What is the Role of SLPs in Literacy Intervention?

Do SLPs and SLPAs have a role in literacy intervention? Yes! Language and literacy skills are closely interconnected.

Speech therapists play a direct role in literacy development for those with communication disorders. They work on emergent literacy skills in children with suspected literacy-related learning difficulties. Their unique knowledge of language is ideal for teaching literacy skills since oral language provides the foundation for reading and writing development.

SLPs are trained to identify early signs of language delays, often precursors to literacy difficulties. In addition, SLPs conduct assessments that examine both spoken and written language abilities. This includes phonological awareness (understanding sound structures), decoding skills (reading), and comprehension.

Literacy and Language

There are strong connections between literacy and spoken language – and even spelling. Children who have trouble acquiring language are at an increased risk of reading and writing difficulties. There is a strong correlation between children with a speech/language delay and reading difficulties.

Children with speech sound disorders are over 50% more likely to also have reading difficulties.
(Lewis, et al., 2006)

Since literacy involves both oral and written language, SLPs work to strengthen the connections between speaking, listening, reading, and writing. They help students build the language foundation necessary for effective literacy development.

The Impact of SLPs on Reading Interventions

SLPs can leverage their expertise in language and its components (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) to prevent, assess, and support literacy skills. Identifying specific literacy difficulties, such as problems with phonological awareness, decoding, reading fluency, comprehension, and written expression is essential.

This includes evaluating overall language skills, including vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. SLPs should incorporate literacy-focused activities into their therapy sessions to support their collaborative role in literacy intervention.

Literacy Interventions:

• Phonological Awareness
• Phonemic Awareness
• Decoding and Word Recognition
• Reading Comprehension
• Writing Skills

It’s important to note that literacy intervention should be collaborative with teachers, special educators, reading specialists, and parents to create a comprehensive literacy plan. SLPs can share insights into how language difficulties may impact literacy and provide strategies to address these in the classroom.

See what ASHA says about the Roles and Responsibilities of Speech-Language Pathologists With Respect to Reading and Writing in Children and Adolescents

Another helpful article: Learning About Literacy: SLPs Play Key Role in Reading, Writing

Not Sure Where to Begin in Literacy Intervention?

Working on literacy doesn’t need simply incorporating books into speech therapy plans. To get a good overview of literacy development, the 5 pillars of reading are:

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: The ability to break down a word into the smallest unit or sound. This includes phoneme isolation, blending, segmenting, addition, deletion, and substitution.

PHONICS: The relationship between letters and sounds. It is knowing how written letters relate to spoken sounds. For example, the letter “s” makes the sound /s/.

FLUENCY: The ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with proper prosody. Fluent readers recognize words automatically and can read aloud effortlessly and with expression.

VOCABULARY: The knowledge of word meanings. A robust vocabulary supports reading comprehension and helps readers make sense of the text.

COMPREHENSION: Comprehension is the ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read. It involves strategies such as summarizing, predicting, and questioning to interact actively with the text.

These pillars work together to create a strong foundation for reading proficiency.

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Interested in a comprehensive resource for literacy intervention?

The Literacy Handouts is a comprehensive resource explains the skills required for language and literacy and how to work on them with effective literacy interventions.

Feel confident knowing the SLP’s role in literacy intervention and how to implement literacy-based speech therapy sessions. Use the developmental milestones, information pages, visuals, and graphic organizers for effective speech therapy sessions.

It contains 60 pages of handouts, information, interventions, visuals, and graphic organizers. Topics inlcude stages of literacy and narrative development, narrative intervention, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, building vocabulary, reading comprehension strategies, and much more.

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