Dyslexia Speech Therapy: How SLPs Can Help with Dyslexia

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Speech and Language Kids Podcast 16 min 1 speaker 5 chapters transcribed 15 hours ago

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What is dyslexia and how does it affect reading comprehension?

Carrie Clark 0:00

Hey everybody, this is Carrie Clark, and you are listening to the Speech and Language Kids Podcast. This is episode number 42, and I am your host, Carrie Clark. This is the podcast with resources and activities for speech therapists and parents with children with speech and language delays. Now I have to apologize to you today, my voice. is less than stellar. I am hoping that I will make it all the way through this podcast before it completely gives out. Otherwise I'll just sound like it did at the Missouri Speech Conference this weekend and have no voice, which was so fun. By the way, thank you to everyone who came and said hi to me at that uh conference. I had so much fun and it was really good to see people in my area who are avid listeners and followers.

Carrie Clark 0:40

I had a lot of fun, so hopefully I'll be able to do some more conferences in the future and meet more of you. But today we are talking about dyslexia. Now I wanted to go ahead and get this podcast recorded if my voice will hold out, which it's not sounding like it's going to. Um But the show must go on because I really want to get this information out to you guys. So I'm gonna do my best. Bear with me with my poor voice quality and hopefully by next week I will be back on par. Also I will be taking some breaks to take some sips of water, like this one. There we go. All right. Okay, so let's jump in before my voice gives away. So today we're talking about d dyslexia and speech therapy. Now I used to think that dyslexia was just when people reversed letters and words when they were reading.

Carrie Clark 1:24

I'm not sure how this misconception got so popular, but it is important to know that dyslexia is much more than that. and that letter reversal is actually not even the most common characteristic of dyslexia. Yes, it does happen for some people, but not all. So it's important to know also that speech therapists can do a lot to help a student with dyslexia, which is why we're talking about it here today. So let me go over what dyslexia is then. The term dyslexia is used to describe a person's difficulty reading printed words, even though he or she has normal intelligence and received appropriate reading instruction. All right, so this word reading difficulty is often caused by a deficit in the phonological component of language.

Carrie Clark 2:07

Okay, stick with me here.

Why is phonological awareness the root cause of dyslexia?

Carrie Clark 2:08

I know I'm using some big words. So that means phonological Phonological means that the student is having difficulty understanding how sounds go together to create words. Our phonological system is the system in our brain that puts all those sounds together and says, if I put k at together, it says cat and means that furry animal with pointed ears and a tail. Okay, so this makes it difficult for a student to decode a printed word or sound out the letters and then put them together together to form the word, as well as two spell words. Also, students with dyslexia have an average or above average intelligence, so we know that this isn't a result of them not being smart, okay? So you have this kid who's pretty smart, doing well, seems like he should be able to read words and

Carrie Clark 2:57

For some reason that phonological system in his brain is all mixed up and so he has a really hard time reading words, sounding them out, and then spelling them again. Now, since a child with dyslexia has difficulty reading those printed words, he or she may also have difficulty understanding what was read, even if he doesn't manage to eventually sound out those words. This is because if you're reading fluently or reading without unnecessary pauses and gaps, it's easier to understand what you're reading. So if you have to stop and sound out every word, you're gonna have a lot more trouble understanding what you read when you get to the end of it. than if you just read fluently from top to bottom. Okay.

Carrie Clark 3:32

So a lot of times these kids with dyslexia have reading comprehension problems as well that's based on this decoding problem. Now you also may notice that a child with dyslexia understands text when it is read aloud to him, but has troubles understanding it if he reads it himself.

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Chapters

5 chapters

1 What is dyslexia and how does it affect reading comprehension? 0:00–2:08 2 Why is phonological awareness the root cause of dyslexia? 2:08–5:54 3 How can speech‑language pathologists identify phonological deficits in a child? 5:54–10:35 4 What role does speech therapy play in supporting students with dyslexia? 10:35–14:30 5 Which three skill areas should be assessed before planning therapy? 14:30–16:39

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Carrie Clark 15 min

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Topics in this episode

dyslexia 6 Speech and Language Kids podcast 1 Carrie Clark 2 speech therapy 2 phonological processes 1 phonological awareness 1 Missouri Speech Conference 1 speech sound errors 1 expressive language 1 receptive language 1 speech language pathologists 1

