ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

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114 ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009 ACQuiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing
Literacy
vowel phoneme. For example, the /ei/ page contains lists of
words containing the spelling choices a, a-e, ai, ay, eigh and
the opportunity to list any other spelling choices. Email:
; phone/fax: 03 9591 0637
3 Sound Check 1 and 2
Maureen Pollard has produced these two great workbooks
that reinforce sound–letter correspondence, segmentation
and blending skills. It also encourages students to
discriminate between different spelling options for the
phonemes they hear when they encode a word. Book 1
targets words containing the five short vowel sounds
(graphs) as well as consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, etc.) and
words containing consonant blends. Book 2 addresses the
different spelling choices for vowel phonemes such as the
digraphs ai/ay, ow/oa and ee/ea , etc. Both Sound Check
books can be purchased from Link Educational Supplies.
4 The Complete Phonics Handbook
by Diane Hope. (2001). Greenwood, WA: RIC Publications.
ISBN: 1863116427; 9781863116428.
This is a must-have book for the clinician or teacher. When
targeting phoneme–grapheme correspondence it helps to
have a list handy of words that contain the different spelling
choices for each phoneme. The words are colour coded for
grade level complexity and contain a wide range of possible
spelling choices so that you can help your students develop
their word knowledge and phoneme–grapheme
correspondences in the one activity.
5 Smart Kids resources
Smart Kids Australia has a wonderful catalogue of literacy
and numeracy resources. They are produced locally and
are very affordable. They produce a good variety of reading,
spelling and language activities for children of a range of
ages. I can’t recommend their catalogue highly enough.
Contact them by phone 02 9415 4080 for a copy of their
latest catalogue or visit the website:
6 Coloured blocks/tokens and a blank
card of boxes
Before applying letters to segmentation and blending tasks, I
always spend time targeting these skills at an auditory level. I
use coloured blocks or coloured tokens to represent sounds
and use a piece of cardboard divided into boxes (see below)
to help children segment phonemes into each box. This
helps them to see a visual representation of the sound they
can hear without having to think about how that sound is
represented or how to write it.
My top 10 resources
Paediatric literacy
Melinda Schambre
Having worked as a paediatric speech
pathologist for 12 years, I have established a strong interest
in working with children with specific learning difficulties.
After graduating from La Trobe University in 1996, I spent
several years in country Victoria working for the Department
of Education. From there I moved back to Melbourne and
developed my skills working as a consultant for students
with specific language impairment and then for the Learning
Difficulties Centre, Royal Children’s Hospital. I have operated
a private practice for the last 8 years where I specialise in
supporting students with specific learning difficulties. My
passion for working in the area of literacy led me back to La
Trobe to complete a Masters of Research part-time where I
am currently completing an exploratory study looking at the
development of language and emergent literacy skills in
4-year-old children. I am strongly committed to maintaining a
large and varied resource cupboard that allows me to
continually entertain, motivate and stimulate my clients to
develop their literacy skills to their full potential.
1 THRASS picture chart
THRASS stands for Teaching Handwriting Reading and
Spelling Skills. It is a multisensory program designed to be
used as a classroom or individual program. The picture chart
is the centerpiece of the program and is a visual
representation of the 44 phonemes in English and contains
the most common spelling choices for each phoneme. The
THRASS chart supports the recommendations of the
National Inquiry into Teaching Literacy by promoting an
explicit teaching approach involving direct, systematic
instruction. THRASS is a resource to support the teaching of
phonics (sound–letter correspondence) and phonological
awareness. See for more information
and to purchase THRASS resources.
2 Soundasaurus
The Soundasaurus book by Vivienne Gyopar (Where4Kids)
works well with the THRASS chart as it provides a page for
each of the 44 phonemes in English where words can be
listed that contain every spelling choice for a consonant or