From Rhyming to Reading:A Phonological Awareness and Early Literacy Program

Cindy Daniels, M.A., CCC-SLPChris Scranton, M.A., CCC-SLP

Children’s Mercy Hospitals & Clinics Kansas City, Missouri

www.childrensmercy.org

2010 KSHA ConferenceOctober 1, 2010

Topics

Role of speech-language pathologist in teaching literacy

Literacy Research

From Rhyming to Reading: A Phonological Awareness and Early Literacy Program

Speech-Language Pathologists

and Literacy: ASHA Position Statement 2001

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA) position statement on literacy states:

Speech-Language Pathologists play a critical role in the development of literacy for children and adolescents with communication disorders.

Literacy Facts and Speech-Language Pathologists

Literacy Facts: Phonological awareness, reading and

writing are language based functions.

Difficulty learning to read or write can involve any of the components of language: phonology, morphology,

syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Children with language impairments are 4-5 times more likely than normally

developing children to have reading difficulties. (Catts et al, 2002)

Reading instruction needs to be explicit and systematic.

Speech-Language Pathologists: are language specialists.

understand the components of language: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

have the opportunity to provide early identification and treatment.

have experience in developing individualized treatment programs.

SLP’s Role in Literacy (ASHA 2001)

Prevention of reading disorders by fostering language acquisition and emergent literacy

Identification of children at risk for literacy problems

Assessment of reading and writing skills

Providing Intervention for reading and writing

Documenting Outcomes Other roles: provide assistance to general education

teachers, parents and students; advocate for effective literacy practices; advancing the knowledge base

Literacy Research National Reading Panel (1997) The best approach to reading instruction is one that incorporates

systematic and explicit instruction in the areas of:

Phonemic awareness Phonics Fluency Comprehension Vocabulary

Literacy Research The International Dyslexia Association (IDA)

supports the use of a multisensory approach to teaching children to read.

Multisensory teaching: the use of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways simultaneously to enhance memory and learning.

From Rhyming to Reading: A Phonological Awareness and

Early Literacy ProgramFrom Rhyming to Reading: began in 1999 and has taught over 1000 children was developed by speech-language pathologists is research and evidence based introduces five key components of reading:

phonological awareness

phonics

fluency

comprehension

vocabulary uses a systematic, explicit multisensory approach

From Rhyming to ReadingProgram Details

Meets once a week for one hour Consists of 4-5 children with one speech-language pathologist Parent education with home activities provided Children 4 years of age and not yet in first grade Two Levels:

– Level One: 10 weeks, focuses on rhyming, segmentation, initial sound recognition/production and letter sound correspondence

– Level Two: 7 weeks focuses on alliteration, initial/final sound recognition/production, early decoding, syllable deletion and letter sound correspondence

From Rhyming to ReadingA Retrospective Research Study

Purpose: Determine if From Rhyming to Reading is an effective program to teach

phonological awareness skills to young children.

Questions: Is From Rhyming to Reading an effective program to teach phonological

awareness skills across subjects with varying speech, language, and learning history?

Is From Rhyming to Reading an effective program to teach phonological awareness skills across specific age groups?

Which phonological awareness skills taught in From Rhyming to Reading showed the greatest gains?

From Rhyming to ReadingA Retrospective Research Study

Subjects: Subject History:

342 Articulation disordermale: 68% Language disorder

female: 32% Family Hx Learning Problems Normal DevelopmentRetrospective Study:

Between January 1, 2001 to August 31, 2007 History data collected by chart review and by caregiver report Outcome data collected from phonological awareness pre and post test

scores Data analyzed based on subject history, age group, and subtest progress

Ages:

4.0 to 4.11: 56%

5.0 to 6.11: 44%

Is From Rhyming to Reading an effective program to teach phonological awareness skills across subjects with varying speech,

language and learning history?

From Rhyming to Reading was effective in teaching phonological awareness skills across all subject groups.

Is From Rhyming to Reading an effective program to teach phonological awareness

skills across specific age groups?

From Rhyming to Reading was effective in teaching

phonological awareness skills across age groups.

Which phonological awareness skills taught in

From Rhyming to Reading showed the greatest gains?

Greatest gains in Level 1 in the areas of:

Rhyme Production Letter Sound

Correspondence Syllable Segmentation

Statistically significant gains

in all subtests

Which phonological awareness skills taught in

From Rhyming to Reading showed the greatest gains?

Greatest gains in Level 2 in the areas of:

Final Sound Production

Letter Sound Correspondence

Statistically significant gains in all subtests

From Rhyming to ReadingSummary of Retrospective Research

StudyFrom Rhyming to Reading: was effective in teaching phonological awareness skills across subject

groups: typically developing children and children with reported history or family history of articulation, language, or learning deficits.

was effective in teaching phonological awareness skills across age groups.

was effective in teaching all targeted phonological awareness skills with the greatest gains in the areas of: rhyme production, letter sound correspondence, syllable segmentation and final sound production.

was effective in teaching phonological awareness skills to young children with an average gain of 29 – 35% improvement in total test scores following two months of instruction including a home program.

