Speech Sound Difficulties: Understanding and Supporting Students

Workbook

2021 online on-demand 2-hour session

North East Metro LDC Outreach Service

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Contents

Action Plan ........................................................................................................................ 1

The NEMLDC and Outreach Team ...................................................................................... 2

Communication ................................................................................................................. 3

Parts of Verbal Communication .......................................................................................... 3

The Importance of Speech & Language .............................................................................. 4

About Sounds .................................................................................................................... 5

The 44 Sounds of English .................................................................................................... 5

Speech Sound Anatomy ...................................................................................................... 5

How consonant sounds are made....................................................................................... 6

Videos of various speech sounds being produced ........................................................... 6

Normal Speech Sound Development ................................................................................. 7

Age of Sound Acquisition .................................................................................................... 7

Developmental Errors ......................................................................................................... 8

Lisps .................................................................................................................................... 9

Intelligibility ...................................................................................................................... 10

Speech Sound Difficulties ................................................................................................ 10

Identifying Speech Sound Difficulties ............................................................................... 11

Markers of Speech Sound Difficulty: ................................................................................. 11

Grammar & Speech Sounds .............................................................................................. 12

Speech Sound Differences ................................................................................................ 13

Quick Speech Sounds Screen for Teachers ....................................................................... 13

Referring Students for Support ........................................................................................ 14

Have a Conversation with Parents .................................................................................... 14

Accessing Support ............................................................................................................ 14

Supporting Students ........................................................................................................ 15

Recasting .......................................................................................................................... 15

PA & Phonics .................................................................................................................... 18

Useful information: .......................................................................................................... 21

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Action Plan

Write down 3 things you have learned / will take from today’s session and use in your setting

2

The NEMLDC and Outreach Team

The North East Metropolitan LDC

http://northeastldc.wa.edu.au/

North Balga & West Morley (K-2)

The Outreach Service

http://northeastldc.wa.edu.au/speech-and-language-outreach-service/

7% of children are

estimated to have

language related

difficulties at any one

time. That’s two in every

classroom

3

Communication

Definition: the imparting or exchanging of information.

This can be done through:

- Speaking - Gesture (e.g. sign language) - Nonverbal communication (e.g. body language) - Symbols (e.g. letters, emojis) - Other means

Parts of Verbal Communication Speech The way we use sounds to express ourselves. As a broad category ‘speech’ consists of:

- Articulation / speech sound use: How we make speech sounds using the articulators (parts of the oral and throat cavity such as the mouth, lips and tongue).

- Voice: How we use our vocal folds and breath to make sounds. - Fluency: The ‘smoothness’ or flow with which speaking takes place. A lack of fluency can be called a

dysfluency or a stutter.

Language The words we use & how we use them. Language consists of:

- Vocabulary and semantics: Words, their meanings and how concepts are related. - Grammar: How language is organised – how sentences are structured (syntax) and words are

formed by adding units of meaning to each other (morphology). - Discourse: The way in which a series of ideas are connected to each other in a cohesive manner.

This includes generating or retelling stories, persuading someone, reporting on something, and various other text genres.

- Social skills: The use and function of language as a tool for social interaction. - For reading & writing:

o Phonological awareness: the ability to tune into, manipulate the sounds in spoken language.

o Phonics (for writing/reading): the connection between sounds and letters, and being able to use these to read/write

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The Importance of Speech & Language Prevalence:

• Between 22.3-24.5% of Australian children have a speech, language or communication disorder at school entry (McLeod & Harrison, 2009)

• 11% of students in secondary school have a communication disorder (McLeod & McKinnon, 2010).

Impact on academic achievement • Oral language is the foundation for the development of literacy skills and is considered to be a

strong indicator of later reading, writing, and overall academic achievement (Bradfield et al., 2013; Communication Trust, 2013; Gross, 2013; Hill, 2012; Hougen & Smart, 2012; Kirkland & Patterson, 2005; Resnick & Snow, 2009; Winch et al., 2010)

• “If a young person has difficulty understanding language this will affect all areas of learning; all education takes place through the medium of language.” (Cross, 2004, p.70)

Impact on literacy • Children with a language impairment are six times more likely to have a reading problem than

children without.

• “Research tells us that up to 50% of students with a history of speech and language delay are at risk of later literacy learning difficulty.” (Love & Riley, 2005)

• You can’t write it, unless you can say it!

