ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

Literacy

My top 10 resources Paediatric literacy Melinda Schambre

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: enquiries@where4kids.com.au; 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: www.smartkids.com.au 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.

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 www.thrass.com.au 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

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ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009

ACQ uiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing