Early Identification and Intervention to Prevent Reading Difficulties

1. Early Identification and Intervention to PreventReading Difficulties Linda Siegel University of British Columbia Vancouver, CANADA linda.siegel@ubc.ca

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Prevention • Early identification • Early intervention • Evidence based reading programs

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Arabic Armenian Bulgarian Cantonese Croatian Czech Dutch Farsi Japanese Korean Kurdish Mandarin Norwegian Polish Punjabi Romanian LANGUAGES IN THE STUDY • German • Greek • Hindi • Hungarian • Indonesian • Italian • Finnish • Russian • Serbian • Slovak • Spanish • Swedish • Tagalog • Tamil • Turkish

12. Kindergarten L1 English ELL

13. Grade 2 L1 English ELL Dyslexic Dyslexic Good Readers Good Readers 4.2% Rdg Disability 3.72 % Rdg. Disability

14. Grade 7- Age 13 years L1 English ELL Dyslexic Dyslexic Good Readers Good Readers

15. 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

16. Screening • Effective • Brief – 15-20 minutes • Done by teachers, speech pathologists, psychologists • Provide useful information

17. Screening • Letter identification – orthographic and print exposure • Phonological processing • Syntax

18. Letter Identification c r m k b w o s y t a u d q x l g e z n j p h v i f

19. Phonological Awareness • Ability to break speech down into smaller units  words  syllables  phonemes

20. Syllable Identification

21. RHYME IDENTIFICATION

22. PHONEME IDENTIFICATION

23. ORAL CLOZE

24. Oral cloze • Jane ____her sister went up the hill. • Dad ____ Bobby a letter yesterday.

25. 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

26. Firm Foundations • Activities and games designed to develop • Phonological awareness • Letter sound relationships • Vocabulary • Syntactic skills

27. Firm Foundations • Rhyme Detection • Initial Sounds • Segmentation and Blending • Concepts of Print • Letter-Sound Correspondences

28. Circle Skills -Teaching the whole class • Centre Skills – Practicing in small groups • Assessment - Working with individual students

29. 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

30. Why Phonological Awareness? Direct instruction in phonological awareness is important for reading. • 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.

31. 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

32. Terminology • Phonological awareness training – teaching the sound structure of words • Auditory training • Phonics training – teaching the connection between sounds and letters • Training with print

33. Literacy Activities Listening to stories Acting out stories Singing songs Letter of the week Letter cookies

34. Closer Examination of Results at Grade 7

35. Word Identification

36. Word Attack

37. Word Reading Fluency

38. Stanford Reading Comprehension

39. Spelling

40. Oral Cloze

41. Morphological Task- Words

42. Morphology • Related to reading comprehension • Related to spelling • A very good predictor of reading comprehension and spelling

43. SES & Reading Correlation

44. SES & Spelling Correlation

45. 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.

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. Caveats • The development of language and literacy skills in ESL students requires good teaching • First language maintenance is important wherever possible

49. Internet Resources http://www.nvsd44.bc.ca • Click on Firm Foundations • Click on Reading 44 linda.siegel@ubc.ca