Impact on Social-Emotional & Life Outcomes • Between 50-70% of children with emotional and behavioural problems have clinically significant

language deficits” (Benner, Nelson & Epstein 2002).

• Children who had a language disorder are twice as likely to have a psychiatric disorder by age 19.

• 46% of young Australian offenders have a language impairment.

• Telethon Speech and Hearing Institute, 2018 study: o 89% of children in detention in WA have a severe cognitive impairment o 36% have foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)

• Poor language has a lasting impact on sense of independence – can impact development of independent functioning into adulthood (Conti-Ramsden & Durkin, 2008)

• Less likelihood of achieving successful outcomes at school leaving age (Conti-Ramsden, Durkin, Simkin & Knox, 2009)

• Less likelihood of having a part time job, and have lower career aspirations than typically

developing peers (Durkin, Fraser & Conti-Ramsden, 2012)

• “45.5% of language impaired women report having experienced sexual assault.” (Brownlie, Jabbar

& Beitchman, 2007).

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About Sounds The 44 Sounds of English

Consonant Sounds

Sound (Phoneme)

Examples Graphemes Sound

(Phoneme) Examples Graphemes

/b/ bat, rabbit b, bb /s/ cell, mess s, ss, c, sc, st,

/k/ cat, school c, k, ck, ch, qu /t/ tap, doubt t, tt, -ed, th, bt

/d/ dog, pulled d, dd, -ed /v/ van, of v, f

/f/ fluff, rough f, ff, ph, gh /w/ wig, penguin w, u

/g/ bigger, go g, gg /y/ yes, onion y, i

/h/ Hen h /z/ xylophone, buzz z, zz, s, se, ze, ss, x

/j/ jet, fudge j, g, ge, dge /sh/ shop, ocean sh, s, ss, t, c, ch, ce

/l/ lick, full l, ll /ch/ chip, catch ch, tch

/m/ man, autumn m, mm, mb, mn /th/ then th

/n/ nanny, knock n, nn, kn, gn /th/ that, breathe th, the

/p/ peppy p, pp /ng/ lung, pink ng, n, gue

/r/ rhyme, carrot r, rr, wr, rh /zh/ vision, usual s, su, ge

Vowel Sounds

Sound (Phoneme)

Examples Graphemes Sound

(Phoneme) Examples Graphemes

/æ/ had, ant a /ʊ/ look, put, could oo, u, ou

/e/ bed, said, any e, ea, ay, ie, eo, a /ʊə/ tour, lure, viewer our, ure, iewer

/i/ in, gym, women i, y, o, u, ui, e, i_e /iə/ pier, deer, here ear, eer, ere, ier

/ɒ/ hot, was o, a /ɔi/ boy, coin oi, oy

/ʌ/ up, son, blood u, o, o_e, ou, oe, oo /a/ hard, a, are ar, a, are, au, ear

/ei/ cake, rein, straight ai, ay, a_e, ey, ei, eigh, aigh

/ɔ/ for, Paul, more or, aw, au, ore, augh, ough, our, oor, oa

/i/ feet, he people ee, ea, e, ie, e_e, eo /eə/ air, care, bear air, are, ear, ere

/ai/ night, my, find, tie igh, ie, y, i_e, i, eigh, eye, I, ye, y_e

/ɜ/ hurt, her, learn, were

ur, er, ir, ear, our, ere

/oʊ/ boat, go, though ao, ow, o, oe, o_e, oh, ough, ol

/æʊ/ cow, out, drought ow, ou, ough

/u/ you, too, blue oo, ew, ue, u_e, o, ou, ough, wo, o_e

/ə/ corner, sofa, cotton Many different graphemes

Hear the sounds: https://www.spelfabet.com.au/2015/05/what-are-the-44-sounds-of-english/

Speech Sound Anatomy

• Breathe out to speak.

• Various articulators are involved in speaking.

• Vocal chords activate for some, but not all sounds.

• Damaged, missing or compromised structures can impact speech sound production.

