Language & Reading Study Group: A Recap | Spring 2021
This spring, The Language and Reading Study group continued to host a group of SLPs, teachers, and administrators across Alberta (and beyond!) who were ready to discuss reading research.
As a group, we continue to build our knowledge base regarding the impacts of language development on reading and writing development and overall academic achievement.
In April, we jumped into the topic of Dyslexia and controversies that exist around using the term Dyslexia when describing weak reading skills. We assigned a webinar from Dr. Hugh Catts and learned about the Multifactorial Model, which indicates multiple factors interact to predict reading difficulty.
Our discussion about the Multifactorial Model led into the topic of looking beyond phonological awareness when identifying possible difficulties in learning to read...so exciting!
The topics of language proficiency and language comprehension came to light and a discussion around screening students for language difficulties was mentioned. This really set the stage and set into motion some interesting thinking around looking at our struggling readers.
When considering supporting students in our schools, some Teachers and SLPs are beginning to ask: What about Language? Are we evaluating this in our students? Who is evaluating this? How are we doing this? If language needs are identified in multiple children within the classroom, who is supporting the universal learning strategies required?
To put it simply, If we know Language comprehension (along with word decoding) work together and yield the product of reading comprehension, should we not be screening for Language? Who is supporting children with Language difficulties in our Alberta schools?
In May, Dr. Suzanne Adlof generously donated her time to the group as we moved into discussing language screening. Her 2019 paper If we don't look, we won't see: Measuring language development to inform literacy instruction is one of my favorites and I recall reading it when it was first published. It was one of those papers that changed my perspective completely. In fact, it lit a fire in me and flipped my thinking towards looking carefully at language comprehension in the children I was seeing.
I think this paper was also memorable for me, personally, because highlighted the role of the SLP in supporting research based and evidence-informed language and literacy practices in schools...something that is very slowly starting to be realized in Alberta schools.
In June, we looked at morphological awareness as a means of intervention that crosses into both sides of the reading rope: word decoding and language comprehension. One of the assignments was to listen to Dr. Tiffany Hogan and her guest Dr. Julie Wolter from the See, Hear, Speak Podcast regarding the importance of targeting morphology and morphological awareness as an intervention strategy. The information provided was rich and exciting, as we start to think about language skills in our students and how spoken and written language proficiency is closely linked to academic success.
The discussion in June also briefly covered MTSS/ RTI models and ways teachers and SLPs can work collaboratively to improve outcomes for students.
The group acknowledged the expertise SLPs bring into a school regarding language-literacy acquisition and the need to move towards collaborative practice (vs. working in silos) and how this approach benefits all students (as a universal support).
In the fall, we will continue to explore the exciting idea of screening for language skills in schools (in addition to evaluating decoding skills) and we are pleased to mention we will be covering morphological awareness, multisyllabic word reading, and prosody as topics coming up next school year. We are planning for some very special guests to join us. We are so grateful for the reading researchers (in our community and beyond) who continue to support this group and guide our learning. We can’t wait for what’s in store for our group next school year!
