Catch Them Before They Fall Vs. Just Wait They Will Catch Up
As administrators, teachers, parents, educational psychologists, academic language therapists, advocates, and reading tutors…we have an important job on our hands.
That job is to catch our students before they fall. Failure to do so, will allow them to hit the hard and difficult ground of reading failure.
I’m sure you may have heard, “Don’t worry, they are only in kindergarten they will catch up soon. They are still learning.” But children already demonstrating difficulty in alphabetic recognition (and this does not relate to singing the alphabet song), and letter sound recognition are at risk. Marilyn Adames states, “ The two best predictors of early reading success are alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness.”
So how can we catch them? We need a safety net “held” by:
1. Early screening measures
2. Early intervention
According to research and findings from the International Dyslexia Association, “ It takes four times as long to intervene in fourth grade as it does in late kindergarten.” There is no benefit to wait and see when students are already struggling.
Screening measures are brief assessments of a particular skill that is highly predictive of a later outcome. They will help determine who needs intervention and who does not.
Screeners can be administered three to four years throughout the year and have established reliability and validity standards. There are different screeners used for different grades.
Based on the data from these specific screening measures, the team of educators, parents, psychologists can make effective and informative decisions regarding evidence research based interventions. It is imperative that these interventions address the specific needs of the student and are conducted by a highly qualified professional.
For students at risk, intensive and frequent language therapy is most beneficial. A phonics based program that is an effective remediation for at-risk or dyslexic students is explicit, direct, comprehensive, sequential, and multisensory. Qualified professionals such as those with extensive coursework and training as an academic language therapist deliver such instruction 4-5 times a week for continuous years.
