ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

Resource reviews

Speech pathology resources

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.

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; www.speechmark.net 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.

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; www.speechmark.net

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

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ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009

ACQ uiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing