Does your child struggle with their literacy skills? Literacy refers to reading and writing skills including: phonological awareness (early literacy skills), reading fluency, spelling, writing, and reading comprehension.
Why Do Children Struggle with Literacy?
Children may have difficulty with literacy skills if they have speech or language delays or disorders, learning disabilities, or developmental delays. Children with language delays or disorders often have difficulty with word and sentence structure, linguistic concepts and vocabulary. This can lead to difficulties understanding what they read and forming their own grammatical and meaningful sentences to express their ideas. Children with delays in articulation often have difficulty sounding out words, which can lead to difficulties with reading and spelling.
How Can We Improve Literacy Skills?
For younger children: Speech-Language Pathologists focus on the development of phonological awareness (early literacy skills). Research has shown that phonological awareness is an excellent predictor of later reading acquisition and spelling success. Reading and spelling skills can improve when students are taught to be aware of the sound structure of spoken words. The younger the student when starting phonological awareness instruction, the better!
For older children: Speech-Language Pathologists may target decoding, vocabulary, spelling, reading fluency, reading comprehension, word and sentence structure, text structure, narratives, or organization of writing in order to improve their literacy development.
When Should I See A Speech-Language Pathologist?
If your child is struggling with reading and/or writing skills, a Speech-Language Pathologist can help. We can assess your child’s spoken and written language skills, determine their strengths and weaknesses, and develop an individualized treatment plan to help them succeed.
If you have concerns about your child’s literacy skills, please contact us at Achieve Pediatric Therapy to schedule an initial assessment with one of our Speech-Language Pathologists!
