Introduction to the Forum on Speech-Language Pathologists and Reading Disorders

You have accessSIG 1 Language Learning and EducationIntroduction27 Oct 2023Introduction to the Forum on Speech-Language Pathologists and Reading Disorders Dawna Duff Dawna Duff https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7523-6857 Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Binghamton University, Johnson City, NY Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_PERSP-23-00188 SectionsAboutAbstractPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In A child's ability to read and understand text is critical to academic success during the school years. Many children on speech-language pathology caseloads are affected by reading disorders; children who meet criteria for language disorder in kindergarten are 4 to 5 times more likely than their peers to later develop a reading disorder (Catts et al., 2014). Reading difficulties matter in real-world contexts; on a school-administered assessment of reading ability, children in 2nd grade who have a developmental language disorder scored substantially below their peers (Duff et al., 2022). I would argue that difficulty understanding written language is one of the most devastating consequences of a language disorder. In a recent survey of speech-language pathologists, most respondents agreed that reading disorders were a part of our scope of practice (Loveall et al., 2022). Nonetheless, there was a lot of variability in the extent to which literacy goals are incorporated into clinical practice. While a substantial proportion of speech-language pathologists across employment settings said that they address reading goals weekly or daily in their practice, another 57% reported that they address reading goals only on a monthly or yearly basis, or not at all. The same survey suggested a possible reason: The majority reported that they felt that their training on assessing and treating reading impairments was not adequate, with wide variation in clinician's confidence about their ability to provide clinical services for reading disabilities. In order to confidently address the literacy needs of the children on speech-language pathology caseloads, clinicians need to have current information about what is typical in reading development, how to identify children who are struggling, how to articulate meaningful and achievable goals, and then how to design and implement effective interventions. This forum is designed to move toward this important goal. Each article in this forum focuses on a different aspect of reading development: alphabet knowledge, word reading, vocabulary, and morphological knowledge. Each provides recommendations that are based on research evidence, described so that clinicians can implement them right away. In short, this forum provides resources to allow speech-language pathologists to more confidently assess and treat some of the aspects of language that directly impact reading. To begin, you will find a tutorial that focuses on alphabet knowledge (Pfeiffer & Pavelko, 2023). Speech-language pathologists are typically aware of the key role that phonological awareness plays in early reading development. In contrast to phonological awareness, many speech-language pathologists are less familiar with the typical development of alphabet knowledge and how to plan intervention for children who need better knowledge of letters and letter–sound relationships. This knowledge gap matters, because evidence indicates that phonological awareness training is most effective when it is consistently paired with training about how speech sounds map onto letters and letter combinations. This tutorial includes a summary of key information about alphabet knowledge, beginning by outlining the order in which letters and letter–sound pairings are typically learned and the factors that make it easier or harder to learn a given letter. Understanding this progression, and the reasons for it, will give speech-language pathologists the foundation for setting achievable goals. Next, the authors summarize assessment measures that can be used to characterize children's current skills, including resources that are freely available. Additionally, they describe intervention practices that are effective in promoting alphabet knowledge. Finally, readers will see how alphabet knowledge goals can be incorporated into a variety of service delivery models and how speech-language pathologists can collaborate with teacher colleagues. Second, you will find a tutorial that focuses on word reading (Colenbrander & Kohnen, 2023), which the authors describe as “the access point to meaning in written text” (p. 2). Colenbrander and Kohnen start with a comprehensive review of what beginning readers need to learn in a language such as English, in which spelling depends on both phonology and morphology. They then review assessments that can identify students who are struggling with content taught in the classroom, which again includes research-based, free resources. Over reading development, there are shifts in which assessments best differentiate students who need additional support from those who don't, and the authors provide a schedule that outlines the skills that should be tested across different grades and test points during the year. Next, readers will find a thorough description of evidence-based Tier 1 instruction for word reading, including