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How consonant sounds are made

Sound Pairs Position in Mouth

Main Mouth Parts

Involved

Length

Sound Type Voiceless

(soft)

sound

Voiced

(loud) sound Front

Front-

Middle Back ‘Long’ ‘Short’

/p/ /b/ ✓ Lips (together)

✓ Stop sounds /t/ /d/ ✓ Tip of tongue (behind

teeth)

/k/ /g/ ✓ Back of tongue

/m/ ✓ Lips (together)

✓ Nasal sounds /n/ ✓ Tip of tongue (behind

teeth)

/ng/ (sing) ✓ Soft palate

th (thigh) /th/ (the) ✓ Tongue (between teeth)

✓ Friction

Sounds

/f/ /v/ ✓ Teeth (on lower lip)

/s/ /z/ ✓ Tongue (behind front teeth

on alveolar ridge)

/sh/

/dʒ/ ‘j’

(as in

measure)

✓ Tongue

/h/ ✓ Tongue & throat ✓

/ch/ /j/ ✓

Tongue

(behind front teeth near

alveolar ridge)

✓ Combination

sounds

/w/ ✓ Lips (together)

✓ Semi-vowel

sounds

/y/ ✓ Tongue

/l/ ✓ Tongue (tip raised)

/r/ ✓ Tongue

Videos of various speech sounds being produced • https://www.spelfabet.com.au/2018/05/phonemes-are-sounds-and-articulatory-gestures/

• https://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/main/english

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Normal Speech Sound Development

Age of Sound Acquisition

Downloadable from: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition

Together with:

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Developmental Errors

(Speech Pathologists will be able to give input)

Adapted from https://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31:table3&catid=11:admin&Itemid=117

• Most developmental error patterns should disappear by 5

• There are differences in norms – if concerned or if errors impact a child, refer on to a speech pathologist who can provide a case by case interpretation.

yes = less

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What’s going wrong?

Target sentence: “I saw a cat and it was black”

Target sentence: “My zip is stuck”

Target sentence: “I eat with a spoon”

Target sentence: “I have a yellow rhino”

Lisps

▪ Affects the /s/ and /z/ sounds. Sometimes the /sh/, /zh/, /j/ and /ch/ sounds

Lisp Type Description Normal / developmental?

Frontal /

Interdental

• Tongue protrudes between the front teeth

• Forward air-flow, sounds like /th/ sound See & hear it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDTTKlgVm7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtBL4iBdx4w

✓ Yes (until about 4/5 years

for some children)

Intervention required if

beyond age 5

Dental • Tongue rests on or pushes against the front teeth

• Forward air-flow, muffled sound

✓ Yes (until about 4/5 years

for some children)

Intervention required if

beyond age 5

Lateral • Lateral air-flow (escapes from the side of the mouth)

• Sounds ‘slushy’ See & hear it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mntnJf_w3hc

Never a part of normal

development – must refer on!

Palatal • Mid-section of the tongue comes into contact with the soft palate

• ‘Growling, hissing’ sound - if you try to produce /h/ closely followed by a /y/ and prolong it, that is more or less have the sound

See & hear it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPd5m234JeM

Never a part of normal

development – must refer on!

Video: “The struggles of having a lisp” https://youtu.be/kK8_j1oxX7k

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Intelligibility

Intelligibility refers to how well a person can be understood.

By the time a child is…. they should be able to be understood ….% of the time by strangers:

• 1;0 = 25% intelligible to strangers

• 2;0 = 50% intelligible to strangers

• 3;0 = 75% intelligible to strangers

• 4;0 = 100% intelligible to strangers

Speech Sound Difficulties

Example video of student with difficulties: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncjPppDalzU

Caution

• Speech sounds is a specialist area o Speech pathologists must be involved in diagnosis & intervention o Information provided in this section is:

▪ general in nature ▪ to facilitate identifying children for speech pathology assessment ▪ to support understanding speech pathology reports.

Types of Difficulties

Determined by the underlying cause of the difficulty → impacts intervention

• Articulation Disorders – difficulty saying sounds (tongue, lip, jaw movements)

• Phonological Disorders – difficulty understanding and using sounds (in the mind)

• Motor Speech Disorders –

– Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS):

• Difficulty with speech motor coordination

• Very rare disorder, affecting an estimated 0.1%-0.2% of the population (Shriberg et al., 1997)

• MUST be diagnosed by a Speech Pathologist

• Just because a child might present like a child with CAS, that does not mean they have

CAS. Do not give children this label unless a qualified speech pathologist has first.

• Hard to treat

– Dysarthria: Difficulty due to muscle weakness caused by brain damage.

