Many moons ago, phonics was used to teach spelling and reading decoding skills in schools. Not comprehension – that is a different skill. Decoding is sound-letter (phoneme-grapheme, to be more accurate) knowledge. It precedes comprehension.

Then it went out of fashion. Dropped like a lead balloon. Boring, apparently. Not exciting enough. Goodness. Don’t get me started on that one.

The ‘whole language approach’ became the new black.

Australian literacy standards fell. Below those of even Kazakhstan, apparently.

Now, like a pair of culottes that seem to be all the rage this winter fashion season (I’m not fond of them, myself…just saying…), phonics is back with a vengeance!

Yay! Or, more accurately….Phew!

Our speech pathology and psychology clinic is located in Braddon, ACT, in Canberra’s CBD. Call us on 5117 4890 or email reception@inpositivehealth.com to get in touch.

In Positive Health, Canberra. Nel MacBean Speech Pathologist Canberra. Campbell MacBean Psychologist Canberra.

“Speech Sound Disorder typically presents in early childhood, and involves difficulty hearing, understanding and producing sounds in speech.” The Age, 2017.

Children who have speech sound disorder are often difficult to understand when they talk, and, as a result, often become frustrated because they are not understood by parents and family.

Research has shown that parents are more accurate than preschool teachers in identifying their child’s speech difficulties.

And the take-home message? Don’t delay in seeking treatment.

“… if [a] child’s speech disorder goes under the radar in preschool and the early years of primary, it could change [the] child’s life forever. A neglected disorder could put the child at risk of falling behind academically, and developing long-term speech and language problems.”

Our speech pathology and psychology clinic is located in Braddon, ACT, in Canberra’s CBD. Call us on 5117 4890 or email reception@inpositivehealth.com to get in touch.

In Positive Health, Canberra. Nel MacBean Speech Pathologist Canberra. Campbell MacBean Psychologist Canberra.

And I thought I was the only one!

Do you prefer to read books on a screen, or in the old-fashioned way?

I much prefer to hold a lovely book in my hand and turn the pages, and it seems children do too, according to recent research.

The research “also found that the more devices a child had access to, the less they read in general….”

Interesting, huh?

With the advent of many school text-books now being accessed only on iPad, I wonder what impact on learning this will have….

Our speech pathology and psychology clinic is located in Braddon, ACT, in Canberra’s CBD. Call us on 5117 4890 or email reception@inpositivehealth.com to get in touch.

In Positive Health, Canberra. Nel MacBean Speech Pathologist Canberra. Campbell MacBean Psychologist Canberra.

This blog used to be a link to an interesting 5-minute podcast from ABC Radio WA about the importance of speech pathology in childhood communication problems, including spelling, reading and language. Unfortunately, the link has been removed. In this podcast, speech pathologist Dr Suze Leitao discussed the different causes and treatments of speech and language disorders. What a pity the link has disappeared!

“Learning to speak doesn’t always come easily, and early intervention is critical to a child’s development.” Dr Suze Leitao.

Our speech pathology and psychology clinic is located in Braddon, ACT, in Canberra’s CBD. Call us on 5117 4890 or email reception@inpositivehealth.com to get in touch.

In Positive Health, Canberra. Nel MacBean Speech Pathologist Canberra. Campbell MacBean Psychologist Canberra.

A new phonics check is about to be implemented in Australian schools, to identify children who may be in need of literacy intervention.

But a phonics check is only useful if there is intervention following the testing that remedies the problem!

What do you know about phonics? Phonics is the association between spelling choices (graphemes) and speech sounds (phonemes). So, in the word ‘cat’, the ‘c’ makes a /k/ sound. Similarly, in the word ‘chef’, the ‘ch’ grapheme (spelling choice) makes a ‘sh’ speech sound (phoneme) but in the word ‘chair’, the ‘ch’ spelling choice (grapheme) makes a traditional ‘ch’ speech sound (phoneme), written as /tʃ/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

BUT in the word ‘station’, the ‘ti’ digraph makes a ‘sh’ speech sound as well.  Letters only make sounds when they are in a word. In the alphabet, they are just letters without sounds.

English spelling is crazy. And that is why it can be difficult for some children to grasp.

The evidence, however, is definitely clear. Teaching explicit systematic phonics works. That’s what we want from this phonics check. The subsequent implementation of evidenced-based phonics teaching to improve literacy skills.

Check out this link at the conversation.com for more info.

Our speech pathology and psychology clinic is located in Braddon, ACT, in Canberra’s CBD. Call us on 5117 4890 or email reception@inpositivehealth.com to get in touch.

In Positive Health, Canberra. Nel MacBean Speech Pathologist Canberra. Campbell MacBean Psychologist Canberra.