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Early Intervention and Prevention of Reading and Writing Disabilities in Preschool and Kindergarten Children

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Title: Early Intervention and Prevention of Reading and Writing Disabilities in Preschool and Kindergarten Children


1
Early Intervention and Prevention of Reading and
Writing Disabilities in Preschool and
Kindergarten Children
  • Judith Rutberg-Self, Ph.D.

2
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3
It is possible to diagnose and prevent reading
(and writing) disabilities
  • Before children can read!!!

4
Early Intervention is Critical
5
The 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

6
Why 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.

7
Why 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.

8
Comparison of Reading Disabled Children With and
Without IQ-Achievement Discrepancy
9
9
Why 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!

10
Demise 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

11
Children 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!

12
Myths about reading and writing
  • Myth 1
  • Most children will mature and grow out of their
    learning difficulties.

13
Reality 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.

14
Research 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

15
Myth 2
  • Dyslexia can be cured by phonics training.

16
Reality 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.

17
Reality 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.

18
Reality 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.

19
Myth 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.

20
Reality 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.

21
Myth 4
  • Dyslexic children see letters and words backward
    and reversals are a strong sign of dyslexia.

22
Reality 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.

23
Myth 5
  • Left-handedness, difficulties with spatial
    (including right-left) orientation, trouble tying
    shoelaces, and clumsiness are associated with
    dyslexia.

24
Reality 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)

25
Myth 6
  • Reading disabilities are the most common form of
    learning disability.

26
Reality 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.

27
What 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

28
What 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).

29
Dyslexia 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
30
Early 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.

32
Early 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).

33
Early 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.

34
Early 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.

35
Early 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.

36
Early 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.

37
Early 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.

38
In order to assess and treat reading and writing
disabilities, it is necessary to understand the
underlying sub-processes.
39
Process 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.

40
Process 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

41
Process Assessment
  • Scientifically valid process assessment treats
    the underlying processes directly related to
    reading and writing!

42
Understanding 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)

43
Functional 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.

44
Functional 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.

45
Functional 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

46
Functional 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.

47
Functional 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).

48
Functional 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.

49
Functional 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.

50
Functional 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).

51
Functional 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).

52
Functional 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.

53
Functional 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.

54
Functional 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.

55
Functional 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.

56
Functional 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)

57
Functional 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)

58
Functional 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.

59
Preschool and Kindergarten Assessment of the
Functional Reading and Writing System
60
Kindergarten 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.

61
PAL-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

62
PAL-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)

63
Example of Orthographic Coding
64
well
65
wall
66
different
67
differant
68
PAL-RW Kindergarten Screening Battery for Reading
and Writing
  • RAN
  • RAN letters (2 minutes)
  • PHONOLOGICAL (5 minutes)
  • Rhyming
  • Syllables

69
PAL Rapid Automatized Naming
70
PAL Rhyming Task (grades K-1)
71
CTOPP (Ages 5-6)
72
CTOPP (ages 5-6)
73
The 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

74
PREST
  • 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

75
PREST
  • Tests in part II
  • Phonological discrimination
  • Digit Span (index of verbal memory)
  • Rhyming
  • Sound Order

76
Other Standardized Assessments for Kindergarten
Students
  • Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing
    (CTOPP)
  • Woodcock-Johnson-III
  • Sound Awareness (phonological)
  • Letter/Word Identification (naming alphabet
    Letters)

77
Other 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

78
Informal Assessment of Preschool Reading and
Writingfrom Designing Early Literacy Programs-
Strategies for At-Risk Preschool and Kindergarten
Children
79
Letter Recognition Assessment
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Intervention Activities for Preschool and
Kindergarten Students
84
Activities 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.

85
Activities 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.

86
Activities 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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PAL 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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Activities 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

91
Activities 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.

92
Activities 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).

93
Activities 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.

94
Activities 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

95
Activities 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

96
With Early Intervention, Most Reading and Writing
Disabilities Can be Prevented.
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