Title: Early Intervention and Prevention of Reading and Writing Disabilities in Preschool and Kindergarten Children
1Early Intervention and Prevention of Reading and
Writing Disabilities in Preschool and
Kindergarten Children
- Judith Rutberg-Self, Ph.D.
2(No Transcript)
3It is possible to diagnose and prevent reading
(and writing) disabilities
- Before children can read!!!
4Early Intervention is Critical
5The Case for Early Intervention
- To the extent that we allow children to fall
seriously behind at any point during early
elementary school, we are moving to a remedial
rather than a preventive model of intervention.
Once children fall behindit may require very
intensive interventions because of the large
amount of reading practice that is lost by
children each month and year that they remain
poor readers. - Joseph Torgesen, Ph.D., Florida State University
6Why Early Intervention is Not Widely Used in the
Public Schools
- Current guidelines use a" discrepancy formula
to qualify students for special education
services under the designation of specific
learning disability. - Severe discrepancy between ability (as measured
by IQ) and achievement (as measured by current
academic achievement testing) - If there is not a significant difference between
predicted scores based on IQ, then the child is
performing at the expected level and does not
meet criteria for services.
7Why the Discrepancy Formula is Wrong The Wait
to Fail Model
- Every state uses a different discrepancy formula
different criteria, different assessments - There is no evidence of intrinsic differences
between reading-disabled children with
achievement discrepancy and reading disabled
children without achievement discrepancy. Both
groups make gains with treatment.
8Comparison of Reading Disabled Children With and
Without IQ-Achievement Discrepancy
9
9Why the Discrepancy Formula is Wrong The Wait
to Fail Model
- Using a discrepancy model interferes with the
early identification of learning disabilities.
Poor academic performance cannot be reliably
measured until grade 3, creating a wait to fail
model. Children need to get bad enough to qualify
for services. Often, these students never catch
up. - Current federal guidelines exclude services to
children due to environment, inadequate teaching,
cultural, and economic disadvantage, the very
children who need services!
10Demise of the Severe Discrepancy Formula
- The Congress has passed a bill that will end the
federal law requiring a discrepancy formula in
May, 2005, after more than 25 years!!! - New models will need to be set up
- Early Intervention
- Three-Tiered Model
- Response to Intervention
11Children Do Not Outgrow Learning Difficulties
- If a child is not learning at the pace of other
children, it is generally not a readiness
issue! - Giving it time, and waiting a little longer
results in the child falling further behind and
damaging her self-esteem. - Early diagnosis and targeted science-driven
intervention is critical!
12Myths about reading and writing
- Myth 1
- Most children will mature and grow out of their
learning difficulties.
13Reality 1
- No! Research supports a nature/nurture model. It
is better to intervene than to wait. - There are critical developmental periods in which
learning to read is easier. - Children do not mature out of dyslexia and
dysgraphia. - Current research does not support retention for
academic deficits.
14Research on Grade Retentionfrom National
Association of School Psychologists
- Initial achievement gains may occur during the
year the student is retained, but is not
sustained. - Retention is associated with significant
increases in behavior problems and poor self
esteem. - Highest rates among poor, minority, or inner-city
youth. - May have positive impact when students are not
simply held back, but receive specific remediation
15Myth 2
- Dyslexia can be cured by phonics training.
16Reality 2 No
- Some children have deficits in PHONOLOGICAL
AWARENESS, and unless that is remediated so they
can hear the individual phonemes or speech sounds
in spoken words, they will not apply phonics
productively.
17Reality 2 No
- Some children have deficits in ORTHOGRAPHIC
AWARENESS, and unless that is remediated so they
can represent written words efficiently in
short-term memory, they will not apply phonics
properly.
18Reality 2 No
- Some children have deficits in RAPID AUTOMATIZED
NAMING, and unless they can access words from
their mental dictionary fluently, they will not
become automatic decoders and readers.
