Page 7 - Literacy Based Speech Language Therapy Activities Digital Version

Literacy-Based Speech Language Therapy Activities

caseloads. We need to address multiple goals simultaneously while working with groups of children.
This is why we have become huge proponents of literacy-based intervention. It holds up against the

reality of our jobs and contributes to academic and communicative growth at the same time. All you
need to do is keep using storybooks while you hone in on six key areas to make your already great
intervention more impactful.

How is this book organized?

This book is organized into 6 sections that will give you the all the buy-in, background, activity ideas,

and materials you need to produce powerful literacy-based intervention.

1. The Research Behind Why Literacy-Based Intervention
Works

You are smart and probably have a lot of letters behind your name and years of experience to prove
it. You need facts and proof before you buy in to a new philosophy. We are researchers as well as

practitioners and know that there is a huge gap between what goes on in academic research and what
gets tested out in the schools and clinics. It is no one’s fault. It is hard to do research when you have
a caseload. And at the university, it is hard to find professionals and campuses to participate in a

study. While this is true, it is not an excuse. In the first section, we highlight some important
research to show why literacy-based intervention is a good use of our time.

2. Improving Story Narratives of Children from Diverse

Cultures
How do we decide if narrative difficulties are due to an impairment, second-language influence, or

cultural difference? This section highlights how culture and language shape the way children recount
events and tell stories. By understanding differences in narrative styles, we can more successfully
assess why a child is not producing or recalling stories as we would expect. Here is how it works:

 Five narrative elements are shared by most cultures (initiating event, attempt, consequence,
resolution, and setting)

 Seven narrative elements are typically different (internal response, discourse markers,
embedded stories, causal relations, causal chain, and protagonist identification)
 We would expect the first five to be present regardless of culture or language. If they are not

in a child’s story, we target them in intervention.
 We respect the cultural difference of the other seven and can teach (or share with teachers)

what would be expected in a Western classroom.

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