Enriching children's language learning to support literacy in areas of social disadvantage Marion Rutherford & Gill Earl Speech and Language Therapists SAACH conference March 2015

Key messages Oral language skills are the foundation of literacy skills There are strong links between social disadvantage and oral language skills Socially disadvantaged children start school with poorer oral language skills than social advantaged peers Without intervention the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged populations gets wider There are life long implications In Edinburgh some universal and targeted resources have been developed to address this gap

Oral language predicts literacy Oral language skills in preschool predict later reading success and literacy acquisition (Noel et al. 2008) Vocabulary at school entry predicts reading comprehension in 3 rd /4 th grade (Storch & Whitehurst, 2002) Preschool narrative skills predict reading comprehension skills in grade 7 (Tabors et al. 2001) Early oral language difficulties can undermine healthy outcomes in reading, academic achievement and social/relational achievement. (Justice et al. 2008)

Oral language and social disadvantage As a group, socially disadvantaged pre-school children demonstrate: poor pre-literacy skills (Peterson et al. 1994) below average phonological awareness skills (McIntosh et al. 2007) complex syntax skills 10 to 15 standard score points below average (Whitehurst, 1997 etc) slow rate of vocabulary learning (Rescorla & Alley, 2001)

Oral language and social disadvantage Hoff (2003) Properties of mothers’ child directed speech were positive predictors of child vocabulary SES was significantly associated with the child’s vocabulary ▫ Fewer words ▫ Fewer different words ▫ Shorter sentences Hart & Risley (1995) Children from welfare-recipient families heard an average of 616 words per hour in comparison with an average of 2153 words in professional families

Literacy and social disadvantage Chall and Jacobs (2003) Low SES children may struggle to make the transition from the early stages of literacy (alphabetic principle, decoding) to reading for meaning An example from Clackmannanshire literacy project… Synthetic phonics improved reading outcomes in P1 to P3. Socially disadvantaged children appeared to have caught up However, “by P7 socioeconomic disadvantage had begun to reassert itself” (A Vision for Scotland, 2009)

Life long implications UK studies identify links between poor language and: Juvenile offending (Bryan, Freer and Furlong 2007) Criminal involvement and risky behaviour (McAra and McVie 2007) Lower levels of education (Whitehouse et al. 2009) Lower independence and ‘skilled’ employment (Whitehouse et al. 2009) Problems with social relationships and affective disturbances (Whitehouse et al. 2009) Poor literacy, mental health problems and lower levels of employment (Law et al. 2009)

Language and Literacy Interventions Health promotion ▫ Bookstart ▫ Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library! Parent programmes ▫ PEEP ▫ Incredible Years ▫ Hanen Targeted language interventions ▫ Talking Time ▫ Up, Up and Away ▫ Word Boost ▫ Language Link Targeted literacy interventions ▫ Literacy Rich Edinburgh ▫ Fresh Start / Read and Write Inc. Features of interventions collaborative embedded in daily experience anticipatory structured progressive evaluated

Up, up and Away! Resources Identifying Need Planning to Meet the Need Enquiries to

Literacy risk and resilience There might be risk factors associated with factors outwith the child… ▫ The physical and social environment ▫ Daily and social routines ▫ Motivation within child and family ▫ Parental literacy levels And within child risk factors including: ▫ temperament ▫ confidence ▫ SHANARRI indicators ▫ Impoverished speech and language skills

Resources Information about stages of literacy development A tool to identify the child’s stage Risk and resilience tool Literacy rich environment tools for home and nursery Literacy strategies for each stage Parent postcards

Developing children’s vocabulary in Edinburgh through robust instruction

WORD BOOST Need for a targeted approach to vocabulary instruction in areas of social disadvantage ▫ evidence based ▫ relevant ▫ cumulative ▫ highly structured ▫ resourced ▫ embedded in classroom learning

The approach Robust vocabulary instruction (Beck et al 2001/2008) ‘Sophisticated’ words meeting certain criteria Specified number of words each week Specific instructional components ▫ child friendly definitions ▫ visuals ▫ multiple contexts ▫ interactive engaging instruction ▫ scheduled revision

Word Sources - Nursery to early primary nibble, pounce, linger, a stroll, ecstatic

Evaluations 2013 At nursery, P1 and P2 we demonstrated better understanding of vocabulary with intervention. Results suggest that this improvement would not have taken place in the absence of intervention. Not Primary 3

Evaluations 2013 At P1, P2 and P3 we demonstrated better ability to explain the words’ meanings with intervention. Results suggest that this improvement would not have taken place in the absence of intervention.

Summary There is a strong link between social disadvantage, poor oral language and later literacy skills A range of interventions exist to address the widening gap SLT contributes to a number of collaborative interventions to promote success in school

Any questions?

Marion Rutherford Gill Earl