From Rhyming to ReadingWeekly Session Format

Opening: welcome, rules, review of homework Concept: phonological awareness skill Sound: letter sound correspondence, writing Movement: gross motor activity to reinforce weekly

concepts and letter sound correspondence Closing: review of lesson, homework, prize, parent

handout

From Rhyming to Reading:Highlights

Book Introduction Rhyming Segmentation Initial/Final sounds Alliteration Letter sound correspondence Writing

Book IntroductionTeach the parts of a book: Cover Title Author Illustrator

Teach Language skills: Prior knowledge Prediction Vocabulary

Rhyming Rhyming: words sound the same at the end. important to early literacy because it teaches the skill of isolating sounds in

words. requires understanding of the concepts same and different and beginning

and end.

Rhyming Hands: A multisensory technique for teaching rhyming:

“hold” the words in each hand (place palm up in front of body as you say each word.) If the words rhyme, clap hands together. If the words do not rhyme, don’t clap and shrug shoulders.

Rhyming: Additional Information

teach and practice rhyming by using real and nonsense words

teach and practice rhyming by having children both detect and produce rhymes

read familiar rhyming books and leave off the ending word in rhyming pair for the children to produce

encourage families to play rhyming games in the car

Segmentation: SentencesSentence Segmentation: a sentence is the largest independent unit of grammar made up of

individual parts called words

important to early literacy because it increases a child’s print awareness

make it multisensory by using hand motions while saying: “A sentence is a short story made up of small parts called words with a period on the end to tell us that the sentence is over.”

components of a sentence

Segmentation: Syllables

Syllable Segmentation: a syllable is a word or part of a word that consists of an

uninterrupted expression of sound and includes at least one vowel (Traub and Bloom, 2000)

important to early literacy because syllable knowledge prepares children for decoding

make it multisensory by using an activity such as clapping hands, pulling apart beads, or tapping beanbags to count syllables

syllable deletion activities should also be included to teach that our language is made up of parts that can be manipulated

Segmentation: SoundsSound segmentation: words are made up of individual parts called sounds (phonemes) important to early literacy because the ability to identify individual sounds

within words is strongly correlated to the acquisition of spelling, reading and writing (Gillingham and Stillman,1997)

requires understanding of the concepts first (beginning), middle and last (ending)

start by teaching children to identify beginning and ending sounds: use all senses (look, listen, and feel)

when teaching early decoding skills, use a multisensory technique such as “Sound and Scoop” to identify individual sounds in a word and then to blend them together to form the word

Alliteration the repetition of the same initial sound in words

important to early literacy because it reinforces the ability to isolate individual sounds in words

requires understanding of the concept of beginning/first

may see difficulties in generating alliteration because it is a language (vocabulary) task

Letter Sound Correspondence

Letter sound correspondence is the foundation of phonics skills.

Teach: concept of symbol/sound correspondence name of letter sound of letter placement, manner, and voicing name cue for letter hand motion voicing letter formation movement

Writing

writing is making a symbol for a sound on paper important to early literacy because it reinforces letter sound

correspondence; introduces spelling; introduces perception of where letters are placed on the lines of the paper

requires understanding of concepts top, middle, bottom, left and right

when teaching letter writing use a multisensory technique such as the “Tree Writing Paper”

From Rhyming to ReadingSession Closing

Review concept and sound of the week

Explain homework

Give prize to reinforce sound of week

From Rhyming to ReadingInteractive DVD

On screen navigation through 16 lesson plans Each lesson contains video clips of systematic, explicit,

multisensory techniques Material lists Printable materials: lesson plans, rule cards, sound cards,

pictures, parent handouts Available in 2011

Questions?

References

American Speech Language Hearing Association (www.asha.org). Catts, H., Fey, M., Tomblin, B., & Zhang, X. (2002). A Longitudinal Investigation of

Reading Outcomes in Children With Language Impairments. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 45, 1142-1157.

Gillingham, A., Stillman, B. (1997). The Gillingham Manual: Remedial Training for Students with Specific Disability in Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship. Cambridge, MA: Educators Publishing Service, Inc.

International Dyslexia Association (www.interdys.org). Mleziva, M., Trebach, D. (2000). Phonological Awareness: The Missing Piece to Help Crack

the Reading Code. Eau Claire, WI: Otter Creek Institute. National Reading Panel. (2000). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH Pub. No. 00-4769.

Shaywitz, S. (2003). Overcoming Dyslexia. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Traub, N., Bloom, F. (2000). Recipe for Reading. Cambridge, MA: Educators Publishing

Service, Inc.