Phonological Awareness

This is the awareness that words can be broken into smaller units; their constituent sounds, which are based on the phonological sounds of the language. Phonological awareness does not involve attaching any meaning to the particular sounds. Some phonological awareness skills are: sentence segmentation, syllable segmentation, rhyming  phonemic blending, and grapheme-phoneme correspondence.

A number of children who have a history of a speech and language delay and later on phonological difficulties are most likely to be at risk of having reading and writing difficulties later on as well. The reason for this is that literacy and verbal communication are strongly related. This is not only because reading skills make use of phonological units, but also because understanding what you read, and writing about something involve the abilities to think about and use language creatively. Therefore, early intervention and/or continuing speech-language therapy are the best options for children with a history of speech and language problems. At A.T.L.A.S. Training the SLT works on all aspects of a reading and writing problem since we use literacy for a variety of functional purposes: from writing single words to writing a school essay; from reading a sign to reading a recipe, an ordinary book or a work memo. The SLT also works with the OT and teacher if necessary to help the child become an effective communicator, problem-solver, and decision-maker. These are some of the skills targeted during literacy therapy:

• Working on and reinforcing phonological awareness skills,
• Spelling
• First stages in reading and writing simple to more complex words
• Reading for content and comprehension
• Reading and writing fluently and efficiently
• Planning and sequencing what to write and what to write about, and mst of al
• Reading and writing for the pure pleasure of these skills

As a parent, you too can help and support your child on the path to literacy:

• Provide plenty of opportunities for book reading and story telling
• Have a variety of books with varied content available
• Choose books with simple pictures which can be labelled and described in simple language
• Talk about writing and its functions i.e., when writing a shopping list
• Let your child see you reading and enjoying books