Hay, I., et. al. (2007). Language delays, reading delays, and learning difficulties: Interactive
elements requiring multidimensional programming. Journal of Learning Disabilities,
40(5), 400-409.
Language is vital to the development of the whole child. Difficulties with language
development and learning have significant negative impacts on education – especially in
reading. Therefore, it is important that all children be exposed to rich social, language,
and literacy activities from an early age. Early literacy development should be broad and
focus on the following skills: concepts of print, expressive vocabulary, sentence and
story recall, receptive and expressive language, phonological awareness, and letter-name
knowledge. These early literacy experiences are especially important for children at risk
of early reading delays. Children’s language skills are rapidly enhanced and improved
when intervention occurs within the natural social environment. That is, within the home
and school. Therefore, training of parents and teachers under the guidance of professions
(i.e. special educators with a background in literacy development, speech-language
pathologists, etc.) is warranted. Furthermore, collaborative between all stakeholders is
essential. In the study, a grade one literacy and language intervention program
incorporating Blank’s levels of dialogue was implemented with students vulnerable to
early reading and learning difficulties. Much collaboration between educators and
researchers was exhibited. Two cohorts of children experiencing the traditional grade one
curriculum and this additional intervention were followed. The group with added
intervention made more significant gains in reading age test scores from the beginning to
the end of the year. The number of children at risk of language performance difficulties
reduced dramatically – from 60% to 25%.
This study has significant implications for all educators of children with language delays.
First of all, when implementing any language and literacy based intervention program, it
is important for all general educators, special educators, related service personnel (i.e.
Speech-language pathologists), and parents to collaborate. Secondly, providing rich
contexts for learning to occur is essential. It is important for children to have access to a
variety of literature, literacy-based games, literacy-based activities, and general oral play.
Thirdly, interventions implemented must be multi-dimensional. It is not only
phonological knowledge and book reading which contributes to early literacy
development. Children need a wide variety of experiences to gain early literacy skills.
Finally, interventions implemented within the home and the school must be similar and
reinforce one another.
During this practicum, I will be consulting with the classroom teacher, instructional
resource teacher, speech-language pathologist, and family to build upon the interventions
already implemented. Moreover, I will be sharing what is done during the practicum
program, as well as any areas of strengths or needs indicated, with these stakeholders.
McLaughlin, M.R. (2011). Speech and language delay in children. American Family Physician,
83(10), 1183-1188.
Speech and language delay in young children is associated with increased difficulties
with reading, writing, attention, and social skills. Currently, research does not provide
evidence for or against the use of brief, formal screening instruments of speech and
language delay in the general population of children. However, a list of specific risk
factors is available for physicians screening children, when warranted by parents. In this
review of the literature, the author outlines normal developmental milestones in receptive
and expressive language of infants to prekindergarten children. Moreover, the author
describes atypical development and some of the underlying physical and developmental
problems which may account of speech and language delays. The author strongly
expresses that when a delay is suspected, referral to a speech-language pathologist, early
intervention programs, and audiologists should be made. While close pre-referral
monitoring is essential, there is no way to determine if a child will grow out of a speech
and language delay. In fact, two-thirds will need therapy. The speech-language
pathologists judgement of the child’s functioning is the most significant predictor of
future development. As well, it is imperative that primary care providers learn ways to
encourage language development through collaboration with speech-language
pathologists. Most of the time, children show positive responses to the collaborative
intervention approach.
This review of the literature on speech and language delay in children has implication for
educators. Firstly, it is important that educators closely monitor and document the
language experiences, skills, and delays exhibited by primary students if a delay is
suspected. Secondly, if accumulating evidence suggests a delay is suspected, the teacher
should refer the student for assessment and consult with colleagues to implement prereferral interventions. Finally, when a speech and language delay is identified and the
student is diagnosed with a speech and/or language disorder, it is important for general
educators, special educators, and families to collaborate with the speech-language
pathologist to plan and implement a individual education plan.
Since the instructional resource teacher and speech-language pathologist at the school are
already implementing remediation intervention courses with the student in my practicum,
I will be consulting with them throughout the semester. During these consultations, we
will discuss areas of the nature of the students issues (i.e. phonological awareness,
articulation issues, etc.), general strengths and needs, effective and non-effective
strategies, formal and informal assessment, observations of the student’s use of language,
etc. Moreover, I will be monitoring and documenting all sessions focusing on language
experiences during the program for the future reference of the student’s educators.
Silva, P.A., McGee, R., and Williams, S.M. (1983). Developmental language delay from three
to seven years and its significance for low intelligence and reading difficulties at age
seven. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 25, 783-793.
Language delay is very concerning as it has significant implications for children’s future
communication, learning, behavior, and overall functioning. This is a longitudinal study
of the later development of children with early language delays. This study reports
information on prevalence and stability of early language delay of individuals from three
to seven years of age. Furthermore, prevalence of low intelligence and reading
difficulties is also examined. The information was gathered through a four year study of
children by the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Developmental Research Unit in
New Zealand. Assessments were carried out by trained psychometrists at age 3, 5, and 7,
respectively. These tests included developmental language scales, intelligence tests, and
word-reading tests. The following results were gathered. 19.6% of the sample group had
language delay indicated by one or more of the assessments conducted. 17.6% of the
sample group had either a low intelligence quotient (IQ) and/or reading difficulties.
Overall, 45.8% to 68.2% of those with a language delay at age 3 had either a low IQ or
reading difficulties at age 7. The results indicate that a relationship between language
delays, low IQ, and reading difficulties exists.
