What does speech have to do with reading?

Reading begins with spoken language.

Before children can successfully connect written letters to words on a page, they need to develop an understanding of the sounds in spoken language. They need to be able to notice, remember, organize and manipulate those sounds.

These skills are sometimes referred to as phonological awareness.

For example, a child may need to be able to:

• recognize that cat begins with /k/

• identify that sun and sock begin with the same sound

• break a word into its individual sounds

• blend sounds together to make a word

• notice that changing one sound changes a word

• manipulate sounds within words

These abilities contribute to learning how spoken words relate to written letters and words.

For some children, weaknesses in these underlying speech and language skills can make learning to read and spell much more difficult.

An SLP can help identify where skill gaps exist.