This week I have had two of my friends tell me they had no idea speech and language therapists treat literacy skills (like reading comprehension and decoding). One was a mother of a child with multiple delays and one was an elementary school teacher. If anyone would know about SLPs and how specialized we are to treat literacy...these two fabulous women would have known!
So...I am going to assume the world at large does not understand why SLPs are such an effective service provider to help children develop literacy skills.
#1 We are SPEECH Language Pathologists:
Who understands the sounds of our language better than an SLP? We are perfectly trained to help children learn about phonological awareness and how the letters in a word sound and why those letters are important. We can teach children how letters are represented phonetically and orthographically. We help teach onsets, rhyming pairs, letter families. We are the experts when it comes to decoding written language as well as teaching producing spoken sound!!!
#2 We are Speech LANGUAGE Pathologists:
Who understands the complex nuances of spoken and written language better than an SLP? We receive years of training in morphology (pieces of meaning that build words), semantics (word meanings), syntax (grammar), and pragmatics (the social nuances of language). WE get complex sentences, vocabulary needs, figurative language, synthesizing, comparing and contrasting, making connections, etc. THAT IS WHAT WE DO!!! Reading comprehension is hugely dependent on skills that we are uniquely trained to teach. A speech language pathologist can teach reading comprehension because we understand how to develop the language comprehension reading skills are based on.
Please don't assume because I am an SLP all I do is correct "s" and "r" errors (although I do help kids with speech sound delays and I LOVE it, it's way more involved than you think). Teaching literacy skills is one thing that I specialize in, I know how much we SLPs have to offer. It is time that all of you concerned parents and educators know it too.
So...I am going to assume the world at large does not understand why SLPs are such an effective service provider to help children develop literacy skills.
#1 We are SPEECH Language Pathologists:
Who understands the sounds of our language better than an SLP? We are perfectly trained to help children learn about phonological awareness and how the letters in a word sound and why those letters are important. We can teach children how letters are represented phonetically and orthographically. We help teach onsets, rhyming pairs, letter families. We are the experts when it comes to decoding written language as well as teaching producing spoken sound!!!
#2 We are Speech LANGUAGE Pathologists:
Who understands the complex nuances of spoken and written language better than an SLP? We receive years of training in morphology (pieces of meaning that build words), semantics (word meanings), syntax (grammar), and pragmatics (the social nuances of language). WE get complex sentences, vocabulary needs, figurative language, synthesizing, comparing and contrasting, making connections, etc. THAT IS WHAT WE DO!!! Reading comprehension is hugely dependent on skills that we are uniquely trained to teach. A speech language pathologist can teach reading comprehension because we understand how to develop the language comprehension reading skills are based on.
Please don't assume because I am an SLP all I do is correct "s" and "r" errors (although I do help kids with speech sound delays and I LOVE it, it's way more involved than you think). Teaching literacy skills is one thing that I specialize in, I know how much we SLPs have to offer. It is time that all of you concerned parents and educators know it too.
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