19Myth 3
- Some children are auditory learners and some
children are visual learners (aptitude-treatment
model). - Visual learners do best with a sight word
approach, and auditory learners do best with
phonics. - Children should be taught according to their
learning style.
20Reality 3
- There is no scientific evidence to support the
theory of learning styles. - It is likely that children who exhibit a
particular learning preference may in reality
have deficits in the non-preferred area. - Both aural (phonological) and visual
(orthographic) processes are involved in word
recognition.
21Myth 4
- Dyslexic children see letters and words backward
and reversals are a strong sign of dyslexia.
22Reality 4
- There is no evidence that dyslexic children
actually see letters backwards. Reversals are
irrelevant to the diagnosis of dyslexia
(Shaywitz) - Dyslexic children have trouble in naming, but not
in copying letters. - Backward writing and letter reversals are common
in the early stages of writing development.
23Myth 5
- Left-handedness, difficulties with spatial
(including right-left) orientation, trouble tying
shoelaces, and clumsiness are associated with
dyslexia.
24Reality 5
- No research findings support the association of
clumsiness and coordination problems with
dyslexia. The vast majority of dyslexic
individuals (about 88 percent) share a common
phonologic weakness. (Shaywitz)
25Myth 6
- Reading disabilities are the most common form of
learning disability.
26Reality 6
- Reading disabilities may be identified sooner,
but writing disabilities are more persistent. - Writing disabilities are extremely prevalent in
the population of children with learning
disabilities.
27What is Dyslexia
- Dyslexia is a specific language-based disorder of
constitutional origin characterized by
difficulties in single word decoding, usually
reflecting insufficient phonological processing. - Reid Lyon, National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development, 1995
28What is Dyslexia?
- First signs in kindergarten Unusual difficulty
in learning to name letters and attach phonemes
to letters. (Orthographic-Phonological Mapping
Relationships) - 1st grade signs Unusual difficulty learning to
read single words out of sentence context (sight
words and/or phonological decoding).
29Dyslexia is manifest by variable difficulty with
different forms of language, often including, in
addition to problems with reading, a conspicuous
problem with acquiring proficiency with writing
and spelling. Wong
30Early Warning Signs of Reading
Disabilities
31 Early Warning Signs of Reading Disabilities
Delay in Speaking
- May not begin speaking single words until 15
months and phrases until after their second
birthday. - May have family history of late talking.
- Some dyslexic children do not exhibit speech
delays.
32Early Warning Signs of Reading Disabilities
Difficulties in Pronunciation
- Sometimes referred to as baby talk.
- By age 5-6, a child should have little problem
saying most words correctly. - Typical mispronunciations involve leaving off
beginning sounds (pisquetti), or inverting
sounds (aminal).
33Early Warning Signs of Reading
DisabilitiesDifficulties With Rhyming
- Dyslexic children may show insensitivity to
rhyme. - Dyslexic children may confuse words that sound
alike. - It is not a matter of intelligence, but of
insensitivity to the sound structure of language.
34Early Warning Signs of Reading DisabilitiesWord
Retrieval Difficulties
- May use incorrect phoneme word is close in
sound but different in meaning (tornado/volcano). - May talk around a word
- May use filler words like stuff, things
instead of actual name of object. - Expressive language problem, not thinking problem.
35Early Warning Signs of Reading DisabilitiesDiffic
ulty Naming Alphabet Letters
- This is the most robust early predictor of
dyslexia. - Many children know the names of most of upper and
lower case alphabet letters by the entry of
kindergarten. - After a full year of kindergarten instruction,
children should know most of the letter-sound
relationships.
36Early Warning Signs of Writing Disabilities
- Difficulties in Gross and Fine Motor Coordination
Contribute to Writing Disabilities - Dyspraxia- difficulty getting the muscles to work
together to cooperate in the right way to
accomplish a motor action. - I know what to do, I can explain it, but its
just that my muscles wont do it. - These students hold their pencil in an awkward
way, or tightly, which helps them control their
muscles better but can also make writing very
slow.
