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On visiting a speech pathologist, the session often starts with a discussion around the area of concern, whether it is regarding speech, language, literacy, voice, stuttering or swallowing. Once you have established what your concerns are, there are a few key components that a literacy assessment is composed of including:

Case History

This includes any background history such as any developmental concerns; both physical and mental, or family history of literacy difficulties such as dyslexia. The clinician may also ask for some background information about the individual’s speech and language skills. This is because often an individual’s speech and language ability affects their literacy skills. This is due to the importance of sound production in spell and read words as well as the ability to comprehend and put together a sentence in order to read or write a passage. The speech pathologist may have to conduct a speech and language assessment in addition to the literacy assessment, if they feel that deficits in this area may be underpinning the literacy concerns brought forward.

Phonological Awareness test

This test is done to determine if the individual is able to identify and manipulate sounds within a word. This is important for accurate reading and spelling. Individuals that struggle with phonological awareness may spell words like ‘splash’ as ‘slpash’ as they are not able to process the sounds within the word.

Decoding and encoding test

These are tests of single word reading and spelling. This often includes both words that can be sounded out phonetically as well as sight words. This highlights whether the individual has a good understanding of which sounds correspond to which letters or letter groups. Individuals that struggle with decoding or encoding may not understand that the ‘aye’ sound in the word ‘stain’ is represented by the ‘ai’ group of letters.

Reading comprehension test

This component of the assessment picks up higher order literacy difficulties. An individual may be able to sound out the letters to form the words, however they may struggle to process the words together as a sentence, fail to gather the main idea, hold on to key information within the test or fail to understand the implications of the text and make predictions from it.

Written language assessment

This component assesses the individual’s ability to put together a written piece such as a narrative or a persuasive. Individuals who struggle to write sentences, follow a logical written order or structure as well as those that struggle with punctuation will have difficulties with this component of the assessment battery.

After the assessment has been completed, your speech pathologist will provide you with the results, which will include a diagnosis and recommendations about which treatment programs would best suit the individual. Each diagnosis is different and based on the individuals presenting symptoms, which guide the type of therapy provided. For this reason, it is essential a literacy assessment is conducted by a qualifies speech therapist prior to commencing therapy.

Contact us for results focused on speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have speech pathology related questions, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post What to expect in an initial literacy speech pathology assessment appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

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The Spalding Method is one of the most comprehensive and effective method for teaching English. The Spalding Approach aims to increase literacy for all; from preschoolers to adults regardless of their initial literacy abilities. The Spalding Method trains individuals to develop deep thinking and problem solving to become skilled readers, critical listeners, and accomplished writers and spellers.

It is an integrated, multisensory language arts program comprising of three areas: Spelling, Reading and Writing.

The spelling component targets phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, handwriting, reading rules, morphology and high frequency vocabulary. This teaches individuals how to identify sounds and blend them together to form words.

The reading component targets literacy appreciation, oral reading fluency, text structure, reading comprehension and mental actions. This teaches individuals to understand texts, read fluently and enjoy books.

The writing component targets high frequency vocabulary, word usage, grammar, sentence construction and compositions. This teaches individuals how to structure sentences and written pieces in a number of different forms such as narratives, expositions, recounts and procedures.

A Speech Pathologist trained in the Spalding Method will assess all these areas and determine the individuals strengths and weaknesses to provide individualised therapy in the areas which the individual finds challenging. This allows the individual to utilise their strengths and excel at literacy.

Contact us for results focused on speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have speech pathology related questions, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post The Spalding Literacy Program appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

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When visiting a speech pathologist for the first time, as you might guess, one of the first questions your clinician will ask you is what the reason for the visit is. If you are seeing fluency or stuttering specialist, then your concern will most likely be due to a stutter that you or your child has. The stutter is often one that has been present since you or your child started talking however, we do sometimes see stuttering arise in patients with Parkinson’s disease or other neurological aetiologies. Once you have established what your concerns are, there are a few key components that the assessment is composed of, including:

Case History

This includes any background history such as the initial occurrence of the stutter, any family history of stuttering, information about when the stutter is best or worst, as may people stutter more when speaking in front of unfamiliar listeners or when their emotions are heightened (when they are angry or nervous).

