Provides a brief overview of how speech therapy can help those who experience a reading disability.

1. Can Speech Therapy help
with Reading Disabilities?
By Stephanie Barry, M.S., CCC-SLP
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2. Can a Speech Pathologist help
with Literacy?
 YES! A speech pathologist has valuable
knowledge of language and its subsystems that is
highly relevant for the
prevention, identification, assessment and
intervention of reading disabilities.
 Their knowledge allows them to design literacy
programs that address difficulties involving
phonological awareness (decoding), as well as
memory and retrieval (comprehension).
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3. How Can Speech Therapy Help?
 The goal of speech therapy is to target
the specific aspects of reading and
writing that are missing or difficult for
the student.
 The student is taught strategies and
how to apply them to their reading and
writing tasks.
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4. What Areas Can Be Addressed
in Speech Therapy?
 Here are a few examples of areas that can be
addressed during speech therapy:
◦ Expressing ideas clearly
◦ Learning new vocabulary
◦ Understanding written directions
◦ Understanding and retaining details of a story
◦ Comprehending written material
◦ Phonological awareness
◦ Spelling
◦ Memory skills
◦ Executive functioning
To learn more about any of these areas click on the area to be directed to the side. You may
simply click next to go through them in order.
Please note, the items presented on these pages are samples of things that can be
addressed and is not meant to be a comprehensive list. These are just some of the ways a
Next speech pathologist can help a person experiencing a reading disability.

5. Expressing Ideas Clearly
 Goals in this area can address:
◦ word choice: using specific words (rather than
“stuff”, “those”, etc.) and appropriate word choice for the
intended meaning
◦ Sentence structure: making sure all the words are in the
correct order and that there are no missing or extra words.
◦ Grammar: using appropriate grammatical markers such as
past tense, pronouns and plurals
◦ Meaning: ensuring the sentence is relaying the intended
message
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6. Learning New Vocabulary
 Goals in this area can address:
◦ Learning how to identify vocabulary words in a reading
passage
◦ Learning strategies to determine the meaning of the word
in the sentence
◦ Learning strategies to remember the meaning when they
come across the word in the future
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7. Understanding Written Directions
 Goals in this area can address:
◦ Accurately reading the directions
◦ Understanding the vocabulary in the directions
◦ Breaking down the directions into manageable parts
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8. Understanding and Retaining
Details of a Story
 Goals in this area can address:
◦ Understanding the difference between the main idea and
the details.
◦ Determining what details are important
◦ Understanding vocabulary
◦ Understanding sentence meanings
◦ Learning strategies to help retain important information
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9. Comprehending Written Material
 Goals in this area can address:
◦ Understanding vocabulary
◦ Understanding sentence meanings
◦ Learning how to break down written material into
manageable pieces
◦ Making connections
◦ Understanding the intent of the material
◦ Being able to summarize the material
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10. Phonological Awareness
 Goals in this area can address:
◦ Decoding words (sounding out the word)
◦ Rhyming
◦ Learning about syllables
◦ Leaning how to blend letter sounds to form words
◦ Learning how to manipulate words and letters
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11. Spelling
 Goals in this area can address:
◦ Learning how to associate letters and sounds
◦ Learning strategies to remember the spelling of sight words
 (Those not spelled how they sound)
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12. Memory Skills
 Goals in this area can address:
◦ Remembering/retaining sight words
◦ Remembering/retaining vocabulary words
◦ Remembering/retaining sentence meanings
◦ Remembering/retaining the main idea of a story
◦ Remembering/retaining details of a story
◦ Remembering/retaining strategies to help with reading and
writing tasks.
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13. Executive Functioning
 Goals in this area can address:
◦ Strategies to help plan and organize reading and writing
tasks
◦ How to break down large tasks
◦ What things need to be accomplished in the reading and/or
writing task.
◦ Overall organizational skills
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14. Disclaimer
 This presentation is meant to serve as an overview of
ways a speech pathologist can help in the area of
literacy. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list or
description of any of the areas listed. These are just
some examples of ways and areas a speech
pathologist can provide assistance to someone
experiencing a reading disability.
 If you have questions about how a speech pathologist
can help you or someone you know who experiences a
reading disability please contact a local speech
pathologist or one of our speech pathologists either by
phone at 1-877-480-7913
e-mail at info@independentspeech.com
Or visit our website at www.independentspeech.com
To learn more about Online Speech Therapy