Before the Book: Pre-Reading Activities to Build Literacy Foundations

Little children at the library doing crafts Most of my group intervention sessions used to go a lot like this: I gathered my students for treatment, exchanged greetings or explained the day, and popped open the book. I usually spent the next 30 minutes on an activity and concluding the book. It was a good session. But once I started incorporating pre-reading activities, students began advancing at a startling rate. I work with diverse populations and I quickly learned not to make any assumptions about whether the child knows the stories, has books at home, has literate parents, speaks our language at home … the list goes on. Academic expectations are based on children from Western culture. Many of these children probably grew up with parents reading to them, so they gained an understanding of specific story structures, which they heard in their native tongue. Speech-language pathologists can’t assume our students—any of our students—experienced this type of pre-literacy background. This isn’t just a culture or second-language issue. Literacy-based intervention allows us to account for many of the cultural, linguistic and socio-economic differences and pre-reading activities lay a strong foundation for narrative abilities to blossom.  These activities engage students prior to reading the story, introduce them to new vocabulary and historical events, and prepare them to comprehend the story in a more meaningful manner. Pre-reading activities also help bridge any ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Speech-Language Pathology bilingual service delivery Early Intervention Language Disorders literacy Schools Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs