Dyslexia, Phonological and Phonemic Awareness, and Decoding

Question 1

the SLP’s role in dyslexia diagnosis

Answer 1

SLP’s knowledge of normal and disordered language acquisition, and their clinical experience in developing individualized programs for children and adolescents, prepare them to assume a variety or roles related to the development of reading and writing

Question 2

appropriate roles and responsibilities for SLPs include but are not limited to

Answer 2

• preventing written language problems by fostering language acquisition and mergent literacy
• identifying children at risk for reading and writing problems
• assessing reading and writing
• providing intervention and documenting outcomes for reading and writing
• assuming other roles, such as providing assistance to general education teachers, parents, and students
• advocating for effective literacy practices
• advancing the knowledge base

Question 3

speech and reading development

Answer 3

1. early speech delays
2. delays in phonological development
3. delays in phonological and phonemic awareness
4. difficulty linking sounds to letters

Question 4

things to know about dyslexia

Answer 4

• lifelong, neurobiological, language-based learning disability
• genetic, inheritable
• requires expert, intensive evidence-based treatment
• one of the diagnoses that could qualify school-age child as having a specific learning disability

Question 5

DSM-V dyslexia

Answer 5

alternative term used to refer to a pattern of learning difficulties characterized by problems with accurate or fluent word cognition, poor decoding, and poor spelling abilities

Question 6

most recent research in reading

Answer 6

• one specific, “core” area of deficit (phonological processing), doesn’t effectively account for reading difficulties
• measures of phonological processing over- or under-identify dyslexia in > 30% of kids
• subgroup of dyslexia: solid decoding and word reading, but weak ORF
• distinct subtypes are likely, but more research is needed

Question 7

dyslexia, what it is

Answer 7

• under- and over-activation
• use less efficient pathways than skilled readers
• affects how speech sounds are stored in the brain + how those sounds are retrieved
• impacts ability to identify and manipulate phonemes
• accuracy and speech of l/s correspondence, word, and sentence reading
• working memory

Question 8

dyslexia, what it isn’t

Answer 8

• a problem with vision: letter reversals, reading letters backwards
• related to IQ
• related to motivation
• related to instruction

Question 9

the big 5 of dyslexia

Answer 9

1. phonemic awarness
2. phonics
3. fluency
4. vocabulary
5. comprehension

Question 10

phonological awareness (PA)

Answer 10

• word awareness
• onset-rime awareness
• syllable awareness
• phoneme awareness
• sound structure of spoken words
• identify, manipulate linguistic units: big to small, initial, final, medial

Question 11

phonological awareness development

Answer 11

• units of spoken language
• word -> syllable -> onset/rime -> phoneme
• from less working memory to more working memory (categorize, blend, isolate, segment, delete/add/substitute, reverse)

Question 12

decoding

Answer 12

• once children become aware of the segmental nature of spoken language, they can link those sounds to letters (70%-80% of children are able to map sounds onto letters without much difficulty)
• the relationship between the letters of the language (graphemes) and the sounds

Question 13

encoding vs. decoding

Answer 13

• encoding: speech -> print
• decoding: print -> speech

Question 14

decoding development: consonants

Answer 14

• letter name knowledge
• single consonants
• consonant blends
• consonant digraphs and trigraphs
• silent letter patterns
• orthographic patterns

Question 15

decoding development: vowels

Answer 15

1. single letters for vowels
2. long vowel sounds
3. vowel combinations that represent a single sound
4. diphthongs
5. r-controlled vowels

Question 16

decoding: each letter and corresponding sound is store in the brain

Answer 16

this storehouse continues to accumulate as the child continues develop decoding skills
- first, stores images of individuals letters and sounds
- then, stores larger and larger chunks
- finally, stores whole words

Question 17

decoding -> fluency

Answer 17

• accuracy = knowledge of letter/sound correspondences and common orthographic patterns
• efficiency = words recognized automatically when reading connected text

Question 18

automaticity: verbal efficiency hypothesis

Answer 18

• we have limited cognitive resources available to allocate to processing that’s involved in reading
• processes involved in reading words and understanding text complete for the same amount of processing capacity
• decoding skills must be automatic for the reader to be able to devote attention to meaning and comprehension
• relates to fluency: decreased rate -> decreased decoding skills = decreased comprehension

Question 19

decoding: by the end of K

Answer 19

• names all letters of the alphabet
• knows sounds of almost all letters
• masters alphabetic principle
• begins to decode simple words
• writes many upper and lowercase letters independently
• writes familiar names independently
• recognizes growing number of common words by sight

Question 20

decoding: first grade

Answer 20

• can accurately read aloud and understand grade-level text
• begins to use word attack skills to sound out unknown, 1-syllable words
• accurately decodes and encodes one syllable words

Question 21

decoding: second grade

Answer 21

• consistently sounds out unknown words and begins to read multisyllabic words
• begins to learn strategies to break apart multisyllabic words
• begins to read fluently
• reads and comprehends grade level fiction and non-fiction
• consistently represents all sounds in a word when spelling

Question 22

decoding: third grade

Answer 22

• uses knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and roots to infer meaning of words
• reads longer books
• spelling continues to increase in consistency and accuracy

Question 23

decoding: fourth grade

Answer 23

• begins to read to learn
• reads for pleasure and information