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Month: December 2019

  • Leveraging Multisensory Approaches When Teaching Phonological Awareness Tasks

    Birsh (2018) defines phonemic awareness using The Partnership of Reading’s definition “as the ability to notice think about and work with the individual sounds in words (2003, p. 2). Phonemic awareness is an essential toward learning how to read as it helps children connect the spoken word to written language Birsh (2018). How does multisensory approaches facilitate phonemic awareness in children? Farrell & White (2018) suggest that “multisensory strategies guide students to in simultaneously linking input from eye, ear, voice, and hand to enhance learning during the carefully sequenced teaching of all systems of language” (p. 47). Phonological stimulation must begin as early as possible. Sensory stimulation through a multisensory approach of increased “auditory modeling and feedback, tactile stimulation of the articulators, visual feedback through clinician modeling, picture models of articulatory placement and the use of mirrors build cognitive connections to phonological awareness”  Pierettie, Kaul, Zarchy, & O’Hanion (2015) Adoption of multisensory approaches assists teachers in facilitating multiple avenues toward improved cognition and fully involve students to an improved learning experience.

    What does a multisensory approach to teach phonemic awareness look like in an early learning environment? Segmenting is a phonemic awareness task introduced later in the hierarchy of teaching phonemic awareness. Children learn segmenting of phonemes as they learn to identify and sort objects beginning with the same sound and later progress to focus on words with the same ending sound. An auditory task that teachers could incorporate besides saying a new vocabulary word through segmenting and blending might be to give directions using in a robot voice. Students could also make a bead slide, in which children use beads to move on a string to break the word into individual sounds as the teacher and children say the sound aloud. Teachers can use shoelaces and beads to complete this activity. This activity leverages both auditory and kinesthetic activities to assist with teaching segmentation. Games are a fun approach toward teaching the segmenting phonemic awareness task and can incorporate auditory, kinesthetic, and visual cues. For example, using “Elkonin boxes to tap a finger or place a chip in a designated box to match the number of syllables to a word” (Paulson, 2018). After a teacher models this activity, students can take turns saying and moving a chip or token. Over time the visual cue or box can eventually be eliminated from this activity.

    Strengthening cognition through multisensory approaches during early literacy will promote successful decoding when reading, which will allow for additional time and energy to be focused on reading comprehension (Pierettie, Kaul, Zarchy, & O’Hanion, 2015). Understanding how to leverage multisensory approaches to strengthen phonological awareness in early childhood programs can lead to an improved early intervention program. An emphasis on multisensory approaches within new teacher training could assist in building a stronger phonemic awareness early literacy program.

    Pieretti, R. A., Kaul, S. D., Zarchy, R. M., & O’Hanlon, L. M. (2015). Using a multimodal approach to facilitate articulation, phonemic awareness, and literacy in young children. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 36(3), 131-141.

    Birsh, J. R. & Carreker, S. Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (4th Ed). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

    Farrell, M., White, N. C. (2018). Structured literacy instruction. In Birsh, J. R. & Carreker, S. Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (4th Ed). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

    Paulson, L. H. (2018). Teaching phonemic awareness. In Birsh, J. R. & Carreker, S. Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (4th Ed). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

     

     

  • Screeners to Assess Literacy Skills in Primary Grades

    Hess and Marzola (2018) shed light on the importance and benefits of administering screeners in early childhood as screeners can “predict future reading performance” or used to assist the early literacy teacher in flexible grouping and instructional design (p. 269). Screeners afford the opportunity to improve instruction through improved and targeted invention approaches offered early on in a child’s educational experience. These benefits provide numerous added value to preschool children’s academic success (Farver, Nalcmoto and  Lonigan, 2007) , but assessing each literacy skill set should be conducted in a “manner appropriate to the grade level of the child and evaluated for bias to ensure results do not stem from cultural and linguistic differences” (p. 269).

    What are the common focus skill sets for primary screeners? Hess and Mazola (2018) suggest focus skills should center on phonics, phonemic awareness, and listening processing skills  in kindergarten. Screeners measuring fluency and reading comprehension are not appropriate for this grade level. As a child moves into first grade, phonemic awareness and decoding skills monitoring should continue, with a focus placed on oral reading fluency and vocabulary as the child progresses. Reading comprehension can be measured toward the end of 1st grade. As a child moves into 2nd and 3rd grade, instructors should continue to closely monitor phonemic decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and reading compression (Hess and .Mazola, 2018). ELL children are at substantial risk of early academic reading problems and currently there is limited data on early identification and intervention for these children and a need for further research exploring primary ELL screeners, early language and literacy intervention approaches for ELL populations (Farver, Nakamoto, and Lonigan, 2007).

    Screening provides an early opportunity to meet the literacy needs of primary students. Through improved and early screening, targeted instruction can assist in making great academic gains early on, reducing the many negative consequences of delaying intervention. Improving training on the use of screeners along with an improved understanding on how to evaluate the quality of screening approaches can benefit schools and early childhood programs.

    Hess, L. & Marzola, E. (2018). Assessment of Reading Skills.  In Birsh, J. R. & Carreker, S. Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (4th Ed). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

    Farver, J. M., Nakamoto, J., & Lonigan, C. J. (2007). Assessing preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills in English and Spanish with the Get Ready to Read! screening tool. Annals of Dyslexia, 57(2), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-007-0007-9