LINKING THE STRANDS OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

1. LINKING THE STRANDS OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY NSSLHA FEBRUARY 5, 2011 CSU, Sacramento Candace Goldsworthy, Ph.D. Katie Lambert, M.S.

2. 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.

3. 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

4. THE ROLLER COASTER OF CHILD LANGUAGE THERAPY • “I’ve worked on some receptive skills” • “Should I add in some play?” • “Seems like s/he needs some listening skills work” • “S/he can’t tell a story” • “Yikes now it’s showing up in his/her reading & writing”..of course b/c it’s a language continuum

5. BEGINNING OF SEMESTER in CHILD LANGUAGE CLINIC • “ I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK I’M SUPPOSED TO BE DOING IN CHILD LANGUAGE!”

6. END OF SEMESTER • “WOW THAT WAS FUN. I WISH I COULD DO IT AGAIN. IF ONLY I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW I WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN SO SCARED”

7. 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?”

8. 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 you’ve been and what possibilities still need to be included

9. INTENT OF BOOK IS … • To provide a schema of good practice…growing 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

10. 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 process…language consists of multiple strands: phonology, semantics, syntax, discourse, reading, and writing—that are picked up at various times and woven in with the other strands to create a beautiful whole.”

11. 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”

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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., DON’t target “he” “she” through oral language ONLY: add reading/writing

18. 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

19. HOW STRANDS APPROACH WORKS • Like Hodson & Paden’s (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

20. 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

21. 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 There’s 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: where’s the alligator? Where’s the food? • Cross modalities: print if appropriate

22. 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 pail…and then SHE picked more berries…Little 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

23. 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 child’s awareness that this slot exists and they will begin to generalize. Soon they will be using prepositions & pronouns not explicitly taught..they’ll “pick them up” on their own exposure to language models

24. TAKE IT AWAY KATIE • Started as a Master’s project at CSUS • Defined by SPA department as… • KL started with interest in child language-literacy continuum • Evolved into Ch 6 • Evolved into CD