Language and Literacy Development

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Monica Gordon Pershey, Ed.D., CCC-SLP Cleveland
State University, Cleveland, OH mgpershey_at_att.net,
m.pershey_at_csuohio.edu 216-687-4534
Language and Literacy Development in
Students with Special Needs Workshop Sponsored
by PSI Independence, OH Part I October 24,
2006
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Learner Outcomes

• 1. Learners will identify how students language
  deficits are related to literacy difficulties.
• 2. Learners will describe how school SLPs can
  assess the literacy abilities of students with
  special needs for purposes of helping students
  access the general curriculum.
• 3. Learners will identify strategies for
  collaboration with teachers and tutors.

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Introduction

• Learners with special needs are emergent literacy
  
• learners compare a learners development to
• emergent literacy milestones
• SLP documents deficits in cognitive, language,
  and
• literacy foundations and determines how deficits
• prevent a student from successfully attaining
• curriculum objectives
• Match each developmental assessment with grade
  level
• indicators from the Ohio Reading/Language Arts
• Content Standards

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Ohio English/Language Arts Content Standards
5 Essential Areas Phonemic Awareness Phonics F
luency (rapid, automatic, effortless decoding of
text for both oral and silent reading) Text
Comprehension Vocabulary
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NCLB and IDEIA

• IEP goals and objectives connect to
  standards-based
• curricula
• IEP provides for how elements of the general
• curriculum will be brought to the student by
  specialists
• IEP (SLP) services help students become capable
  of
• performing on achievement tests
• Emphasis on testing outcomes must not shortchange
• learners needs
• Therapy progress is subsumed under school
• progress

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NCLB- Mandated Testing for Special Needs Learners

• Accommodations - Do not change what is to be
• learned Do change how content or skills will be
• learned
• Examples
• Alternate Methods
• Alternate Materials
• Alternate Response Modes
• Modifications - Alter specific content or
  performance
• expectations
• Examples
• Change level of complexity of content or skills
• Change entire curriculum

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The Alphabetic Principle

• Concepts about phonology and written language
• Linguistic abstractions pertinent to phonology,
• semantics, syntax, and pragmatics
• How speech sounds are represented in print, or
  English
• orthography
• The written code is entirely arbitrary and
  abstract

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The Alphabetic Principle Phonology and
Orthography

• WHAT IS A SOUND?
• WHAT IS A SPEECH SOUND?
• WHAT IS A LETTER?
• HOW DOES A LETTER "MAKE A SOUND?
• WHY DOES THIS LETTER MAKE ONE SOUND SOMETIMES AND
  ANOTHER SOUND AT OTHER TIMES?
• WHAT LETTERS MAKE THE SOUNDS THAT I AM
• INTERESTED IN?

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The Alphabetic Principle Phonology and
Orthography

• HOW CAN I TALK ABOUT WHAT I KNOW ABOUT
• LETTERS AND SOUNDS?
• WHAT IS RHYMING?
• WHAT IS MEANT BY BEGINNING SOUND? A MIDDLE
• SOUND? AN ENDING SOUND?
• HOW DO I BLEND SOUNDS TOGETHER TO SAY
• WORDS?
• HOW DO I TAKE WORDS APART TO HEAR THEIR
• SOUNDS?
• WHAT IS A SYLLABLE? HOW DO I FIND THEM IN
• WORDS?

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The Alphabetic Principle Semantics

• WHAT IS A WORD?
• WHAT DOES A WORD LOOK LIKE?
• WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR A WORD TO HAVE MEANING?
• WHAT OTHER WORDS DO WE USE TO DISCUSS WHAT A WORD
  MEANS?

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The Alphabetic Principle Syntax

• WHAT IS A SENTENCE?
• WHAT ARE THE PARTS OF A SENTENCE?
• HOW DO WORDS LOOK WHEN THEY ARE TOGETHER IN
  SENTENCES?
• HOW DO WORDS CHANGE THEIR MEANINGS IN SENTENCES?
• HOW DO WORDS CHANGE? (MORPHOLOGY, MORPHOSYNTAX)

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The Alphabetic Principle Pragmatics

• WHAT DOES PRINT STAND FOR IN OUR WORLD?
• WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE PRINT I AM SEEING NOW?
• WHEN I READ, WHO IS TALKING TO ME?
• WHAT IS THE CONTEXT OF WHAT IS BEING SAID TO ME?
• WHAT SIGNALS ARE IN THIS PRINT (SUCH AS
  PUNCTUATION MARKS)?