phonics; teaching of words with irregular or partly irregular spelling; morphology; and practice at word, sentence, and text levels. Readers will find a synthesis of important new evidence about how to optimize learning of words that are opaque (have less regular spelling), with a focus on the importance of asking children to explicitly process letters within such words. Finally, Colenbrander and Kohnen describe how to intensify instruction at Tier 2 and individualize intervention at Tier 3. They offer a case study that illustrates assessment and clinical decision-making for a child who needs individualized and targeted instruction. The tutorial will give readers a solid understanding of best practices for class-wide instruction, as well as individualized intervention with children who struggle to learn to read. Next, we include a tutorial about vocabulary in reading (Duff, 2023). Vocabulary clearly matters to oral language, but speech-language pathologists may be less familiar with how it relates to literacy. The tutorial outlines this relationship and how it changes across reading development, using a hypothetical example of two children who differ in their vocabulary achievement as they begin school. It then outlines how real children with vocabulary difficulties could be identified in schools. The article includes guidance on developing goals relating to increasing knowledge of specific vocabulary, interpreting words in flexible and figurative ways, and inferring the meaning of new words from context. In each case, sample goals are provided, which speech-language pathologists can use as a starting point for setting goals for children on their caseload. Additionally, readers will find resources on evidence-based techniques that clinicians can use in intervention to address those goals. The tutorial ends with a discussion of roles that a speech-language pathologist can take on, in order to meet the needs of children. This tutorial aims to support speech-language pathologists in seeing vocabulary intervention as an integral part of reading development and to provide clinicians with hands-on strategies that can be used in many service delivery models. Finally, readers will find a tutorial about how morphological knowledge can be developed in order to support reading ability (Collins, 2023). In recent years, there has been a growing body of research about the importance of morphological awareness in reading. This parallels in some ways the realization that came before that, about the value of phonological awareness in learning to read. However, while information about phonological awareness has become widely used in many school settings, this is less true about more recent evidence about the importance of morphological knowledge. Collins provides the resources to allow speech-language pathologists to make a strong contribution to this important area of literacy instruction and intervention. Collins outlines the basics of morphology and how it relates to literacy, then helpfully ties that information to curricular expectations across the grades. The tutorial also outlines options for speech-language pathologists who want to assess morphological knowledge. As Collins points out, there are limited options for standardized measures of morphological knowledge that are also clinically informative, which makes the description of assessment tasks in this article especially valuable. Finally, the tutorial gives detailed suggestions for intervention practices that support children's morphological knowledge. These are organized according to skill and grade level, allowing clinicians to select the most appropriate options for a child or group of children. Readers of the articles in this forum will note how often these four topics are intertwined. Alphabet knowledge and letter–sound associations, discussed by Pfeiffer and Pavelko (2023), naturally provide the critical foundation for the development of early word reading skills as outlined by Colenbrander and Kohnen (2023). In turn, Colenbrander and Kohnen (2023) point out that one of the challenges of word reading in English is that English is a morpho-phonemic orthography where a word's morphology, as well as its phonology, affect the way that it is spelled. When English spelling doesn't match straightforward grapheme phoneme correspondences, morphological variation is often the reason why. Collins (2023) tackles the issue of morphology and spelling directly, recommending that intervention to improve morphological knowledge should incorporate discussions about spelling as well as meaning. Another example of intertwined skills is “mispronunciation correction,” in which students first decode a word, then consider real words that might match that sequence of sounds. Colenbrander and Kohnen describe mispronunciation correction as one possible strategy to teach children as they learn to read words that don't have fully regular spelling, and Duff (2023) discusses how a child's vocabulary knowledge contributes to the skill of mispronunciation correction. Furthermore, while we might naturally think of vocabulary as part of language comprehension, Duff argues that a child's vocabulary also affects word reading ability and, in turn, word reading ability can impact vocabulary growth. In sum, many of the component skills of reading are connected to one another, just as is true for the many skills that comprise oral