1 Early Identification and Intervention to Prevent Reading Difficulties Linda Siegel University of British Columbia Vancouver, CANADA

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

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

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 L1 EnglishELL Kindergarten

13 Dyslexic Good Readers Dyslexic Good Readers Grade 2 L1 EnglishELL 4.2% Rdg Disability3.72 % Rdg. Disability

14 Dyslexic Good Readers Dyslexic Good Readers Grade 7- Age 13 years L1 EnglishELL

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 – 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 bwo s y t a ud q x l g e zn 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 Jane ____her sister went up the hill. Dad ____ Bobby a letter yesterday. Oral cloze

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. 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.

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 –Click on Firm Foundations –Click on Reading 44