37Early Warning Signs of Writing DisabilitiesDiffi
culty writing the letters of the alphabet from
memory
- Handwriting automaticity at an early age (writing
alphabet letters quickly from memory) is a strong
predictor of the quality of composition in older,
normally developing writers. - If letter production is automatic, then the child
is able to attend to higher level composing
processes, such as deciding what to write about,
what to say, and how to say it.
38In order to assess and treat reading and writing
disabilities, it is necessary to understand the
underlying sub-processes.
39Process Assessment
- Process assessment has been a method used for
treatment of learning disabilities for several
decades. - However, the processes that were addressed in
the past were not scientifically proven for the
treatment of learning disabilities.
40Process Assessment
- Examples of past non-scientifically sound
processes to treat learning disabilities and
dyslexia - Visual-Perceptual training
- Doman-Delicato (crawling therapy
- Vision Training/Colored lenses
41Process Assessment
- Scientifically valid process assessment treats
the underlying processes directly related to
reading and writing!
42Understanding the Functional Reading and Writing
SystemVirginia Berninger, Ph.D. Director, U.E.
Learning Disabilities Center
- The functional reading and writing system draws
upon different processes which must be
orchestrated together. - The working brain is like an orchestra each
instrument is a separable component, but the
playing of all instruments must be synthesized to
play music. (Michael Posner, 1988)
43Functional Reading and Writing System
- Phonological system is the aural processing
system (hearing) and is the first system to
become functional. - It is followed by the orthographic processing
system (visual system). - Handwriting relies on the orthographic-motor
component and the ability to recognize, retrieve,
and form letters automatically.
44Functional Reading and Writing SystemPhonemic
Awareness
- Phonological or phonemic awareness refers to the
ability to consciously isolate and manipulate the
phonemic elements (smallest units of sound)
within words. - Reading involves converting written letters into
their sounds and appreciating that the words are
composed of smaller segments or phonemes.
45Functional Reading and Writing SystemPhonologic
Awareness
- Every language has a basic set of elementary
sounds called phonemes. Spoken words are formed
by combining these sounds into meaningful
sequences. (Sattler, 2002) - Cat has single letter phonemes that can be
segmented into cuh-ah-t
46Functional Reading and Writing SystemPhonological
Awareness
- Phonological awareness also includes the
abilities to segment words into syllables, delete
and substitute phonemes, recognize rhyme, and
appreciate puns.
47Functional Reading and Writing SystemPhonological
Awareness is Developmental
- Preschool children learn to rhyme (perceive the
similarity of sound patterns at ends of words). - Mother Goose, Dr. Seuss books
- Next, kindergarten children perceive and can
segment syllables in words (mon-key). - Finally, by the end of kindergarten, children can
perceive and segment phonemes in monosyllabic
words (c-a-t).
48Functional Reading and Writing SystemOrthographic
Awareness
- Orthographic Awareness involves the ability to
process letters and letter units built-in
spellchecker. - Orthographic ability is a visual, letter-specific
process and is separate from being able to
recognize and remember other non-letter symbols.
49Functional Reading and Writing SystemOrthographic
Awareness is Developmental
- Preschool- recognize and produce letter-like
symbols. - K-1st grade recognize and produce the letters
of their own written language.
50Functional Reading and Writing SystemOrthographic
Coding
- Orthographic Coding is the ability to represent
(image) a written word in memory, including the
entire word as well as discrete segments of a
word. - Before children can pronounce written words, they
acquire representations of written words in
memory and have some knowledge of acceptable
letter sequences found in written English (e.g.
u follows q).
51Functional Reading and Writing SystemOrthographic
Coding is Developmental
- Preschool children can recognize whole words
(their names, Cheerios). - Kindergarten children can remember if a single
letter is in a word. - The ability to recall letter cluster groups in
words at third grade predicted reading and
writing skills (Berninger).
