Literacy InvestigationBrianna Huff

QuestionHow does a preschool student

with significant speech productionimpairments acquire pre-literacy or reading skills, if that child cannot produce the sounds, detect the sound in various parts of the word, or recognize whether the words sound alike, rhyme or begin/end the same?

Definitions Speech Impairment: general term to describe speech that is

difficult to be understood

Lisp, stutter

Language impairment: general term that describes a disability with expressive or receptive language

Not talking, incorrect pronoun use-”her went to the store”, poor vocabulary, minimal word use,

Speech production impairment: analytical term, what specifically the child is doing, implies the child has an error pattern, child has been evaluated

Apraxia, phonological processing disorder-initial consonant deletion but can produce key sound

Pre-literacy skills:

Oral language, phonological awareness, knowledge of alphabet and their sounds, rhyming, spelling and comprehension

DefinitionsPhonological awareness: awareness of sounds in language, awareness of rhymes, ability to talk about and manipulate sounds, understanding relationship between spoken and written language

Phonological awareness skills: Identifying rhymes, words that start/end the same, blending separated words into words, manipulating sounds in words by adding or deleting

Think phonics, (sounding out words, pre-reading)

RationaleI became interested in this the

minute I met Jeffery. He is so intelligent but has significant speech impairments. I wondered if his impairments could hinder his intelligence and his success in pre-literacy skills. I want to find the correlation, if one, between the two.

Strategy

I will interview Jeffery’s teacher and speech pathologist. I will observe him in his classroom setting as well as during speech therapy. I will interact with him, do activities with him and use a speech evaluation report to help with my investigation. I will also research the issue to find more information.

Products

I plan to achieve an understanding of how speech impairments affect children’s learning and if they even do. The outcome will enhance my learning because I will investigate an area that I may encounter as a future educator. It will enhance the support of the child because I can share what I find out with his family and/or teacher, which will benefit them as well.

Hypothesis

I believe that having a speech sound production impairment will impact the child's pre-literacy skills; however not make them reading disabled. I feel the spelling will be a challenge.

The Impact of Developmental Speech and Language Impairments on the Acquisition of Literacy Skills Children with developmental speech/language impairments are at higher risk for reading disability than typical peers

Studied literacy outcomes in children who have primary language impairments or PD but who are otherwise typically developing

Results:

Clear that children with language impairments fall behind their typical peers and may not master certain skills on target. 80% classified as RD.

Children with phonological disorders were not found to be at greater risk for reading impairments; however, they do tend to have more spelling difficulties than their peers.

Twenty-year Follow-up of Children With and Without Speech-Language Impairments: Family, Educational, Occupational and Quality of Life Outcomes Not just pre-literacy outcomes

Long term prognosis for children with communication disorders

Described the family, educational, occupational and quality of life outcomes of 25-year-old participants who started at age 5

20 year prospective, longitudinal study of individuals with and without early speech and language impairments

Results:

Individuals with language impairments performed more poorly than those without disorders at Time 1-4 on all language, cognitive and academic measures

Pre-literacy Speech Sound Production Skill and Later Literacy Outcomes: A Study Using the Templin Archive

Children with speech sound disorder (SSD) tend to have poorer literacy outcomes than typically developing children

Studied the relationship between speech sound production skills in kindergarten children and their literacy outcomes (reading & spelling) in grades 1-3 with minimal speech therapy

Results:

Kindergartners with the most severe SSD scored more poorly in 1st and 2nd grade reading and 3rd grade spelling than the children with average speech sound production

Kindergartners with none to minor speech sound production disorders achieved superior literacy skills

SSD tends to be obvious proof that it does in fact influence literacy skills

Relationship Between Speech-sound Disorders and Early Literacy Skills in Preschool-Age Children: Impact of Comorbid Language Impairment

Studied the impact of isolated SSD and SSD with comorbid LI on literacy skills

Only article to mention SES

Preschool children with SSD and LI may benefit from instruction in pre-literacy skills in addition to language therapy

Results:

Early reading and writing scores were significantly lower for children with comorbid LI

Below average language skills in preschool place a child at risk for deficits in pre-literacy skills which may influence reading disabilities

Literacy Outcomes for Students with Speech Impairment: Long-term Follow-up Many children with expressive phonological impairments experience problems in acquiring literacy skills

Tracked the phonological processing and literacy skills of children with speech impairments from kindergarten to 1st grade and then again at age 13

Divided into 2 groups: Developmental and Non-developmental speech impairments

Results:

Children with non-developmental speech errors performed more poorly with comprehension, accuracy and spelling

Showed ongoing difficulties for non-developmental group

Meet Jeffery 5 year old preschool

student

Head Start

Kindergarten next year

Apraxic-motor planning disorder where he hears the sound and goes to imitate it and his motor planning is just all off.

Baby-“dady” asks if he said it right, and he believes he has. Speech production impairment

Bottle- “doe tle”

Very Intelligent Language has been assessed

to be above average Developmentally up to par

for kindergarten Recognizes and can read

sight words- cat, book, girl, boy

Excellent drawer Can draw all letters in logical

way Very creative High amount of frustration

because of apraxia, thinks he’s saying it right and people don’t understand him and sometimes does not recognize errors

Recognized rhyming words

Observation: Speech Therapy

Goal: Articulation Target and auditory discrimination

Understood rhyming after awhile

Doesn’t always recognize the individuals sounds

Mastered the “D” sound at the beginning of word--age appropriate

Cannot always discriminate the context sound like “ch” and “sh”

Can not discriminate “M” and “N” and interchanges the two which is impacted by his speech impairment which can affect his reading skills

Word cards-SLP modeled words and Jeffrey imitated, run through a few times to get a closer approximation of the sound

Drill in Speech therapy with a list of target speech words with one and two syllables

He talked about what he was doing

Needed prompted and cued to stay on task

Observation: Classroom Setting

Very distracted in classroom, door open and he was the first to get up to see what’s going on

Very active to participate, raises hand and has right answer but teacher does not always understand him

Eager to learn

Helpful

Friends with everyone-very social

Outgoing

Communicated with everyone

InterviewsRonna Rebo-SLPRebecca Cardoni-Preschool

teacherQuestions related to JeffreyPre-reading was never assessed

by SLP’s until 2009 so now they need to incorporate, what I saw in speech therapy was never done before

AnalysisGuarded concern that his impairment

may impact Jeffrey’s pre-literacy skillsAlthough he is very smart it may

counteractHis kindergarten teacher is awareHe will continue speech therapyHope is with those in place he will

develop on targetAfter reading the articles, SSD is proven

to impact reading skills negatively

Analysis2/5 articles found that poor speech sound

production skills impacted the child’s pre-literacy skills in a negative way

3/5 articles found that language impairments affected the child’s pre-literacy skills in a negative way

1 differentiated between developmental and non-developmental impairments impacts on reading and non-developmental impairments affected pre-literacy skills more