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Recorded27 Apr 2015

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Dyslexia Speech Therapy: How SLPs Can Help with DyslexiaChildren with dyslexia struggle to read even though they are bright and have had reading instruction. Speech therapy can help children with dyslexia by addressing underlying phonological and language challenges. On this page, we’ll explain how speech-language pathologists can provide dyslexia speech therapy to help children and teens with dyslexia catch up in their literacy skills. Language Foundations for Literacy CourseA Structured Program for Boosting Phonological and Language Skills that Support LiteracyView the Language for Literacy CurriculumWhat is Dyslexia?Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge. Adopted by the IDA Board of Directors, Nov. 12, 2002. Many state education codes, including New Jersey, Ohio and Utah, have adopted this definition. Learn more about how consensus was reached on this definition: Definition Consensus Project Listen to the Dyslexia Podcast Episode:What Causes Dyslexia? This word-reading difficulty is often caused by a deficit in the phonological component of language. That means, the student has difficulty understanding how sounds go together to create words. This makes it difficult for the student to decode a printed word (sound out the letters and put them together to form a word) as well as to spell words. Also, the student with dyslexia has average or above average intelligence so the disability is not due to lack of intelligence. Since the child with dyslexia has difficulty reading printed words, he or she may also have difficulty understanding what was read, even if he does manage to eventually read the words. This is because fluent reading (or reading without unnecessary pauses and gaps) increases comprehension and understanding of what is read. You may notice that a child with dyslexia understands text when it is read out loud to him but he has trouble understanding it if he reads it himself. For example, the child would be able to answer comprehension questions about a grade-level story read aloud but not if he only read the story to himself. You may also notice that children with dyslexia do not develop phonological awareness skills as quickly as their peers. These would be skills like rhyming, segmenting, blending, etc. For more information on phonological awareness, click the link below: Carrie’s Ultimate Guide to Phonological Awareness (Lyon et. al. 2003) How Does Speech Therapy Help Students with Dyslexia? As speech-language pathologists, we have extensive training and knowledge about phonological skills. Many students with speech sound errors have phonological errors. This means they have trouble understanding which sounds should be put together to form words. They may use phonological processes where they replace one class of sounds with another (such as replacing all long sounds like “s” with short sounds like “t”). These same children with phonological speech errors may have phonological reading problems as well (a.k.a. dyslexia). For more information about phonological processes (speech errors), click here! That means that speech therapists should be an integral part of a student’s reading intervention team, even if the child is only having difficulty with reading and not speech. We can help these students improve their overall phonological systems and understand how sounds go together to make words. Also, some children with dyslexia also have language learning problems which should be addressed by a speech therapist as well. What Type of Speech Therapy Should be Provided for Children with Dyslexia The speech therapist should first conduct a full assessment to determine which areas are in need of therapy. The following skill areas should be assessed by a speech-language pathologist: Speech Sound Errors/Skills: Is the child using any phonological processes in his speech? Phonological Awareness Skills: How does the child do with phonological awareness tasks like rhyming, segmenting, blending, etc.? Overall Language Skills: How does the child score on expressive and receptive language tests? Based on the results of this evaluation, therapy should be provided to address the areas with concerns. No one area should be targeted first but rather all areas should be addressed in therapy together to help the child make changes to his entire phonological system. However, if a student is unable to focus on multiple tasks at once, the most severe limitations should be addressed first with other skills be added as possible. Below are explanations of what type of therapy should be provided based on which areas the child is having trouble: Speech Sound Errors A child who is having trouble with speech sounds due to phonological problems will have trouble with entire groups of sounds. You will see patterns in the child’s speech. For example, all long sounds (sounds that can be held out like “s”) may be replaced with shorter sounds (like “t”). Or, all sounds at the ends or beginnings of words will be deleted. A child may have just one phonological process (sound error pattern) or she may have many going on at one time. This can make a child’s speech very difficult to understand. It is normal for children to use certain phonological processes when they are very young (ending between the ages of 3-5 years) but if a child continues to use these patterns beyond the ages at which they should stop, he may have a phonological disorder. Phonological disorders should be treated by showing the child the difference between the correct productions and his incorrect productions. For more information about treating phonological disorders, click the link below: For more information about phonological processes (speech errors), click here! Phonological Awareness Skills: Phonological awareness skills are the pre-reading skills that are so crucial to reading printed words and spelling them. These are skills that allow us to manipulate sounds and put them together to form words. Or, they allow us to take words apart and understand which sounds make up that word. Here are some examples of phonological awareness skills: Rhyming (What rhymes with cat? Do cow and how rhyme?) Ability to segment words into syllables (How many syllables in umbrella? Um…bre…lla) Syllable Blending (I’m going to say some syllables, you put them together and tell me what word they make: um…bre…lla Ability to identify words with the same beginning sound (Do cat and cow start with the same sound? What else starts with the same sound as book?) Ability to identify words with the same final sound (Do book and take end with the same sound? What else ends with the same sound as boat?) Ability to segment words into individual sounds: consonant-vowel (CV), vowel-consonant (VC), and consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) (How many sounds are in cup? c…u..p. 3! What sounds are in off? O…ff) Ability to segment words into individual sounds: CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC (What sounds do you hear in plate? p..l…a…te) Sound Blending: (I’m going to say some sounds, you put them together and tell me what word they make: “d…o…g.” Dog!) Ability to manipulate sounds in words (what word do you have if you take the “p” off of “pan”?) Letter-sound correspondences: (What sound does the letter “b” make? What letter makes the “buh” sound?) As you have read above, dyslexia is a problem that is typically caused by trouble with these underlying pre-reading skills. If a child has trouble with these skills, he will have trouble with decoding and spelling words. Therapy for children with phonological awareness difficulties should target increasing their ability to participate in activities that include these skills. For activity ideas for increasing phonological awareness skills (and a free worksheets download), click the link below: How to do Phonological Awareness Therapy and Improve Phonological Awareness Skills Language Skill Deficits: If a child with reading difficulties also scores low on expressive and receptive language tests, there may be other problems going on aside from dyslexia. Other language problems, such as problems with comprehension or problems putting together grammatically correct sentences, should be addressed alongside phonological awareness therapy in order to help the child make the greatest gains possible. References: Lyon, G. R., Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2003). Defining dyslexia, comorbidity, teachers’ knowledge of language and reading. Annals of Dyslexia, 53, 1‐14. Language Foundations for Literacy Curriculum:Children who struggle with literacy skills often need extra support with the phonology and language skills that are foundational to literacy. Our Language Foundations for Literacy Curriculum is specifically designed to teach the phonological and language skills necessary to improve reading and writing skills. The SLK Curriculum subscription comes with everything you need to teach language and literacy skills to children and teens with dyslexia and other literacy challenges. Language Foundations for Literacy CourseA Structured Program for Boosting Phonological and Language Skills that Support LiteracyView the Language for Literacy CurriculumAbout the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLPHi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers. Connect with Me: The post Dyslexia Speech Therapy: How SLPs Can Help with Dyslexia appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

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