Children can have a combination of types of difficulties

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Describing Speech Sound Difficulties

• Delay: Typical developmental pathway, but slower progression

• Disorder: Atypical development – non-developmental errors

• Difficulty: non specified (could be either delay or disorder or both)

• Severity: Mild / Moderate / Severe

Identifying Speech Sound Difficulties

Markers of Speech Sound Difficulty:

• Sounds missing: Not saying sounds that should be said by the child’s age

• Intelligibility: Lower than expected for the child’s age

• Error patterns:

– Behind: Showing typical error patterns, but for longer than they should be present

– Different: Showing error patterns not listed as normal, such as…

Pattern name Description

Initial consonant

deletion

Deletes first sound e.g. ‘ed’ for ‘bed’

Glottal

replacement

Replaces sounds in a word with sounds made at the back of the mouth (/g/, /ng/, /h/)

e.g. ‘bo-hoo’ for ‘bottle’

Backing Replaces sounds made in the front of the mouth, with sounds made in the back of the

mount.

e.g. ‘kea’ for ‘tea’

Homonymy Different words are all said the same way

e.g. ‘coach’, ‘coke’, ‘joke’ all said as ‘tote’

Vowel errors Non-accent vowel errors or inconsistencies

• Undue shyness/reluctance to speak: Reluctance to speak may also be a secondary indicator that the child might have speech sound difficulties.

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• ‘Wow, oh no, really’ test:

– Educators frequently rely on the child’s mood and intonation as ‘clues’

– Example ‘wow, oh no, really’ interaction:

Bowen, C. (2006). Identification of Children in Need of Speech Screening presentation,

from www.speech-language-therapy.com

Grammar & Speech Sounds

• Grammatical errors and speech sound difficulties can sometimes look very similar.

• Sometimes speech sounds difficulties cause grammatical errors o E.g. not being able to say /s/ & /z/ makes it impossible to say:

▪ Plurals ▪ Thirds person ‘s e.g. walks, sings

o E.g. not being able to say /d/ makes it hard to say:

▪ Past tense in some words (e.g. jumped, patted) ▪ ‘And’ correctly – might sound like ‘an’

o If errors are highly specific to particular sounds, this is likely the case

• Sometimes students have grammatical errors which are mistaken for speech sound difficulties o Educators having difficulty making out what the child is saying – this could be speech

sounds, or it could be inadequate sentence structure and grammar use. o If errors are more widespread than particular sounds it could be a grammatical issue.

• Children can have both speech sound and grammatical errors – don’t forget to consider their language skills.

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Speech Sound Differences

• CALD students may have difficulty learning certain sounds because those sounds are not present in

their home language

• Teach students to code switch

• Refer on if there is a functional impact

(more information in your handout pack about Aboriginal English)

Think & Reflect…

• Consider a child you work with who you think might have speech sound difficulties

• What sounds are they having difficulty with?

• Do these seem to be typical errors?

Quick Speech Sounds Screen for Teachers

▪ //www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46:speechax&catid=9:resources&Itemid=117

▪ Look at the norms discussed today

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Referring Students for Support

Have a Conversation with Parents

Have a conversation with the parents/caregivers

• Carefully explain what we expect (normative development), what you are seeing (observations and

data)

• Ask them what they have noticed

• Suggest a referral

– CDS/WACHS and/or private speech pathologist

– Discuss what they could expect (assessment and intervention)

Accessing Support

• Child Development Service

– Child & Parent Centres

• WA Country Health Service

• National Disability Insurance Scheme

• Curtin University speech pathology placements in schools

• Private Speech Pathologists

For more information about idneitification of speech & langauge

difficultes and support services, see this handout →

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Supporting Students

Recasting

Repeating back to a child what they said, but without the error e.g.

Child: I taw a doggy!

Adult: You saw a doggy?!

• The child does not have to repeat the word/sentence o The focus is on the child hearing the correct form & internalizing it

• Naturalistic, non-confronting way to correct errors • Can be used for grammatical error too e.g.:

– Child: I goed to school

– Adult: You went to school.

What to do • Put slight emphasis on the target word, to subtly highlight the word/sound

• Recast in good listening environments:

o When there is minimal background noise

o When the child is listening to you & interested in talking

o When you are facing the child

• Recast the target sound in words that the child is interested in – follow their lead. o For example, if the child has started talking about “piremen” (firemen), don’t’ go on to the

recast the word ‘farm’ (unless you can work it into a fireman story!)

What not to do • Over emphasise the word

o this distorts the sound of the word, turning it into a poor model

o This can also make the child feel self-conscious if there are other children around.

• Ask the child to repeat the word/sentence: o The focus of recasting is on the child listening to the correct production. o By asking them to repeat, they have less chance at internalising the word.

