareness
Is Letter Knowledge enough to help reading?
Training in letter knowledge alone, does not result in improved word decoding (Adams, 1990) and there is evidence that an initial level of phonological awareness is necessary for children to be able to use letter name knowledge in word recognition (Tunmer et al., 1988)
The Dyslexia Myth
We want all children to succeed in reading and writing. Very often, Dyslexia is a highly complex yet treatable disorder. Dyslexia is best treated with the assistance of an SLP who knows the entire spectrum of disorders relating to this – so that careful diagnosis could be made to weed out areas that are sound and target areas that are impaired so no time is wasted.
Recently, questions have arisen to whether behavioral optometry would solve issues of dyslexia. Unfortunately, there is paucity of controlled trials to support behavioral optometry approaches.
Some studies are showing that dyslexia is not related to visual difficulty.
Stuttering and Stammering
“Stuttering is a speech disorder where disruptions occur and interfere with normal communication” (Onslow, 1998).
Some of these interruptions include:
- Repetition of sounds, syllable or words e.g. “M-m-m-mummy or bu-bu-bubbles or I want- I want- I want a sweet!”
- Blockings; that is silence as the person tries to speak.
- Prolongations e.g. “where is the d-o-o-o-o-g?”|
- Verbal disruptions may be accompanied by a body, head, and facial movements such as eye-blinking or other signs of struggle and tension.
The speech disruptions of stuttering range from mild to severe and stuttering may vary among individuals. Onslow, M. (1998) Behavioral Management of Stuttering. USA: San Diego, CA Stuttering is Dynamic and Multifactorial. Research has established that stuttering is a motor speech disorder and most people who suffer have a genetically inherited predisposition to stuttering. Stuttering also affects more males than females, with reported ratios varying from 3:1 to 5:1 (Onslow, 1998). Stuttering may also be influenced by environmental factors and may be worse in situations which produce anxiety or stress.
Onset of Stuttering
Stuttering may start gradually or suddenly, and severity of stuttering ranges from mild to severe. The onset of stuttering typically occurs in the early years of life, between 2-5 years old or as soon as the child starts putting words together in short sentences. Sometimes, stuttering onset may be ‘acquired’ in late childhood or early adulthood. “Acquired” stuttering may occur due to psychogenic reasons or neurological trauma such as head injury or stroke.
Spontaneous Recovery
There is research to suggest that children may recover naturally or outgrow stuttering on their own without speech therapy. However, as the exact rate and average time taken to recover is not known, it is essential to start treatment within 6-12 months from the onset of stuttering. All children can benefit from therapy, although outcomes vary for each child. A speech language therapist specializing in the area of stutter therapy can help bring about changes.
GLUE EAR
Glue ear is fairly common childhood condition where fluid builds up in the middle ear. The medical term for glue ear is otitis media with effusion.
The most common symptom of glue ear is some loss of hearing, which can range from slight to mild to moderate.
Even after Glue Ear has subsided and hearing returns to normal, the auditory processing difficulties may continue indefinitely…
Research has shown that abnormalities binaural processing continue even after hearing thresholds are returned to normal post-surgery. Hall, Grose and Pillsbury (1995) in a longitudinal study of the glue ear with effusion reported that abnormalities of auditory processing continue up to 2 years following post-operation. It is important that an SLP is involved during this period of time to monitor and track the child’s language acquisition and provide therapy if necessary to prevent learning issues from emerging.
The brain has plasticity throughout life
Neuroplasticity involves the changing of neurons, the organization of their networks, and their function via new experiences. This means that every individual has the capacity for growth, improvement and learning of a new skill depending on how you have been trained and where your experiences take you. The theory of effectiveness of training only within the window of opportunity (early childhood) no longer holds. Essentially, research is showing that neuroplasticity, thinking, learning, and acting actually change both the brain’s physical structure (anatomy) and functional organization (physiology).
Research is showing that making children gesture brings out implicit knowledge and leads to learning
Researches wanted to find out if gesturing would help in relieving implicit knowledge and enhance learning. They found out in an experiment that children who were unable to solve math problems presented earlier often added new and correct problem solving strategies, expressed only in gesture to their repertoires. When the children were given instructions on their math problems later, they were more likely to succeed on the problems than children told not to gesture.
Research shows an importance in a Father’s role in training…
Did you know that research is showing a strong correlation of father’s involvement in their children’s lives with success in academic performance? Research suggests that even when fathers have limited schooling, their involvement in children’s school and school lives is a powerful factor of the children’s academic achievement. In one study, (Nord, C.W., Brimhall D., & West. U., 1997) there were findings that fathers who were involved in some ways enjoyed higher grades, enjoyment of school and never had to repeat a grade.