Why It Matters: Struggling Readers

Who is the Struggling Reader?

GOAL: TALK! TALK! And more TALK!

Then Build Connections to Alphabet Letters

Learning develops best when one is engaged and having fun. Continued learning comes from positive interactions, creating good feelings, leading to motivation to more literacy experiences.

Support a learner as they grow and develop their language and literacy skills, with engaging activities including actions, songs, and stories. All of these interactions NEED to contain a LOT of TALKING!

Struggling Readers work on three overall areas in reading: (1) Vocabulary, (2) Fluency, and (3) Comprehension.

All these areas are impacted by one’s foundational literacy skills in two specific skills:

(1) the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in the spoken language (Phonemic Awareness),

and

(2) the ability to connect the sound to the written symbol (Phonics).

Why it Matters

The printed word is founded on one’s oral language, turning the spoken sounds into symbols, which carry meaning (Bretzmann, 2018). The importance of developing a child’s spoken language cannot be undermined. Research (Scarborough, 2001; Snow, 1983) established a very strong correlation between a child’s oral language development their literacy progression.

Additional research supports that the prerequisites for learning to read and comprehend are founded in letter recognition, letter-sound knowledge, and phonemic awareness (National Reading Panel, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).

From this strong foundational platform, a reader is able to develop stronger fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills through practice. So where do we start - at the beginning, one’s oral language. Let’s talk!

SPEECH MILESTONES

The Speech Milestones chart will offer a general development of vocalizations of children.

NOTE: Each stage of development assumes that the preceding stages have been successfully achieved.