Top 7 Reasons Why an SLP is Important to your Literacy Program

Spread the love

7-reasons-why-an-SLP-is-important-to-your-Literacy-Program-RakovicSpeechandLanguageChat

Do you have a speech and language pathologist (SLP) as part of your literacy team? The speech and language pathologist role in reading and writing is an important one. I want to give you my top 7 reasons why an SLP is important to your literacy program. As a speech and language pathologist, I see firsthand the struggles of students with language learning difficulties. These difficulties often also translate to difficulty with reading and writing. The ability to be literate has academic, functional, economic, and social implications. I want to give you my top 7 reasons why an SLP is important to your literacy program.

ASHA SLP Role in Literacy

Despite it being part of our scope of practice according to the American Speech and Language Association ( ASHA) ( click to read from our national association) our role is controversial both for educators as well as fellow speech and language pathologists. ASHA.

To read more about ASHA and a speech and language pathologist’s role in reading: Roles and Responsibilities of Speech-Language Pathologists With Respect to Reading and Writing in Children and Adolescents

There is also a great article in ASHA Leader that speaks to an SLP role’s Learning About Literacy: SLPs Play Key Role in Reading, Writing

Reason #1 Knowledge of Language Development

Speech pathologist have knowledge of language development chart of growth. — An SLP knowledge of language development

Reason number one for why an SLP needs to be part of your literacy program is our knowledge of language development. An SLP role in literacy is crucial as a speech pathologist has a background and training in normal language development and is able to detect differences in development. Their educational background includes prevention, identification, assessment, and intervention for language disorders. Language is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves.

Reason #2: Knowledge of Morphology:

Reason number two for why an SLP needs to be part of your literacy program is our knowledge of morphology. Morphology is the recognition, understanding, and use of word parts that carry meaning such as root words, prefixes, suffixes, and grammatical inflections ( plurals, possessives, etc.). If a student knows these parts it becomes easier for them to comprehend and decode new words. An SLP often works with students on vocabulary and grammatical inflections. Some students with articulation or phonological difficulties may have problems with grammatical inflections. One common problem is they may be omitting them in their speech which then impacts the meaning of the sentence.

Reason #3: Knowledge of Syntax:

top reason why SLP is important to your literacy program is their knowledge of syntax

Reason number three for why an SLP needs to be part of your literacy program is our knowledge of syntax. The syntax is the rule system for word structure/ order for sentences, paragraphs, and longer passages. Knowledge of word order assists the reader to anticipate which word will come next as they read. A student who struggles with syntax does not have this foundation. Many of the beginning reading materials have simple sentence structures to assist the reader in decoding. A struggling reader cannot use this to aid decoding and indeed even if the structure of the sentence does not change from page to page the struggling reader may approach each sentence as something he has not seen before.

Reason #4: Knowledge of Phonology:

Reason number four for why an SLP needs to be part of your literacy program is our knowledge of phonology. Phonology is the sound structure of speech, and the perception, recognition, and production of speech sounds. Phonological aspects of language include intonation, stress, and timing, as well as words, syllables, and phonemes. A speech and language pathologist has an understanding of the smallest unit of sound, phonemes. They can make an analysis of what areas of difficulty the child may be having. The child may be that they are unable to produce the phoneme. They then do not have a sound reference for the phoneme they are reading.

SLP working with a student on reading — SLPs understand student’s difficulty with vocabulary

Reason #5: Knowledge of Semantics:

Reason number five for why an SLP needs to be part of your literacy program is our knowledge of semantics. Semantics is the understanding of word meanings. In order for a child to understand what they have read, they need to have an understanding of the vocabulary that they are reading. Students with language learning problems may have a poor vocabulary. This is especially true for those words that you only see in literature which is called tier two vocabulary. A speech and language pathologist looks not only does the child understand the definition of the word but also are they able to:

Categorize the words ( Is this word a food or a animal etc.)
Relationship between words
Do they know a synonym of the word?
Do they know an antyonym of the word?

Reason #6: Knowledge of Pragmatics

Reason number six for why an SLP needs to be part of your literacy program is our knowledge of pragmatics. Pragmatics for reading means having an understanding of the context in which you are reading so that you have an understanding of the ‘how’ words are being used. The student needs to understand the situation in which the word is used. So for example, if a character says “Pull over” and they are in a car you expect they mean that they want the driver to pull the car over rather than that they are talking about a sweater.

Reason #7: Knowledge and skills in using Diagnostic and Prescriptive Treatment

Reason number seven for why an SLP needs to be part of your literacy program is our knowledge and skills in using diagnostic and prescriptive treatment. Language pathologists have extensive education, training, and practice in evaluating speech and language skills and then using this data to develop a treatment plan. Many of the evaluation tools that are available to a speech and language pathologist are very sensitive and can often diagnose difficulties very early that may cause the student to have difficulties in written language.

These are the top seven reasons why a speech and language pathologist should be part and indeed play an integral role in your school’s literacy program.