ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

Literacy

Literacy for Life Unit An activity update Carolyn Burrows and Julie Marinac

T he Literacy for Life Unit was established in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, at The University of Queensland, to ensure that the early seminal work of speech pathology researchers in the school continues to support speech pathologists and educationalists who work with those who have phonological processing-based literacy learning failures. The unit is managed by speech pathologist and business manager Carolyn Burrows, and includes a team of academics and clinicians whose interests lie in the issue of reading and writing difficulties across the lifespan – especially those related to phonological awareness difficulties. When the unit was established, the team members identified three major areas of activity: research, service and education. The research team includes Dr Julie Marinac, whose interest is primarily literacy learning failure in adolescence, and, for his audiological expertise, Dr Wayne Wilson. Professor Bruce Murdoch, Head of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, maintains a mentoring and consultation role in relation to the research activities of the unit. In addition to the ongoing input from the team’s speech pathologists, the service and education aspects are delivered by other team members, including our learning support teacher, Kate Pitty, and an occupational therapist. Three former team members who must also be acknowledged are occupational therapist Heather Allison, and speech pathologists Tessa Barnett (now in Sydney) and Elizabeth Savina. Their authorship of the Phonological Awareness for Literacy (PAL) and Early Literacy Fundamentals (ELF) programs was of the highest quality. The work of the Literacy for Life Unit has led to the publication of the ELF program (originally published as the UQELF – Early Literacy Fundamentals; School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, 2003, 2004); the PAL (originally published as the UQPAL; School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, 2000, 2008), and the Phonological Awareness Training in High Schools (PATHS; Marinac, 2009). The UQELF and UQPAL lost the tag “UQ” when the unit licensed all three products to an international publisher. The programs were developed as support programs for learning support teachers to use in consultation with their school-based speech pathologists. In conjunction with the ELF and PATHS support programs, our team have produced the ELF – CA (classroom activities) and a classroom edition of PATHS. Further products are on the horizon – we are in negotiations with a major health group to develop and deliver adult

literacy programs, and we are almost ready to publish our preschool literacy support program. All of our programs are copyright to the University of Queensland, so the income derived from these programs is channelled directly into the work of the unit. The education activity of the unit has led to over 3000 speech pathologists, learning support teachers and other education professionals receiving training regarding phonological awareness and addressing literacy learning failure, through programs built on the principles of phonological awareness (PA) remediation. To date, we have undertaken training seminars throughout Queensland, in northern New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Thailand and Singapore. The training is not limited to a single profession, as our premise is that literacy learning failure needs to be addressed through an interdisciplinary approach. Hence our integration of the skills and knowledge inherent in speech pathology, occupational therapy and teaching professions – as is reflected in the composition of our Literacy for Life team. For those who are not convinced about training others to deal with PA-based difficulties, our experience is that this training leads to better recognition in the classroom of students who are at risk, and to better understanding of the implications of PA difficulties across the curriculum and into adulthood. In our programs and training we constantly emphasise the need for consultation with, and referral to, both speech pathologists and occupational therapists. We particularly draw attention to the difference between identifying children “at risk” and undertaking diagnostic decisions. We also stress that children whose literacy difficulties cannot be addressed at the school level need to be referred to a speech pathologist, and that ultimate diagnostic and treatment decisions must lie with the appropriate professional. Based on feedback that we receive from schools, we believe that the rate of appropriate referrals has improved overall. Several of the schools that have implemented our programs have won both state and federal awards for the improvements in the overall literacy achievements demonstrated by their students. Blackwater North State School, in Central Queensland, received a Highly Commended Award in the 2006 National Literacy and Numeracy Excellence in Australian Schools Awards. After implementing the ELF program, Blackwater North nearly halved the percentage of students identified as requiring extra intervention for reading in the year 2 “net” (from 51.9%

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ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009

ACQ uiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing