1 Early Identification and Intervention to Prevent Reading Difficulties Linda Siegel University of British Columbia Vancouver, CANADA [email protected].

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Early Identification and Intervention to Prevent

Reading Difficulties

Linda SiegelUniversity of British Columbia

Vancouver, CANADA

[email protected]

Identifying Learning Disabilities Is Important

• 82 % of the street youth in Toronto had undetected and unremediated learning disabilities

• All the adolescent suicides in a 3 year period in Ontario had undetected and unremediated learning disabilities

• 75-95% of the people in prisons have unidentified and unremediated learning disabilities

Learning Disabilities and Mental Health

• Children with learning disabilities are at risk for mental health problems

• Anxiety, depression, oppositional/defiant and conduct disorder may be a result of learning disabilities

• It is important to identify and treat learning disabilities

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Prison Costs - Canada

• $215,000 per year for each year for each youth in custody

• $70,000 per year – the cost of a special education teacher- 3 special education teachers for $210,000

• Where should we spend the money?– Prisons or– Special Education teachers

Prevention

• Early identification

• Early intervention

• Evidence based reading programs

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Response to Intervention Model (RTI)

• 3 tier model• Emphasis on intervention, not

diagnosis• Interventions tailored to the

level of the child• Frequent monitoring of skills

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3 tier model

• Tier 1 - Good classroom instruction

• Tier 2 - Pullout (Withdrawal) Programs for children who are not making progress

• Tier 3 - Intensive intervention – possibly part-time in a small classroom designed specifically for children with SPLD

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Aims of the Study• Identify children at risk for reading

difficulties– English first language– English as a second language (ESL)

• Provide an appropriate intervention• Assess the effectiveness of the

intervention

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Longitudinal Study• Screening at age 5 when

children enter school• Tested every year on

reading, spelling, arithmetic, language and memory skills

• Results at grade 7 – age 13

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Longitudinal Sample

• All the children in the North Vancouver School District

• 30 schools

• 1000 children enter school each year

• Varying SES levels

• 20% English Language Learners (ELL)– Speak no English when the enter school

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• Arabic• Armenian• Bulgarian• Cantonese• Croatian• Czech• Dutch• Farsi

• Japanese• Korean• Kurdish• Mandarin• Norwegian• Polish• Punjabi• Romanian

LANGUAGES IN THE STUDY

GermanGreekHindiHungarianIndonesianItalianFinnish

RussianSerbianSlovakSpanishSwedishTagalogTamilTurkish

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normales

L1 English ELL

Kindergarten

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Dyslexic

Good Readers

Dyslexic

Good Readers

Grade 2

L1 English ELL

4.2% Rdg Disability 3.72 % Rdg. Disability

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Dyslexic

Good Readers

Dyslexic

Good Readers

Grade 7- Age 13 years

L1 English ELL

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Results

• The children in the study improved very significantly after good reading instruction.

• The percentage of dyslexics decreased to a small number from those at risk for a disability.

• The children who were ELL had reading and spelling skills equal to native English speakers

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Screening

• Effective

• Brief – 15-20 minutes

• Done by teachers, speech pathologists, psychologists

• Provide useful information

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Screening

•Letter identification – orthographic and print exposure

•Phonological processing

•Syntax

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Letter Identification

c r m k b w os y t a u d qx l g e z n jp h v i f

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Phonological Awareness

• Ability to break speech down into smaller units

words syllables phonemes

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Syllable Identification

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RHYME IDENTIFICATION

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PHONEME IDENTIFICATION

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ORAL CLOZE

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• Jane ____her sister went up the hill.

• Dad ____ Bobby a letter yesterday.

Oral cloze

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Intervention Programs

Mostly in the classroom – these are good classroom teaching with following programs.

• Firm Foundations- teaches pre-reading and early phonics skills

• Reading 44 – teaches reading comprehension skills

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Firm Foundations

• Activities and games designed to develop

–Phonological awareness

–Letter sound relationships

–Vocabulary

–Syntactic skills

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Firm Foundations

• Rhyme Detection• Initial Sounds • Segmentation and Blending• Concepts of Print• Letter-Sound Correspondences

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• Circle Skills -Teaching the whole class

• Centre Skills – Practicing in small groups

• Assessment - Working with individual

students

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Phonological Awareness Training

• Phonological awareness training aims to give children conscious access to the sounds within words.

• Sounds of words are introduced and reinforced utilizing a variety of strategies such as rhyming, clapping, games, etc.

• Children will develop better listening skills and to hear distinctly the sounds within spoken words

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Why Phonological Awareness?

Direct instruction in phonological awareness is important for reading.

A. Lack of phonological awareness is a barrier to learning to read.

B. Instruction in phonological awareness is especially important for children with reading difficulties and children learning English as a second language, but beneficial for ALL children.

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Terminology

• Phonological Awareness – the ability to break down speech into smaller segments

• Phoneme – the smallest unit of sound

• Phonics – a method of teaching reading that emphasizes the association of sounds with letters

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Terminology

• Phonological awareness training – teaching the sound structure of words– Auditory training

• Phonics training – teaching the connection between sounds and letters– Training with print

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Literacy ActivitiesListening to stories

Acting out stories

Singing songs

Letter of the week

Letter cookies

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Closer Examination of Results at Grade 7

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Word Identification

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Normal L1Normal ELLDyslexic L1Dyslexic ELL

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Word Attack

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Normal L1Normal ELLDyslexic L1Dyslexic ELL

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Word Reading Fluency

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Normal L1Normal ELLDyslexic L1Dyslexic ELL

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Stanford Reading Comprehension

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Normal L1Normal ELLDyslexic L1Dyslexic ELL

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Spelling

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Normal L1Normal ELLDyslexic L1Dyslexic ELL

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Oral Cloze

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Normal L1Normal ELLDyslexic L1Dyslexic ELL

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Morphological Task- Words

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Normal L1Normal ELLDyslexic L1Dyslexic ELL

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Morphology

• Related to reading comprehension

• Related to spelling

• A very good predictor of reading comprehension and spelling

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SES & Reading

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

K-97 K-98 Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3

Correlation

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SES & Spelling

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

K-97 K-98 Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3

Correlation

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Schooling Effects

• Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have less developed skills when they enter school.

• Good teaching can greatly reduce the differences between children of different economic backgrounds.

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Conclusions

• It is possible to identify children at risk for reading disabilities in kindergarten.

• It is possible to provide a classroom based intervention to bring most of these children to at least average levels of reading.

• Children learning English as a second language can perform at L1 levels and bilingualism may be an advantage on some tasks.

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Conclusions

• It is possible to identify children at risk for reading disabilities in kindergarten.

• It is possible to provide a classroom based intervention to bring most of these children to at least average levels of reading.

• Children learning English as a second language can perform at L1 levels and bilingualism may be an advantage.

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Caveats

• The development of language and literacy skills in ESL students requires good teaching

• First language maintenance is important wherever possible

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Internet Resourceshttp://www.nvsd44.bc.ca

–Click on Firm Foundations–Click on Reading 44

[email protected]