LINKING THE STRANDS OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

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LINKING THE STRANDS OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

• NSSLHA FEBRUARY 5, 2011
• CSU, Sacramento
• Candace Goldsworthy, Ph.D.
• Katie Lambert, M.S.

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LINKING THE STRANDS OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY A
RESOURCE MANUAL (2010)

• CH 1 Overview
• CH 2 Play
• CH 3 Listening Skills
• CH 4 Rationale
• CH 5 How-tos
• CH 6 Activities Materials by Katie Lambert,
  M.S.

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WHY I WROTE IT

• To simplify the murkiness that exists in the
  multivarious strands and levels in a developing
  oral-written language system
• Myriad models, categories, labels
• Tons of language tests and materials available
• We become frustrated with where to begin and what
  to do next

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THE ROLLER COASTER OF CHILD LANGUAGE THERAPY

• Ive worked on some receptive skills
• Should I add in some play?
• Seems like s/he needs some listening skills
  work
• S/he cant tell a story
• Yikes now its showing up in his/her reading
  writing..of course b/c its a language continuum

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BEGINNING OF SEMESTER in CHILD LANGUAGE CLINIC

• I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK IM SUPPOSED TO BE
  DOING IN CHILD LANGUAGE!

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END OF SEMESTER

• WOW THAT WAS FUN. I WISH I COULD DO IT AGAIN. IF
  ONLY ID KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW I WOULDNT
  HAVE BEEN SO SCARED

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LAYERS OF LANGUAGE

• Seasoned new clinicians ask
• How do I know when to drop working on one
  language strand and move to another?
• When do I leave a strand such as listening
  skills to work on narrative skills?
• How do I add in reading written language?
• How do I bridge the gaps?

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REASON FOR WRITING THE BOOK

• Love of child language-literacy
• For beginning clinicians to get you started and
  to keep checking back in
• For seasoned clinicians to check in, to stay on
  track of where youve been and what possibilities
  still need to be included

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INTENT OF BOOK IS

• To provide a schema of good practicegrowing
  sense toward expertise
• You may enter as a beginning clinician and move
  to a more advanced level and then to proficiency
  and advanced proficiency
• Continue to a level of automaticity

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VISUALIZING CHILD LANGUAGE-LITERACY

• Dickinson/McCabe (1991) Process of language
  acquisition can be thought of as being like a
  French braid rather than as a sequential
  processlanguage consists of multiple strands
  phonology, semantics, syntax, discourse, reading,
  and writingthat are picked up at various times
  and woven in with the other strands to create a
  beautiful whole.

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DEFINITION OF STRAND (Webster, 2002)

• Any one of the threads, fibers, wires, etc. that
  are twisted together to form a length of string,
  rope, or cable any of the individual bundles of
  thread or fiber so twisted together any of the
  parts that are bound together to form a whole

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LANGUAGE-LITERACY CONTINUUM

• Language-literacy continuum of strands
  developing separately yet overlapping and
  alongside each other
• They merge onto a super highway of a fully
  developed oral-written language system
• STRANDS Play skills, listening skills, early
  oral language and early written language merge
  together
• Problem-solving not separate strand but KL will
  include today

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OVERVIEW

• Strands represent levels a child must pass
  through to transition from early to later
  language skills
• Your client may start at a higher strand e.g.
  reading and need to move back e.g. to
  phonological awareness or vice versa

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LANGUAGE ACQUISITON IS FLUID

• We break language into discrete steps to teach
  about it BUT the process is dynamic fluid
• SCIENCE of understanding language acquisition
  know discrete aspects of language phonology,
  semantics, syntax, pragmatics
• ART of understanding language acquisition know
  when to back up a strand when to pick up the
  next/higher language strand

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RX STRATEGIES

• VERTICAL APPROACH STRATEGY work on one goal at a
  time e.g. work on one pronoun she
• HORIZONTAL ATTACK STRATEGY working on more than
  one goal at a time e.g. work on multiple
  pronouns
• (see McCauley/Fey, 2006)
• STRANDS APPROACH horizontal/ working on more
  than one strand AND goal simultaneously

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ASSESSMENT TOOLS

• They can dictate what we select as therapy
  targets
• Assessment tools divide language up into what the
  test author(s) believe(s) to be important to
  examine

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ASSESSMENT TOOLS

• We need to widen our kaleidoscope to a bigger
  picture
• Examine impact oral language problem has on
  reading/written language system e.g., DONt
  target he she through oral language ONLY add
  reading/writing

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HOW A STRANDS APPROACH WORKS IN CHILD LANGUAGE

• Cross modalities whenever possible work on oral
  and written language
• Implicit teaching introduce target through
  play/books
• Explicit teaching make target stand out and
  drill a bit

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HOW STRANDS APPROACH WORKS

• Like Hodson Padens (1991) cycles approach in
  phonological processes
• Basic tenets focus on perception production
  following a sequence of activities
• In phono processes activities are auditory
  bombardment, production practice, probes to check
  stimulability, more auditory bombardment
• Certain target phonemes represent target
  phonological patterns

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HOW STRANDS APPROACH WORKS (continued)

• In phonological processes approach, e.g. /sp/ and
  /st/ may be selected to represent target
  phonological pattern of cluster reduction
• A cycle is complete when all patterns, not all
  sounds, have been treated but not necessarily
  remediated
• Patterns get recycled and mastery is not a
  criterion for moving to next treatment target

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HOW STRANDS APPROACH WORKS (continued)

• For example language testing reveals child needs
  help with prepositions and pronouns
• Select REPRESENTATIVE PREPOSITIONS e.g. under
  in next
• Implicit teaching read Theres An Alligator
  Under My Bed (Mayer 1971) There used to be an
  alligator UNDER my bed. I put (food) IN the
  garage. I put (food) NEXT to my bed.
• Explicit teaching drill wheres the alligator?
  Wheres the food?
• Cross modalities print if appropriate

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HOW STRANDS APPROACH WORKS (continued)

• Select REPRESENTATIVE PRONOUNS e.g. her
  she his
• Implicit teaching read Blueberries for Sal
  (McCloskey, 1948) Little Sal brought along HER
  small tin pailand then SHE picked more
  berriesLittle Bear came with HIS mother to eat
  blueberries.
• Explicit teaching drill Who brought her small
  tin pail? Who did Little Bear come to the
  mountain with to find blueberries?
• Cross modalities print if appropriate

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HOW STRANDS APPROACH WORKS (continued)

• As in processes approach, dip the child into
  prepositions or pronouns by selecting target
  items to REPRESENT target language constructions
• Open up the preposition/pronoun SLOT to increase
  childs awareness that this slot exists and they
  will begin to generalize. Soon they will be using
  prepositions pronouns not explicitly
  taught..theyll pick them up on their own
  exposure to language models

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TAKE IT AWAY KATIE

• Started as a Masters project at CSUS
• Defined by SPA department as
• KL started with interest in child
  language-literacy continuum
• Evolved into Ch 6
• Evolved into CD