Baseline stuttering data

Once the case history has been taken, your clinician will then determine the types of stuttering present in your speech. This may include repetition of words, phrases or sentences, prolongation of sounds or blocks, which are breaks in speech where the mouth opens however, no sound is produced. More severe stutters can also include superfluous non-verbal behaviours such as tics, blinking and facial grimacing. Severity is also rated either on a scale associated with the chosen method of therapy such as the Lidcombe program severity scale or using percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS). These measures are often taken to serve as a baseline to help measure progress over time. Measures should be taken in everyday activities that you are most likely to engage in. This could include reading a newspaper article aloud or during a conversation with your speech pathologist.

After the assessment has been completed, your speech pathologist will provide you with the results, which will include a diagnosis and education about stuttering and the treatment programs available. Each diagnosis is different and based on the individuals presenting symptoms, which guide the type of therapy provided. For this reason, it is essential that your stuttering be assessed properly by a qualified speech therapist prior to commencing therapy.

Contact us for results focused on speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have speech pathology related questions, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post What to expect in an initial stuttering speech pathology assessment appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

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Just like reading, there are many possible areas of difficulty that can lead to a written language delay. Here are some of the most likely possibilities that would affect a child’s literacy development.

Poor letter to sound correspondence and phonological awareness

Once again, an understanding of the link between the letters and their paired sounds or letter to sound correspondence is crucial in writing. This is because the individual needs to be able to sound out each sound within a word, convert it to letters, which form words and sentences in their written work. Phonological awareness or ability to identify individual or groups of sounds is also necessary for this same process to occur. Children who have trouble in this area would benefit from phonological awareness training or The Spalding Program.

Poor verbal production

When writing a passage, a child is expected to not only encode (write each individual sounds to make a word) but also produce each word to make a sentence, which they must then tie together to create an entire story. Underpinning all of this is the child’s ability to produce verbal language. This is because if a child is not able to produce a spoken story then even if they are able to encode the symbols into words, if they are unable to produce coherent verbal sentences, then what they produce is a string of incoherent sentences or a passage that may be ordered incorrectly or make no sense. For these children we recommend specific expressive language therapy, depending on the level where language production has broken down.

Poor planning and structure

When writing a passage, an individual is required to plan ahead of time, what points they wish to make within their writing. This is even more essential when writing than when speaking, as the individual does not always have the opportunity to correct their work later (e.g. during an exam). The individual also needs to have a solid understanding of the different text types such as a persuasive essay vs. a narrative as each text type has its own specific structure, which must be follow, in order to properly convey the message intended.

These are some of the areas a speech pathologist assesses, in order to determine the individuals area of weakness. This allows us to provide the correct intervention that will have the greatest benefit for literacy development.

Contact us for results focused on speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have questions about language activities, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post Possible causes for literacy delays Part 2: Writing appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

By

Just like reading, there are many possible areas of difficulty that can lead to a written language delay. Here are some of the most likely possibilities that would affect a child’s literacy development.

Poor letter to sound correspondence and phonological awareness

Once again, an understanding of the link between the letters and their paired sounds or letter to sound correspondence is crucial in writing. This is because the individual needs to be able to sound out each sound within a word, convert it to letters, which form words and sentences in their written work. Phonological awareness or ability to identify individual or groups of sounds is also necessary for this same process to occur. Children who have trouble in this area would benefit from phonological awareness training or The Spalding Program.

Poor verbal production

When writing a passage, a child is expected to not only encode (write each individual sounds to make a word) but also produce each word to make a sentence, which they must then tie together to create an entire story. Underpinning all of this is the child’s ability to produce verbal language. This is because if a child is not able to produce a spoken story then even if they are able to encode the symbols into words, if they are unable to produce coherent verbal sentences, then what they produce is a string of incoherent sentences or a passage that may be ordered incorrectly or make no sense. For these children we recommend specific expressive language therapy, depending on the level where language production has broken down.

Poor planning and structure

When writing a passage, an individual is required to plan ahead of time, what points they wish to make within their writing. This is even more essential when writing than when speaking, as the individual does not always have the opportunity to correct their work later (e.g. during an exam). The individual also needs to have a solid understanding of the different text types such as a persuasive essay vs. a narrative as each text type has its own specific structure, which must be follow, in order to properly convey the message intended.

These are some of the areas a speech pathologist assesses, in order to determine the individuals area of weakness. This allows us to provide the correct intervention that will have the greatest benefit for literacy development.

Contact us for results focused on speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have questions about language activities, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post Possible causes for literacy delays Part 2: Writing appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

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