Structured literacy is an approach to teaching reading that can be used in the general classroom, in small groups and in reading intervention. The International Dyslexia Association recommends the use of a Structured Literacy Approach so that all learners, especially those with Dyslexia, can learn to read. Unfortunately, many schools still make use of Balanced Literacy or Guided Reading programs which are not effective for students with Dyslexia. That means students receiving literacy supports with these approaches may not be getting the services they need.
How to spot structured literacy in your child's school:

Structured literacy is based on the science of reading and targets more than just phonics. The elements of structured literacy include phonology, sound-symbol (orthography), syllables, morphology, syntax and semantics.


Phonological awareness is the awareness that words are made up of sounds. When a child says the sounds for the letters, they need to be able to blend them together to read the word. When a child wants to spell a word, they need to break it apart into its sounds and map the letters used to represent those sounds. Phonological memory is needed to hold those sounds in mind to be able to blend them together. A speech language pathologist (SLP) can assess phonological awareness skills. We can determine if the student is relying on the spelling of words to manipulate sounds or if they can truly manipulate sounds in words. Think of a word like 'mixed'. It has the following sounds /m/ /i/ /k/ /s/ /t/. A student would need to know 'x' is represented by the /k/ and /s/ sounds to manipulate sounds in that word. Phonological retrieval is also needed to map sounds onto letters quickly enough for fluent reading. An SLP can assess phonemic awareness, phonological memory and phonological retrieval. These are all language skills.

Phonics is a method to teach the relationship between the sounds and letters (symbols). Sometimes this is referred to as "the code". When the student is mapping the sounds to the letters to sound out a word, this is called "decoding". The student then recognizes the word they read and links it with the meaning. SLPs are trained in using the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) which means they can transcribe the exact sounds the student used to sound out a word. This allows are a deep analysis of the errors. The SLP can determine what is a speech sound errors vs a sound-symbol error. The SLP can also detect if a student is making a pattern of errors (e.g., confusing short 'i' and short 'e'). Since sound letter mapping relies on the sound system, language skills are needed for phonic success. The research has also determined that it is better to practice phonological awareness skills in the context of using letters. Since SLPS treat phonological awareness skills, they will often do this in context of phonic skills to set your child up for success.

Do you ever hear a child that mixes up sounds in multisyllabic words? For example, says 'animal' as "aminal". This may be pointing to a weakness in the sound system and difficulty with hearing the sounds in multisyllabic words. How syllables are targeted differs in different approaches. The print to speech approach teaches the child a series of rules for breaking apart syllables (e.g., 1 consonant between the vowels, then cut in front: do/nut). The speech to print approach teaches a child to break apart syllables according to how we do it when we talk...after the vowel (e.g., ro/bin) and moving over a letter when a cluster cannot start an English syllable (e.g., *na/pkin vs nap/kin). Either way, syllables are explicitly taught in the structured literacy approach.

Morphological awareness is the recognition and use of word parts that carry meaning. For example, in the word 'skated' there is the root 'skate' and the past tense 'ed'. Students with Dyslexia may have a difficult time recognizing these parts and read the word as "skatted" or even change the ending (e.g. "skates"). Morphological awareness also relies on the sound system. Did you know there are 3 sounds / sound combinations used to represent the -ed past tense? Think of the word "walked". The -ed ending in "walked" sounds like /t/. Now think of the word "rained". The -ed ending sounds like /d/. Finally, think of the sounds in the word "rounded". The -ed has 2 sounds "id" to differentiate it from the /d/ sound before it. Students that are in the phonic stage of writing may spell "stopped" as 'stopt'. As students get to older grades, understanding the meaning of Latin and Greek root words can help with comprehension. For example, recognizing that 'rupt' has to do with bursting can help get at the meaning for 'interrupt', 'eruption' and 'rupture'. After age 10, morphological awareness skills become a more reliable predictor of reading success than phonological awareness skills. The SLP can help support the sound and meaning correspondences needed for morphological awareness.

Syntax is used to refer to sentence structure and grammar. What order words can go in in sentences is determined by a language's syntax. Some students have poor oral language skills in the area of syntax. They might miss grammatical structures in their oral language and then write their sentences the same way (e.g., "He not listening", missing auxiliary "is"). While some students can form simple sentences, they may have more difficulty with using complex sentences with subordinating clauses. The SLP can assess whether these difficulties are oral language related or not.

Semantics has to do with word meaning. Students not have a large vocabulary. Or, they may have difficulty with word retrieval. SLPs have many strategies that they use to support student's vocabulary skills.
Comments