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Order of Emergence of the Language Systems

• Oral Language Literacy
• Pragmatics Pragmatics (Syntax)
• Phonology Semantics ( Syntax)
• Semantics Phonology
• Syntax Syntax

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Designing Assessments

• Assessments show skills that are in place
• Assessments tell us where to begin interventions
• Begin with no assistance and move incrementally
• through minimal to maximal assistance Note all
• assistance given
• Large print in a type face that does not use
  Greek
• letters (example g or a, use g and a) or block
  printed
• by hand
• Choose the number of items and trials
• Audio or video tape assessment interactions

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Assessing the Literacy Pragmatic The
Logographic Stage ofPrint Awareness

• See whole print configurations found in
• environmental print
• Recognize stop sign, McDonalds sign, Coke, Pepsi
• Not reading words
• Assess by showing logos, labels, signs, book
  covers
• Reproduce logos, etc., in plain type and match
  for
• recognition
• Memorization of small units of decontextualized
  print
• Survival words such as "Men," "Walk," "Exit

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Assessing the Literacy Pragmatic The
Logoraphic Stage ofPrint Awareness

• Is the learner aware that print conveys meaning?
• Is the learner interested in print points to
  text during
• read aloud asks What does this say?
  experiments
• with writing
• Recognition of some sight words Not sounding
  words
• out See words as letter groups
• Cannot be sure whether the learner is recognizing
  the
• letters, the words, or the configuration
• Ohio Content Standards Kdg
• Recognize and understand words, signs and symbols
• seen in everyday life.

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The Alphabetic Stage ofPrint Awareness

• Awareness that printed text is composed of
  letters
• Interest in single letters and the first letter
  of words
• The language system of phonology becomes
  operative
• Letters are linguistic abstractions and arbitrary
• Symbols that begin to make sense
• Insight!!

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Assessing the Alphabetic Stage ofPrint Awareness

• Learners point to letters and say letter names,
  both in
• and out of alphabetical order
• SLP reads letters, asks learner to point to the
  letters
• the SLP names
• Scanning Find letters in the words as SLP says
  the
• letters
• Sound-letter correspondences Learner may say
• sounds represented by letters

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Assessing the Alphabetic Stage of Print Awareness

• Spontaneously write all known letters upper
  case,
• lower case
• Learner might create letter forms but not know
  the
• letter name
• Write single letters to dictation, both in and
  out of
• alphabetical order

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The Alphabetic Stage of Print Awareness

• Ohio Content Standards that are met during the
• Alphabetic stage Kdg
• Read own first and last name.
• Distinguish and name all upper and lower case
  letters.
• Recognize, say, and write the common sounds of
• letters.
• Distinguish letters from words by recognizing
  that
• words are separated by spaces.
• Hear and say the separate phonemes in words,
• such as identifying the initial consonant sound
  in a
• word, and blend phonemes to say words.
• Read one-syllable and often-heard words by
  sight.
• Identify and distinguish between letters, words
  and
• sentences.

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The Orthographic Stage ofPrint Awareness

• Learning to break words into component parts
• Learning to assemble parts of words into whole
  words
• Look beyond the first letter of a word and
  deliberately
• or automatically scan letters, syllables, and
  word parts
• Find letter-sound relationships, syllables, word
  parts,
• or small words within large words
• Orthographic readers do not rely on known whole
• configurations
• Make use of information about the sound structure
  of
• language and the orthographic code

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The Orthographic Stage ofPrint Awareness

• Learners have gone through a heuristic period of
• exploration that prepares them for the
  logorhythms of
• literacy
• Exploration, intuition, and inductive learning
  have led
• the way for deductive learning about reading,
  writing,
• spelling
• A spelling conscience develops
• Ohio Content Standards that are met by during the
• Orthographic stage Kdg
• Show characteristics of early letter
  name-alphabetic
• spelling.

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The Orthographic Stage ofPrint Awareness

• Ohio Content Standards that are met during the
• Orthographic stage Grade 1
• Read regularly spelled multi-syllable words by
  sight.
• Blend phonemes (sounds) of letters and syllables
  to
• read unknown words with one or more syllables.
• Use knowledge of common word families (e.g.,
  -ite or -ate) to sound out unfamiliar words.
• Segment letter, letter blends and syllable
  sounds in words.
• Distinguish and identify the beginning, middle
  and ending sounds in words.
• Demonstrate a growing stock of sight words.
• Read text using fluid and automatic decoding
  skills.
• Read accurately high-frequency sight words.

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Reading Automaticity

• Reading is a parallel examination of stimulus and
• memory search memory for knowledge about this
• stimulus
• For readers with the least experience, stored
• knowledge is about logos
• For alphabetic readers, stored knowledge is about
• initial letters in words and other salient
  letters present
• in familiar examples of print
• Sight word readers make use of both logographic
  and
• alphabetic skills

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The Later Orthographic Stage ofPrint Awareness

• Ohio Content Standards that are met during the
  later
• Orthographic stage Grade 2
• Use letter-sound knowledge and structural
• analysis to decode words.
• Read text using fluid and automatic decoding
  skills.