52Functional Reading and Writing SystemRapid
Automatized Naming (RAN)
- RAN, or rapid naming, is the ability to retrieve
the names for objects, colors, digits, or letters
efficiently from long-term memory. - Measures of rapid naming require speed and
processing of visual as well as phonological
information. - Poor performance on rapid naming tasks is related
to difficulty in reading fluency.
53Functional Reading and Writing SystemRapid
Automatized Naming (RAN)
- The Double Deficit Children with deficits in
both RAN and phonological awareness appear to
have more difficulties learning to read than
individuals with deficits in either rapid naming
or phonological awareness alone.
54Functional Reading and Writing SystemHandwriting
Automatization and Accuracy
- Handwriting is language by hand.
- Writing is unique among the language systems
language by eye (reading), language by mouth
(speaking), and language by ear (hearing)
because it draws upon the fine-motor system.
55Functional Reading and Writing SystemHandwriting
Automatization and Accuracy
- Mastery of handwriting is often ignored among
preschool and kindergarten students. - Formal instruction in handwriting is not always
taught. - Some students require more explicit instruction
in letter formation than other students.
56Functional Reading and Writing SystemHandwriting
Automatization and Accuracy
- Fine-motor measures such as finger-tapping,
finger repetition, finger succession, and finger
localization, were shown to be related to writing
(Rutberg and Berninger). - Students with reading difficulties had difficulty
with finger recognition (Fletcher, et. al)
57Functional Reading and Writing SystemHandwriting
Automatization and Accuracy
- The ability to write the alphabet is a measure of
a childs ability to automatically retrieve from
long-term memory and produce with hand an ordered
set of written symbols. - This task has been found to be the best predictor
of writing skills in elementary school children.
(Berninger)
58Functional Reading and Writing SystemHandwriting
Automatization and Accuracy
- EXLICIT INSTRUCTION IN HANDWRITING, AND
REMEDIATING HANDWRITING DIFFICULTIES EARLY IS
CRITICAL! - Unless children are able to automatically
retrieve alphabet letters from memory, writing
does not become fluent. - Children are not able to attend to the higher
order thinking processes (spelling and idea
generation) unless the lower level process of
handwriting is automatized.
59Preschool and Kindergarten Assessment of the
Functional Reading and Writing System
60Kindergarten Screening BatteryPAL Test Battery
for Reading and Writingfor students K-6
- Developed by Virginia Berninger, University of
Washington. - Includes screening measures for children grades
K-2. - The subtests of the PAL-RW target the
neurodevelopmental processes most relevant to
learning to read and write.
61PAL-RW Kindergarten Screening Battery for Reading
and Writing
- ORTHOGRAPHIC /MOTOR SCREENING
- Alphabet Writing (speed and automaticity of
writing alphabet letters in order from memory)(3
minutes) - Score is letters formed correctly within first 15
seconds, and time to write entire alphabet - Letters must be recognizable out of context
62PAL-RW Kindergarten Screening Battery for Reading
and Writing
- ORTHOGRAPHIC SCREENING
- Orthographic Coding (3 minutes)
- Child views a word for 1 second
- Child decides if a second word exactly matches
the first, or is different - Letter Naming (WIAT-II)
63Example of Orthographic Coding
64well
65wall
66different
67differant
68PAL-RW Kindergarten Screening Battery for Reading
and Writing
- RAN
- RAN letters (2 minutes)
- PHONOLOGICAL (5 minutes)
- Rhyming
- Syllables
-
69PAL Rapid Automatized Naming
70PAL Rhyming Task (grades K-1)
71CTOPP (Ages 5-6)
72CTOPP (ages 5-6)
73The Pre-School Screening Test (PREST 2001,
PsychCorp)
- Ages 36-45
- Developed as preschool screening instrument
- Training Video
- Designed to be used by teachers rather than
psychologists - Divided into two parts. Part one is screener,
Part 2 is for children who come out in at risk
range on part 1
74PREST
- Administration time 15 minutes for each part
- Tests included part 1 (related to reading and
writing) - Rapid Naming (pictures)
- Digit Naming
- Sentence Repetition
- Copying Letter Shapes
75PREST
- Tests in part II
- Phonological discrimination
- Digit Span (index of verbal memory)