▪ If the child spontaneously says that word correctly, you can then praise them for that (if the context is suitable aka no other kids around that’ll make the child feel self-conscious)

In your handout pack:

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Frequency • For typical learners, one repeat is enough

• For children with speech sound difficulties, multiple repetitions of the target is needed.

• Aim for 18-20 in a minute, or 3-4 minutes per day.

Examples below taken from Bowen, C. (2010). Recasting: Repeating the Right Way presentation,

from www.speech-language-therapy.com

Example 1: Fire

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Example 2: Car

Practise Recasting: Partner 1 – say the speech sound errors Partner 2 – recast the correct form of the word a minimum of 3 times, using a range of

meaningful sentences. Swap around.

Scenario 1: Playing with a toy people set.

Child: “It’s a pireman!” (‘It’s a fireman). OR Child: “There’s a dire” (There’s a fire”)

Scenarios 2 & 3: Choose 2 from the following:

Error 1: /g/ said as /d/ (velar fronting) Scenario: talking about a farm book Child (pointing to a dog): “Look at that doddy!” (“Look at that doggy”)

Error 2: /s/ said as /t/ (stopping /s/) Scenario: Talking about the child’s drawing of a beach scene Child: “The tun is yellow” (“The sun is yellow”)

Error 3: /y/ said as /l/ (liquid gliding) Scenario: Playing with Lego Child: “My house is lellow” (“My house is yellow”)

Error 4: Missing the /s/ in ‘sn’ (cluster reduction) Scenario: Child pretending to be a jungle explorer Child: “Watch out for the nake!” (“Watch out for the snake!”)

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PA & Phonics Terminology PA = Phonological awareness: the ability to tune in to, to manipulate and to reflect on the sound parts in speech

(e.g. syllables, rhyme, sounds). It is the most powerful predictor of reading success.

Phonemic Awareness: The ability to tune into and manipulate the sounds in words.

Phonics: a method of teaching reading & writing by developing a learner’s ability to:

• Hear, identify and manipulate phonemes in words (phonemic awareness)

• Understand the relationships between these sounds and the spelling patterns (graphemes) that represent them

• Use that knowledge to read (decode) and spell (encode) new words that they encounter

(Konza, 2003; Texas Education Agency, 2005)

Synthetic Phonics: • Blend (synthesize) and segment with a limited number of letter sounds • Sound out unknown words which contain known sounds • As new letter sounds are introduced → letters immediately blended with known sounds to make words • Begin reading decodable books which include the known sounds/letters • Simple letter-sound correspondences are learned rapidly

(Johnston & Watson, 2009)

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Key Strategies • Ensure that good quality PA & synthetic phonics instruction is taking place

– Helps all children

– Particularly important for children at risk

• Segment the sounds in words

– Ask students to segment the sounds where possible – model where student struggle. If

students segment sounds incorrectly (consistent with their speech sound errors),

– Categorising words with students’ target sounds is helpful as it can be non-verbal

• Use written cues for categories

• Talk about what your mouth does

(see Teaching Standard Australian English Speech Sounds to Students in the Northern Territory

Teachers Resource for tips)

• Model mapping sounds to letters

– Sound out a word

– Then write the letters, sounding the letters as you write them

• Teach, don’t test

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Example think alouds Categorising words based on their first sound

1. Segment the whole word e.g. What are the sounds in ‘man’? I can use my fingers to help me (put up 3 fingers & demonstrate). I can hear mm-aa-nn, 3 sounds.

2. Identify the first sound & talk about mouth movements e.g. – Now let’s listen to the first sound and put the picture in the right group. – We can put words that start with /m/ here (point to postit with the letter M on it), and words

that start with other sounds here (point to the second pile). – Hmm, what’s the first sound in man? I can hear a /m/. My lips are pressed together and my

voice is turned on when I say it. Mmmmm. – Let’s put the picture here on the /mmmmm/ (put picture into correct group)

3. Map sounds to letters

– Now let’s write the word. Let’s sound it out, then write the letters. – /mmm/, my lips are together and my voice on (write ‘m’), /aaaa/ (write ‘a’), /nnnn/ (write ‘n’). – M-a-n, man

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Resource to support describing how sounds are made →

PA program excerpt - Example segmenting script + scaffolding & increased/decreased steps →

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Practise ▪ Choose a sound from the table below. ▪ Use the script below to practice doing a sound segmenting task, incorporating a description of

how the sounds are made. ▪ Insert the relevant sound/words/descriptions from ‘sound explanations & word lists’ table below

into the script.