This study has several implications for my future career as an educator. Firstly, I should
never take any type of language delay lightly. If I suspect a child has an early
developmental language delay, it is important for me to monitor the student and refer the
student for intervention. Early intervention can help the student avoid long-term issues
with intelligence and/or reading development. Secondly, I must play an active part in the
planning and implementation of the early intervention program (whether I am a general
or special educator). Since inclusive education is practiced in the province, and most
students with developmental language delays are best served in the general classroom
learning the prescribed curriculum (with occasional pull-out intervention), both the
classroom and instructional resource teachers should be the primary interventionalists.
Moreover, when students suspected of language delay present issues with attention and
socialization, I should recognize that literacy-based intervention may in fact be causing
these secondary issues.
This article is applicable to the student I am completing my practicum with because he
reflects the students with developmental language delay in the study. The student was
identified and diagnosed before entering kindergarten with both a speech and language
disorder. For the past two years, while attending school he has been receiving
interventions from the classroom teachers, instructional resource teacher, and speechlanguage pathologist. Unfortunately, he is performing well below grade level in all areas
of the language arts curriculum. Consequently, he is struggling in other academic areas
which require literacy (i.e. social studies).
Thatcher, K.L. (2010). The development of phonological awareness with specific languageimpaired and typical children. Psychology in the Schools, 47(5), 467-480.
This article aims to discover the link between the development of oral language and
reading skills, by focusing on phonological awareness of children with specific language
impairment (SLI). Performance on phonological tasks vary according to the cognitive
demand placed on the student. The author attempts to express how phonological
awareness and reading development progress in students with both expressive and
receptive language deficits. Moreover, they investigate how this progress differs from
that of the typical child. The study involved preschoolers, kindergarteners, and grade one
students who were developing typically and those with specific language impairment.
Each child was administered a cognitive reasoning test and three standardized language
tests to establish criteria for each group. All participants were tested in a play-based
manner for phonological awareness skills. Significant results were found between the
phonological segmenting tasks. In general, all students found the syllable task easiest.
Moreover, they found the onset/rime task easier that the phoneme task. As well, children
with typical development performed better in all areas than their peers with SLI.
However, the difference in performance in the syllable task was most pronounced.
The findings of this study have implications for the education of students with specific
language impairments. Firstly, students with SLI are not as skilled in phonological
awareness as typically developing students. Secondly, phonological awareness is a
developmental process incorporating heterogeneous skills important for early literacy
development. Thirdly, specific interventions which address each area of phonological
awareness (syllables, intrasyllabic units, and phonemes) implemented in sequential order
so that these skills can build upon one another. Finally, such intervention programs
should be planned and implemented in a collaborative fashion between general
educators, special educators, and related service personnel (i.e. speech-language
pathologists).
This article is closely related to the alternate program delivered during my practicum.
The student I am completing my practicum with is specific language impaired, and
exhibits substantial difficulties with phonological awareness. Specifically, in preassessments, the student demonstrated sub-average skills with syllable and phoneme
tasks. Therefore, the practicum program incorporates outcomes which address these areas
of need.
Vandewalle, E., et al. (2012). Development of phonological processing skills in children with
specific language impairment with and without literacy delay: A 3-year longitudinal
study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 55, 1053-1067.
Specific language impairment (SLI) affects several aspects of oral language including
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Approximately 7% of
kindergarten and grade one students have SLI. Moreover, SLI often coexists with
dyslexia, and the authors suggest that these disorders may overlap and be one in the
same. A longitudinal study of all three components of phonological processing skills –
phonological awareness (PA), verbal short-term memory (vSTM) and rapid automatized
naming (RAN) – of children with SLI and literacy delay, children with SLI only, and
typically developing children. Moreover, it examines whether phonological skills
measured in kindergarten can discriminate if children with SLI are at high or low risk for
developing literacy problems. All children in the beginning of the study were in
kindergarten, had severe and persistent oral language problems, and were receiving
therapy. A typically-developing control child was best matched with each individual
child with SLI, after screening for a number of factors. Measures of phonological
awareness (including identity tasks, categorization tasks, auditory analysis and synthesis,
phoneme deletion, and spoonerism), verbal short-term memory (including digit span
forward and non-word repetition tasks), rapid automatized naming (of colors, objects,
digits, and letters) and literacy skills (specifically reading and spelling) were conducted
several times over a three year period. For all phonological processing abilities, with
repeated exposure and increased intervention, each group made significant progress from
kindergarten to grade three. However, children with specific language impairment and
literacy delay show extensive and persistent PA problems. Moreover, all children with
specific language impairment persist with issues with vSTM. As well, poor PA and RAN
skills in kindergarten was found to be a good predictor of later literacy delay.
This article is particularly applicable to the student I am completing my practicum with
for several reasons. Firstly, the student is diagnosed with two exceptionalities: Speech
and Language Disorder and Developmental Disability (age 0-8). Due to significant issues
with reading, it is possible this student will be diagnosed with a learning disability in
reading (equivalent to dyslexia) in the future. Secondly, through previous and recent
formal and informal assessments, the student has demonstrated difficulties with all three
phonological processing skills. Thirdly, intervention currently in place repeatedly
exposes the student to experiences with each of these phonological processing abilities.
Since intervention was put in place in the beginning of kindergarten, the student has
progressed in each area, but is still behind his peers. The brief program implemented
during my practicum focuses primarily on the area of phonological awareness and related
literacy skills.