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24 Speak Out April 2017
Do you work with pre-schoolers and school aged children? Then
you are an essential member of their team, including parent and
educators, who can support children to learn and work with those
children who are experiencing literacy and learning difficulties.
For speech pathologists wishing to advocate for, and establish
their place in the literacy learning domain in a setting that doesn’t
currently have a speech pathology program there are two
imperatives.
1. Start from a place of knowledge – learn the facts
• Oral language competency is essential for literacy learning.
• The Simple View of Reading and the Reading Rope are the
two theoretical models underpinning current thinking about
the linguistic basis of learning to reading.
• Reading is a skill that must be learned.
• There are five components (phonemic awareness, phonics,
fluency, vocabulary, language comprehension) that are
essential for effective and evidence based reading instruction
• Children must make a transition from “learning to read” to
“reading to learn”.
• A whole school collaborative approach achieves the best
outcomes in an educational setting.
• Speech pathologists are an essential part of the literacy
team.
• As part of the literacy team speech pathologists can assist
with the identification of students at risk of experiencing
literacy learning difficulties or experiencing reading difficulties
(including dyslexia); work with the team to adjustments or
learning modifications and so on.
All of this information, and more, is detailed in Speech Pathology
Australia’s Clinical Guidelines for Speech Pathologists Working
In Literacy (2016) and will be explored in even greater detail in Dr
Tanya Serry’s 2017 SPA National Tour: Speech Pathology in the
literacy domain: From prevention to intervention.
2. Build alliances
Advocating in this space can be challenging. It is very unfortunate
that this area is plagued by what has been termed “literacy
wars” and myths and misinformation abound. Educators and
speech pathologists alike often decree that the other side doesn’t
understand what they do.
While a whole school collaborative approach, where a speech
pathologist is fully integrated into the learning team, is best
practice, realistically we know this cannot be achieved overnight.
Speech pathologists who are currently working in some capacity
as part of the learning team (either as a paid member of staff or
contractor) tell us they started small. They were fortunate enough
to have an ally in the school. This most often was the principal
or a senior teacher who was trusted by the principal. They then
worked with the staff to determine what the students’ needs were
and presented information about how they could work with the
teaching staff to support improved outcomes. Overtime mutual
respect and trust developed.
Speech pathologists who are interested in advocacy in this
area will find the strategies listed on pages 35/36 of the Literacy
Clinical Guideline useful. One other strategy will be to partner with,
or seek support from others. There are many speech pathologists,
educators and parents who all feel passionate about this area
and are willing to support each other. A starting point can be
Learning Difficulties Australia who bring together teachers and
other professionals dedicated to assisting students with learning
difficulties. To find out more about what SPA is doing in this space
go to
To wrap it all up here is one final word from Dr Seuss, “So be sure
when you STEP, Step with CARE and great TACT. And remember
that LIFE’s, A great BALANCING ACT!”
Christine Lyons
Senior Advisor Professional Practice
To keep up to date and share information
with your colleagues join SPA’s Speech
Pathologists in Education and Learning
Member Community.
Speech pathologists in education
and learning
Are you helping the children you work with to “go places”?
“The more that you
read, the more things
you will know. The
more that you learn,
the more places you’ll
go.” - Dr. Seuss
Professional Practice