When do we refer for literacy?
- When a child is at least in kindergarten, preferably second semester, and struggles to learn letter names and sounds, memorize sight words, or sound out simple 3-letter words (bat, pet, log)
- When a child is in first grade or up and is struggling unusually and unexpectedly to read, spell, and/or get ideas into sentences on paper.
What may be included in a literacy evaluation?
- Background Information
- Intelligence testing is no longer considered necessary. Instead, oral language abilities (listening and speaking) and more predictive.
- Oral language skills testing
- Word recognition (word reading) testing
- Decoding (sounding out single words) testing
- Spelling testing
- Phonological processing testing
- Automaticity/fluency skills testing
- Text Reading/comprehension testing.
- Vocabulary knowledge testing
- Evaluation outcomes should provide the framework for the detailed evaluation of relative strengths and weaknesses across the various skill areas.
- Diagnosis should be made by a professional who is thoroughly familiar with the important characteristics of language-literacy disorders/dyslexia
- Intervention planning recommendations should be included in the written report.
Who does literacy evaluations?
- Southeastern Therapy for Kids’ professionals who complete literacy evaluations have completed their training in speech-language pathology at the master’s degree level.
- Beyond that training, they have had extensive training in language science, including reading and written language science, as well as in testing and measurement, as described by the American Speech Language Hearing Association and the International Dyslexia Association standards.