Are you aware of the connection between speech & language delays and reading/writing challenges?
Children who have speech and language challenges run the risk of developing difficulties with written expression.
For example, children are probably going to spell words the way they pronounce them. If a child says “broder” for “brother” in conversation, that is how ”brother” is going to appear in the child’s journal. The same is true for grammar and syntax. If a child says “The dog runned away”, that’s the way it will appear in written expression. The bottom line is this: children can only write as well as they can speak.
Communication challenges can also interfere with learning to read.
A child who doesn’t hear the difference between the “w” and “r” sounds will likely have difficulty learning that an “r” says “er”. The challenge will get worse when that same child has to differentiate between short “i” and “e” to figure out if a word says “pig” or “peg”. The ultimate challenge will present itself when intermediate readers have to differentiate between words like “vision” and “fission” and “transition” and “translation”.
Parents can prevent many of these academic difficulties by getting their children enrolled in appropriate intervention…..the earlier, the better.
Remember that prevention is a lot more effective and less expensive than remediation. To prevent academic struggles, children must be seen by speech- language pathologists who understand the skills needed to succeed in school. To address these academic struggles in school-aged children, parents must seek professionals who can identify the speech and language causes of the challenges and then treat the problems from the ground up.