- Rhyming
- Sound Order
76Other Standardized Assessments for Kindergarten
Students
- Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing
(CTOPP) - Woodcock-Johnson-III
- Sound Awareness (phonological)
- Letter/Word Identification (naming alphabet
Letters)
77Other Standardized Assessments for Kindergarten
StudentsWIAT-II (Co-normed with the PAL)
- BASIC READING COMPOSITE
- Assesses pre-reading (phonological awareness) and
decoding Skills. - Name the letters of the alphabet
- Identify and generate rhyming words
- Identify the beginning and ending sounds of words
- Match sounds with letters and letter blends
- Read aloud from a graded word list
78Informal Assessment of Preschool Reading and
Writingfrom Designing Early Literacy Programs-
Strategies for At-Risk Preschool and Kindergarten
Children
79Letter Recognition Assessment
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83Intervention Activities for Preschool and
Kindergarten Students
84Activities to Facilitate Writing
- Handwriting Difficulties Must be remediated
EARLY! - Handwriting must be explicitly practiced to make
motor program (engram) automatic. -
- Practice involves following numbered arrow cues
for forming each letter so letter production
becomes automatized and uniform. - It is difficult to remediate awkward hand
position, even if attended to early.
85Activities to Facilitate Writing
- Have children trace letters of their name.
- Explicitly teach alphabet letters rather than
providing incidental instruction. - Use a multi-sensory approach.
- Focus on letter formation. (numbered arrows)
- Teach lower-case alphabet letters before upper
case letters.
86Activities to Facilitate Writing
- For children who have difficulties remembering
what letters look like, keep a copy of Talking
Letters on the desk for referral. - To help children who have difficulties
remembering letters, play the cover-up game
(covering the letter and having the child write
it from memory). - Use the PAL Writing Lessons.
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88PAL Reading and Writing Lessons
- Study the letter. Follow the numbered arrow cues
to write the letter. - Cover the letter and write it from memory
(orthographiccomponent). - Which letter do you think is the best?
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90Activities to promote phonemic and phonological
awareness
- Play rhyming games.
- Around the home, point to objects and say their
names, for example, sink. Then ask your child
to say as many words as she can that rhyme (wink,
pink, blink). Take turns modeling this process. - Some easily rhymed words are ball, bread, rug,
clock and chair. Let her use some silly or
nonsense, words as ball-tall, call, small, dall,
jall, nall
91Activities to promote phonemic and phonological
awareness
- Say three words such as cat, dog, and sat
and ask your child which word sounds different,
from the others (dog). This will help your child
discriminate between sounds.
92Activities to promote phonemic and phonological
awareness
- Play the take away game. Have your child say a
word (dog, for example), and then ask her to
say it again without the beginning duh (d)
sound (og). Try a variety of words. Once your
child masters this task, try having her delete
the ending sound, for example, say truck, now
say it without the ending k sound (truh).
93Activities to promote phonemic and phonological
awareness
- A much harder task, for older beginning readers,
is to have them leave out the middle sound, for
example, say truck, now take away r(tuck).
In all of these tasks, make sure you say the
letter sound,rrr NOT the letter name.
94Activities to familiarize a child about print
- Read regularly to your child quantity and
selection are important - Read nursery rhymes
- Reading should be interactive with discussion and
open ended questions at appropriate points in
story
95Activities to familiarize a child about print
- Pair letters with pictures
- Integrate a picture with the letter (mnemonics)
i.e. a lower case h with house drawn under the
hump of the h f forms the stem and leaves of
flower - Teach upper case, lower case, and sounds
separately - Teach lower case letters first
- Use a multisensory approach such as sandpaper
letters or finger paints
96With Early Intervention, Most Reading and Writing
Disabilities Can be Prevented.