language. Another theme in this set of articles is that for children who have reading goals, it is important to consider a variety of roles for speech-language pathologists, within different service delivery models. Speech-language pathologists' involvement in literacy-related goals necessarily involves working closely with other professionals. While reading disorders are part of our scope of practice, we are clearly not the only professions with valuable expertise about how to support children with reading disorders; regular and special education teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, and school administrators likewise have training, skills, and disciplinary perspectives that are critically important. Speech-language pathologists might support children's reading development via pull-out treatment, classroom-based services, or consultative services, and Pfeiffer and Pavelko (2023) provide an excellent outline of the advantages and drawbacks of these different models. Together, the articles outline a wide variety of ways in which speech-language pathologists might contribute to intervention for children with reading disorders. Collaboration with teachers and others on issues of literacy can be exciting, but negotiating with other professionals about roles and disciplinary boundaries may also feel fraught. My own approach on this issue has been shaped by conversations with my colleagues Erin Lundblom and Melissa Brydon and begins by asking the question, “What does this child need?” In other words, the first task is to develop a clear idea of why a particular child is struggling with reading and to clarify which evidence-based interventions would best meet that need. The second question is which professionals in a specific context have the expertise, time, and resources to address that need. While this student-centered approach will not instantly resolve all the questions related to professional roles, I believe that this strategy has the potential to lead to productive conversations between varied professionals and, ultimately, effective services for children. When we prioritize the question, “What do children with reading difficulties need?” we find that often the answer is: “Intervention to build up one or more of the language skills that are components of reading.” As speech-language pathologists, our expertise in language relates directly to reading development and disorders, and we have valuable contributions to make to a team-based process to support students with reading difficulties. The tutorials in this forum outline hands-on, evidence-based practices relating to the evaluation and treatment of reading disorders. My hope is that they will provide a valuable resource to clinicians, so they can serve children with reading disorders effectively and with confidence. References Catts, H., Fey, M., Ellis-Weismer, S., & Bridges, M. S. (2014). The relationship between language and reading abilities.In J. B. Tomblin & M. A. Nippold (Eds.), Understanding individual differences in language development across the school years (pp. 144–165). Psychology Press. Google Scholar Colenbrander, D., & Kohnen, S. (2023). Word reading: The role of the speech-language pathologist.Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_PERSP-23-00054 ASHAWireGoogle Scholar Collins, G. (2023). Morphological interventions to support literacy from kindergarten to grade 12.Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_PERSP-23-00059 ASHAWireGoogle Scholar Duff, D. (2023). Vocabulary intervention to support reading: A clinician's guide to evidence based practice.Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_PERSP-23-00075 ASHAWireGoogle Scholar Duff, D. M., Hendricks, A. E., Fitton, L., & Adlof, S. M. (2022). Reading and math achievement in children with dyslexia, developmental language disorder, or typical development: Achievement gaps persist from second through fourth grades.Journal of Learning Disabilities, 56(5), 371–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222194221105515 CrossrefGoogle Scholar Loveall, S., Pitt, A., Rolfe, K., & Mann, J. (2022). Speech-language pathologist reading survey: Scope of practice, training, caseloads, and confidence.Language Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, 53(3), 837–859. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_LSHSS-21-00135 ASHAWireGoogle Scholar Pfeiffer, D., & Pavelko, S. (2023). Evidence-based guidance for alphabet knowledge across service delivery models.Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_PERSP-23-00053 ASHAWireGoogle Scholar Author Notes Disclosure: The author has declared that no competing financial or nonfinancial interests existed at the time of publication. Correspondence to Dawna Duff: [email protected] Editor-in-Chief: Monique T. Mills Editor: Stacey L. Pavelko Publisher Note: This article is part of the Forum: Evidence-Based Practices in Literacy for Word Reading, Morphology, & Vocabulary. Additional Resources FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Newly PublishedePub Ahead of IssuePages: 1-4 HistoryReceived: Aug 9, 2023Accepted: Aug 10, 2023 Published online: Oct 27, 2023 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library Metrics Topicsasha-topicsasha-sigsasha-article-typesCopyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2023 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationPDF downloadLoading ...