There’s a lot of research out there that talks about how bilingual students lag behind their monolingual peers in literacy acquisition. And it makes sense, right? These students are learning one language at home. Then, they start school and are introduced to another language that they will also have to read in. They may not have the foundation yet to apply their English knowledge in these early literacy tasks.

To get a better sense of how we can simultaneously advance a student’s communication and contribute to their success in the classroom, we teamed up with Kari Kurto, National Science of Reading Project Director at The Reading League to best understand how our services can have a dramatic effect on literacy. Check out these three highlight videos and then click below to join us for the full story.

How Can We Collaborate with Teachers to Support Bilingual Students Who Are Struggling with Literacy Skills?

What Role do Speech Pathologists Play in Supporting Literacy Development?

Why Do Bilingual and Multilingual Students Lag Behind Monolingual Peers in Early Literacy Measures?

Want to hear the full story and earn CEUs?

Check out this course: Leveraging Linguistic Assets of Bilinguals to Bolster Literacy Skills

You don’t have to look hard to find research indicating that bilingual students lag behind their monolingual peers in literacy acquisition. This could be a result of poor instructional models, poor measurement of skills in bilinguals, or a combination of both. Research that focuses on cross-linguistic patterns highlights ways we can bolster English literacy skills in bilingual students by leveraging the assets of their native language. This is especially critical for our bilingual students with speech and language disorders.

Join Kari Kurto, M.A., National Science of Reading Project Director at The Reading League, and Dr. Ellen Kester as they discuss how to leverage shared syntactic features across languages can facilitate language and literacy development in both languages.