Script: Sound segmenting with description of how the sound is made 1. Segment the word

– “Let’s listen to the sounds in __[word]__.” – “I can use my fingers to help me (put up 3/4 fingers & demonstrate). “ – *say words stretched out raising a finger with each sound e.g. sss-uuuu-nnn*.

2. Identify the first sound & talk about mouth movements e.g.

– “The first sound in __[word]__ is /____/. “ – *Say the sound again* [insert sound explanation]

3. Map sounds to letters – “Now let’s write the word. We’ll sound it out, then write the letters.” – *say each sound and write it as you do so. When saying the target sound point to your mouth.

Sound explanations & word lists

Sound Explanation Example words

/s/ “That’s a long, quiet sound. My tongue is up behind my teeth and my lips are relaxed.”

sun (s-u-n), sand (s-a-n-d), stop (s-t-o-p) bus (b-u-s), list (l-i-s-t)

/r/ “That’s a long, loud sound. The middle part

of my lips are a little scrunched.” red (r-e-d), roo (r-oo), ring (r-i-ng)

tree (t-r-ee), brick (b-r-i-ck)

/k/ “That’s a short, short sound. My tongue is down and the noise is at the back of my

throat (like when coughing).”

cat (c-a-t-), car (c-ar), kite (k-i-te) bake (b-a-ke), skip (s-k-i-p)

/sh/ “That’s a long, soft sound. My lips are

rounded while I push out the air.” ship (sh-i-p), shoe (sh-oe), sheep (sh-ee-p)

mash (m-a-sh), wish (w-i-sh), slush (s-l-u-sh)

/l/ “That’s a long, loud sound. My tongue is up

touching the bumpy bit behind my teeth while I stretch out the sound”

leg (l-e-g-), lime (l-i-me), laugh (l-au-gh = /l/ /ah/ /f/)

hill (h-i-ll), snail (s-n-ai-l), plane (p-l-a-ne)

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Useful Information

• NT Speech Sounds Guide for Teachers: https://cdu.edu.au/sites/default/files/about/docs/speech-

sounds-guide.pdf

• Dr. Caroline Bowen’s website: https://www.speech-language-therapy.com/

– Delivering Feedback – Recasting & Modelling: https://www.speech-language-

therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:modelling&catid=11:ad

min&Itemid=118

– The Fixed-up One Routine: https://www.speech-language-

therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72:fuo&catid=11:admin&Ite

mid=117

• Other Speech Pathology related information (including stuttering):

https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/Resources_for_the_Public/Fact_Sheets/Fac

t_Sheets.aspx

Additional Resources (In your handouts)

Poster to help students who are hard to understand

Phonics and Communication Difficulties Speech and language difficulties can impact

students’ literacy. The Communicating Phonics guide

explores how to assess and support phonics with

different populations of students with

communication needs.

Note, ‘The Test’ refers to the Phonics Screening

Check (from the UK which South Australia use)

• Communicating Phonics guide:

• Phonics Screening Check: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-2018-materials

• Information about SA’s use of the check: https://www.education.sa.gov.au/teaching/curriculum-and-teaching/literacy-and-numeracy/phonics-screening-check

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This professional learning session was presented by

the NEMLDC Outreach Service

NEMLDC Principal Lisa Gannon

Outreach Coordinator

Deb Cavanagh

Tel (08) 9218 1600

A bit about what the NEMLDC Outreach Service does: The NEMLDC Outreach Service provides support to schools within the North East Metropolitan and Wheatbelt Education Districts in the areas of oral language and the foundations of literacy K-2 and

intervention support for primary school aged children with speech and language difficulties.

The NEMLDC Outreach Service offers a range of services to schools to support them in implementing best practice instruction in oral language and the foundations of literacy, within the Response to Intervention

Model focuses on K-2 students at educational risk due to speech and/or language difficulties. The NEMLDC Outreach Service is an opt-in service available to all government schools within our supported region. A

core component of the services we provide is the training of education staff to be Language Leaders within their school’s specific context. The Outreach Service prides itself in developing and disseminating evidence

based intervention programs to schools in a way that results in sustainable advances in the teaching of oral language and literacy foundations.

For more information, please call the NEMLDC Outreach team on 9218 1600 To view professional learning currently being offered please visit:

https://plis.det.wa.edu.au/homepage.aspx?org=20