ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

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122 ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009 ACQuiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing
Unfortunately, this resource lacks a theoretical foundation
and does not conform to best practice. It has been well
established that intervention for children at risk of literacy
difficulties should aim to enhance children’s phonological
awareness. Moreover, intervention should be integrated with
letter–sound knowledge training and incorporate activities to
transfer phonological awareness to decoding and encoding
written words (see Gillon & McNeill, this issue, for a detailed
discussion). In contrast, there is no evidence to suggest that
improving children’s rhyme awareness will be effective in
stimulating children’s reading development.
Another weakness of the resource is the black-and-white
line drawings which are not very attractive. In summary,
in my opinion this book would not provide a valuable
contribution to a speech pathologist’s resource collection.
Dickens, F., & Lewis, K.
(2007). The story maker.
Brackley, UK: Speech­
mark Publishing. ISBN-
13: 978 0 86388 602 7
(spiral bound); pp. 224;
UK£ 34.99;
Julie Marinac
The Story Maker is, as it
claims, a practical,
photocopiable resource for
those working with children aged 4 to 11 years. It provides
information on 12 essential scaffolds to aid the development
of stories (e.g., story types, characters, settings, time, etc.) in
a child-friendly and colourful manner. The overall content and
presentation should engage children who are reluctant
story-tellers and enable greater understanding and use of
language – both written and spoken. It should also be
valuable to those who are learning English as a second
language, especially those who are simultaneously expected
to undertake English-language schooling.
The authors provide a wide range of examples,
explanations and tips followed by interactive practice that
can be undertaken with support or independently. Each
activity includes a diversity of vocabulary (e.g., under smell –
acrid, pungent and rotten) introduced in familiar and simple
constructions with age appropriate illustrations. In addition,
the use of repetitive carrier phrases allows the child to focus
on newly introduced vocabulary (e.g., The witch stirred the
contents of the cauldron. It smelt putrid. It smelt rotten. It
smelt foul. It stank! I wasn’t going to drink that!, p. 85).
Although I would like to be able to recommend this
resource without reservations, I cannot do so due to
a surprising number of punctuation, grammatical and
formatting errors (e.g., missing punctuation, sentences
beginning with or, and inconsistencies in word order).
In a resource designed to support children in narrative
production, and one in which they are encouraged to
Resource reviews
Speech pathology resources
Bodle, K. (2007). Developing early literacy
skills: Practical ideas and activities.
Brackley, UK: Speechmark Publishing.
ISBN 978 086388 538 9 (spiral bound); pp.
158; UK£35.99;
Marleen Westerveld
This A4-sized book is aimed at parents, early
childhood educators and other professionals
involved with pre-school and older children
with literacy difficulties. It claims to provide a
range of activities and photocopiable resources
to promote the development of early literacy
skills. The book is divided into six sections:
basic skills, rhyming, learning the alphabet,
phonological awareness, reading, and writing
and handwriting. Readers are advised that “sections 2 to 6
cover the chronological development of skills which an
‘average’ pre-school child will acquire before and during his
first year in school” (p. viii), but that activities from different
sections may be used concurrently.
Section 1 (16 pages) focuses on basic skills that are,
according to the author, needed before work on the skills
covered in later sections of the book can commence. This
rather short section doesn’t do justice to the topics covered,
which include “using spoken language” and “shared reading”.
Other topics include sequencing, auditory awareness and
auditory and visual memory for which examples of activities to
promote these skills are provided.
Section 2 devotes 26 pages to rhyming, including
activities, nursery rhymes, rhyming word lists, black and
white picture cards and a list of recommended books that
have a strong rhyme and rhythm. Section 3 focuses on
learning the alphabet. A brief explanation at the start of this
section states that although it is important that children
eventually learn to link letters to sounds, initially the alphabet
should be taught separately as a rote learning process and
that letters (not sounds) should be used for alphabet work to
avoid confusion.
Section 4 looks at phonological awareness (16 pages) and
contains a brief description of the terminology involved,
including syllables, onset/rime, and long and short vowels.
The teacher guidelines warn the reader not to combine
working on phonological awareness and reading/writing
skills before the child is ready. This section includes
examples of activities in the areas of syllable identification and
sound identification as well as some black-and-white picture
cards. Section 5 focuses on reading and provides a very
brief overview of different methods of reading tuition, including
whole word, phonics, whole sentence, and alphabetic
methods. The section lists some activities related to basic
book concepts, sharing books, and book making. It also
includes a reading pack – 26 black-and-white picture cards
that contain the 26 letters of the alphabet. The final section
looks at writing and handwriting and provides some sheets
to practice tracing and patterns and concludes with a list of
resources and suppliers.