Services: Literacy

Literacy is a person's ability to read and write. Literacy is a complex constellation of many skills and is crucial to academic success. Literacy difficulties are extremely common, with 1 in 5 children diagnosed with dyslexia (a neurologically-based reading disorder) and many more who struggle without such a label. 

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Few people are aware that speech-language pathologists are able to assess and treat literacy difficulties. I have spent extensive time researching, training and providing intervention in literacy and am thrilled to bring my experience to Norfolk County. 

What you can expect:

• An assessment involves a deep look at the many skills needed to be a competent reader and writer. This includes:

  • Phonics

  • Phonological awareness

  • Vocabulary

  • Language skills for following directions

  • Reading and listening comprehension

  • Reading fluency (the ease and automaticity when reading)

  • Writing skills

  • Working memory (ability to hold and manipulate new information)

• The assessment allows to us to determine:

  • Whether your child presents with a language/literacy disorder

  •  Areas of difficulty to focus our intervention on

• An individualized plan for structured literacy intervention is then created in order to focus on the main areas of need for your child to improve their reading and writing skills. I use many materials from an Orton-Gillingham-based program called SMARTER Intevention by the Ascend Learning Center.​​

• Intervention is completed on a once-a-week basis with home practice between sessions to encourage progress and generalization of skills learned in session.

• Communication regarding areas targeted in intervention with other team members such as teachers and school-board speech-language pathologists, if you so wish.

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A few important things to consider:​

• Studies have shown that children with dyslexia (psychologist's diagnosis) can be identified by 5 1/2 years of age with 92% accuracy (find more information here).

  • Therefore, there is no reason for a child to struggle all through kindergarten and grade 1

• Check out this list of things to watch for if you think your child may be struggling​

• Intervention should be individualized to your child's specifics areas of difficulties

• Early intervention not only leads to stronger readers & writers, but helps protect children from socio-emotional difficulties and heightened academic issues

Do you have questions or concerns about your child's literacy skills? This is an area that I am more than happy to schedule a more in-depth phone chat or answer questions via email! Find my contact information here.