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LITERACY

Literacy learning is extremely important in facilitating a child's success in school, in their future employment and in life.

Literacy teaching guides


In 2009, new literacy teaching guides for teachers were officially launched by the NSW Minister for Education and Training, The Hon. Verity Firth, MP.
 The literacy teaching guides are:
An introduction to quality literacy teaching
Literacy teaching guide: Phonics
Literacy teaching guide: Phonemic awareness.

These guides support teachers in classrooms to ensure quality literacy teaching for NSW public school students. To download these guides visit:

 

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/literacy/assets/pdf

How can Speech Pathology help a child develop literacy skills?

Phonological awareness skills involve the understanding that words are made up of sounds, that there is a sound at the start of a word and at the end of a word and one can blend these sounds together to make a word, that one can play around with these sounds within words, e.g., rhyme words, etc.
Phonological awareness skills are a good indicator of future literacy success.

Speech Pathologists can assess a child's phonological awareness skills and determine if the child needs phonological awareness training in their early primary school years. The therapy would involve fun games to make the therapy motivating for the child. The Speech Pathologist can conduct this and it can involve the following:

 

  • letter/sound correspondence. This can involve the Lindamood Program

  • segmentation of words into sounds. This helps with the spelling of words

  • blending of sounds into words. This helps with the reading of words

  • identification of initial / final sounds of words

  • fluent reading. Research has shown that fluent reading (increasing the rate of fluent reading in a child) is effective in improving a child's reading skills.

  • getting meaning from print (not just decoding words). Visualising and Verbalising is a therapy technique that is used effectively to improve a child's reading comprehension.

  • sight word strategies

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