Reading and Apraxia Therapy

Here is an important statistic!

Sixty-five percent of the children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech (SCAS), have poor reading skills compared to twenty four percent for children with other speech sound disorders and no SCAS. (Miller & Lewis, 2019)

Reading difficulties appear to be a combination of poor language skills and poor phonological skills. 

What skills should we work on to prepare children with CAS for reading?

Work on phonological awareness which is the ability to manipulate the spoken parts of words, including syllables and phonemes.  

Phonological awareness is an awareness that the words that we speak can be taken apart. It is about hearing the sounds in the word. (Margie Gillis, readingrockets.org)

Several studies by McNeil, et al reported significant improvement in speech production targets and carryover to novel phoneme awareness tasks.  This is an added benefit to working on phonological awareness skills.

Click here to check out this "done for you" phonological awareness resource from @playingspeech.   This is a growing bundle so it's a good time to purchase and receive the rest of the sounds for free.

Here are a couple of the factors that I consider when engaging the child in phonological awareness activities.  Does the child know the letters of the alphabet? What is the cognitive level of the child? What is the child's interest in learning these skills?

Even if the child does not have letter recognition or sound to letter recognition, I still write out the words on a marker board and speak about the sounds that the letters produce.

How do I incorporate phonological awareness skills into my apraxia therapy sessions?

Some children love the alphabet.  It may even be a special interest of theirs.  That makes it super easy to incorporate those skills. 

In a recent therapy session I was working on the word "same".  The child loves when I draw letters on a marker board.  I drew two of each letter and elicited the target word "same".  Then we discussed the sound of the letter and three words that started with that letter.  It was an easy way to incorporate phonological awareness skills while engaging in practice of his target word.

In another session I worked on rhyming words.  This child is working on the diphthong /ou/ in variable practice.  We are working on three words in the same activity; down, found and out.  These words rhyme, which happens often, as in apraxia therapy, we often choose words based on the vowel distortions.  This provides a great opportunity to talk about rhyming and other words that rhyme with the target words.

Shelly Velleman (2015), suggests working on rhyming tasks that don't require a verbal response.  For example, point to a word that rhymes with cat or asking the child if cat and hat rhyme. This is a great activity for children who are less verbal.

Work on word families (see resource below). This includes Identifying beginning, final, and then middle sounds in words. And, adding, subtracting, and substituting sounds to make new words. A fun way to work on this skill is to draw letters on magna tiles using dry erase markers.  This makes it easy to manipulate the letters to make various words.

Here are some free resources to help you learn more about phonological awareness skills:

>> Click here to receive a handout with activities to work on phonological awareness skills in apraxia therapy.

>> Reading Rockets: The website has a mini-course on teaching phonological and phoneme awareness. You can receive a certificate of completion.

>> Word Families Word Wheels

>> Allaboutlearningpress.com: This blog has downloads and ideas for fun ways to work on phonological skills.

And last but not least, if you are an SLP, I have a great reading course to tell you about!

Elizabeth @thereadingslp, created a terrific course to teach SLP's how to become reading SLP's. I have taken the course and was amazed at the information that I was able to learn in just 3 hours.  As an SLP specializing in speech sound disorders, I have always wanted to learn more evidence based techniques to work on reading skills in my session.  Elizabeth organized the course well and it is easy to watch. If you are interested in adding reading to your sessions or becoming a reading SLP, TAKE THIS COURSE!

Here is what you will receive with the course:

-lifetime access to all lessons and materials

-on demand, self-paced lessons (you choose when to start, stop, and resume)

-20 video mini lessons totaling 3 hours of learning

-Roadmap to Reading Scope & Sequence

-Reading SLP Assessment

-IEP Goal Bank

-Digital & Printable Lesson Plan Template

-Dictation Paper (5 versions!)

-Digital & Printable Sound Symbol Cards

-Phonemic Awareness Activities

-No prep Decoding and Spelling Lessons

-Certificate of Completion worth 3 Professional Development Hours (PDH)

Here is my affiliate link to sign up for the course.  Use the coupon code BONDAR10 for 10% off at checkout.

Click here  to see an instagram LIVE that I did together with Elizabeth where we discussed reading and CAS.  

 Click here to follow me on instagram for lots of evidenced based treatment information for childhood apraxia of speech.