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SLPs Work on the Language Skills that Make
Spelling and Decoding Possible

• Phonics is integrated into word study and
  meaningful
• word use
• Phonics learners are metalinguistically aware,
  have
• insight into their own pattern detection
• Capitalize on learners pattern detection
  abilities and
• teach phonics rules that make sense and can be
• applied to spelling on a daily basis
• Consistencies in our language can be learned
  work
• with chunks, such as word families

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Marie Clays Concepts About Print Test

• A test of awareness of the conventions of print
• Choose an engaging picture book with more than
  one
• line of print per page
• Print and pictures on the same page
• Read from top to bottom on each page
• Punctuation and upper and lower case letters

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Marie Clays Concepts About Print Test

• Ask learner to show the book cover or front
  Say,
• "Show me the front of the book or "Show me the
  title"
• Identify text as distinct from illustrations
  Say,
• "Where do I start reading?" Learners understand
• reading is interaction with print
• Directionality Left to right, top to bottom
• Say, "Which way will I read from here?"
• Return Sweep Say, "Show me where I read next?
• Learner should point to the next line of print
• Word Awareness Say, "Now you point to the
• words while I read" Learner should be pointing
  word by
• word, line by line, while read to aloud

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Marie Clays Concepts About Print Test

• Beginning of a Word Say, Where is the
  beginning of
• the word ____ referring to the last word read
• Say, show me the first letter in that word
• Upper and Lower Case Letters Say, "Show me a
• capital letter" "Show me a small letter"
• Punctuation Say, What is this for?
• Word Order While finger pointing, read a line
• backwards, Say, "What did I do wrong?
• End of a Word After reading a page, select a
  word,
• show its beginning letter, Say "Where does this
  word
• end?"

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Marie Clays Concepts About Print Test

• Sentence After you read a given sentence, ask
• Where did that sentence begin? "Where did that
• sentence end?
• Back of the Book Say, "Where is the back of the
• book?
• Beginning of story Say, "Do you remember how
  the
• story began?"
• End of the story, Say, "Do you remember how the
• story ended?"

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Marie Clays Concepts About Print Test

• Ohio Content Standards that are assessed using
  the
• Concepts About Print Test Kdg
• Hold books right side up, know that people read
  pages
• from front to back and read words from left to
  right.
• Know the differences between illustrations and
  print.
• Identify and distinguish between letters, words
  and
• sentences.
• Grade 1
• Follow simple oral directions.
• Speak clearly and understandably.

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Rationale for Clinician Constructed Literacy
Assessments

• For most learners with moderate to severe special
  
• needs, it has already been ascertained that their
  skills
• vary from normative expectations we do not need
  to
• use standardized measures to confirm this
• Scattered, spotty, or inconsistent skills are
  revealed
• because clinician constructed testing progresses
  at
• leisure and no ceiling or criterion must be
  enforced
• Clinician constructed tests show accomplishment
  of
• functional behaviors
• Establish functional tasks to be continued in
  therapy

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Rationale for Clinician Constructed Literacy
Assessments

• Tasks coincide with Ohio Content Standards and
• establish the need for modification of mandated
• achievement tests or use of alternative testing
• Use pre-primer or primer passages, unless learner
  
• surpasses this level
• Record both correct and incorrect responses
• Note how many items were attempted, how many
• responses were accurate, and how many were
• inaccurate
• For most tasks that require lists, 10 items are
  usually
• sufficient

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Collaboration Models Working With Special Needs
Personnel

• GOAL SETTING
• Competitive Goal Setting Win/Lose
• Little attempt to have outside services impact
  upon
• classroom success
• Teacher is uninvolved with specialists
  specialists dont
• know curricular/instructional needs of the child
• Worst case When you are out of class for work
  with
• your specialists, you are still responsible for
  class
• work

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Collaboration Models Working With Special Needs
Personnel

• Individualistic Goal Setting No Interdependence
• Goals for one service have no relationship to
  goals for
• another service
• Team members seldom communicate about progress
• Worst case Ill do mine, you do yours, well
  staple
• them together and call it a team report.
• Worst case too many cooks too much time spent
  in
• diverse pull-outs

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Collaboration Models Working With Special Needs
Personnel

• Cooperative Goal Setting Positive
  Interdependence
• Goals are written to coincide
• Help child address their main areas of
  curricular/
• instructional needs
• Worst case too many strategies and
  interventions,
• even if they all coincide

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Group Sharing

• Planning How to Enhance Your Practice
• Assessment
• Setting Goals/Objectives
• Intervention Ideas
• Collaboration