What do we mean by ‘early literacy intervention’?
When we talk about early literacy intervention, we mean early support for a child with a specific learning difficulty that results in reading and writing needs.
Early literacy intervention usually begins with a screening procedure to identify the degree of literacy support needed. It then includes things like specialized instruction and the provision of assistive technology, whether that’s as part of a package agreed upon in a school setting or provided privately by parents.
How do we implement early literacy intervention?
There are a lot of strategies: you can find out more about the specific methodologies that educators use in early literacy intervention scenarios in the video Inside a Dyslexia Intervention by Understood.org.
Educators, educational psychologists and speech and language pathologists tend to turn in the direction of text-to-speech assistive technology like reading pens. As well as being intuitive to use, they provide access to printed media (something still very commonly used in early childhood settings) in a way that other assistive tech can’t.
What are the benefits of intervening early?
A 2017 study by dyslexia researcher and advocate Professor Maureen Lovett found that outcomes for learners were almost twice as good if literacy interventions were administered in first & second grade.
Children who received the program in third grade made lesser gains in basic reading skills than those who had intervention one to two years earlier, making a strong argument that the sooner we intervene, the better the results.
But it goes deeper, too:
The subset of learners who received early literacy intervention in the first grade continued to develop reading skills at a faster rate even when the program ended. It indicates that not only are outcomes better the earlier we intervene, but that early intervention can help kickstart an ongoing mastery of reading, instead of simply ‘levelling the playing field’.
Scenarios when early literacy intervention doesn’t happen
Often, educators don’t have the opportunity to intervene as early as they’d like to, because of factors that impact the learner.
When are we unable to implement early literacy intervention?
· The learner hasn’t been diagnosed with dyslexia yet. Although a diagnosis isn’t necessary to receive reading support in most schools and kindergartens, it definitely makes starting the support journey easier. When there’s a diagnosis in place, it makes it clear to schools the nature of reading needs, and solutions are far less likely to get mired in trying to support things like focus or confidence.
· The learner’s reading needs are still hidden. Dyslexia isn’t always obvious, especially when learners don’t experience strong or common symptoms, or their enthusiasm for learning disguises weakness in reading and spelling. It’s also tricky to spot another neurodiversity that impacts concentration, such as ADHD or autism.
· The learner is actively masking their reading needs. Many children don’t want their reading needs to be obvious. A problem that arises from a fear of rejection from friends, a worry of being chastised for weak reading, or even just a misunderstanding of the nature of reading differences.
· Intervention has been put in place, but not carried over. A learner is receiving early literacy intervention, and responding to it, but they move on from the institution where they have support. Many learners taken out of an early literacy intervention program will need to start from scratch with resource allocation, which can take time.
· Intervention has been put in place, but learners are resistant. Interventions can feel isolating, especially if students have to leave the classroom to get specialized instruction or use assistive technology unavailable to other members of the class. Younger learners worry that peers might accuse them of cheating, or see them as different in a negative way, and older ones worry about the social aspects and being seen as unintelligent or needing to be monitored.
· The intervention has been delayed by availability issues. Whether it’s budget, educator bandwidth or the availability of assistive technology, logistics can delay the application of early literacy intervention in some schools.
How do learners consciously mask their dyslexia?
When young learners are aware of their reading needs but don’t fully understand them yet, it’s easy to feel like they’ll be punished for them. This can lead to behaviors that cover the effects on their schoolwork.
Some learners tend to ‘act out’ and try to distance themselves from reading: distracting classmates, being off task, purposefully getting sent out or leaving the lesson. Other learners put in a lot of extra effort, hoping that they’ll get extra marks for extra work (things like illustrations, over-engaging with teachers in spoken learning in lessons, and writing excessive amounts even if spelling and grammar are poor).
Diagnosis, emotion and intervention in older students
As the Lovett study suggests, intervening in the first grade yields the best results. But what if we don’t find dyslexia until a decade later?
If the best time to implement an early literacy intervention is first grade, the second-best time is now. Even if the optimal time to intervene is long gone, when reading needs are unmet, outcomes are hurt. When they are met, outcomes improve and anxiety decreases.
An extended period of unmet reading needs still has consequences. Low grades, confidence, attitudes to learning and self-esteem, all are at risk.
A timeline of literacy intervention and student response
How do elementary and middle school learners respond to early literacy intervention?
Elementary is where most interventions happen. Even if they’re no longer in first grade, we’re still in before reading expectations really pick up in middle school; it just means that these interventions may have to be multi-tiered or more intensive to succeed.
Learners in elementary often have a cautiously positive attitude toward early literacy intervention: the technology can feel exciting and empowering. But there are caveats, too; discreet in-class support is often preferred to make students feel like they stand out less.
Younger learners, like those in the first to fourth grade, tend to be the most receptive to human reading support professionals. This positive response dwindles quickly as they mature and come to the later years of their elementary education. Human readers can be seen as embarrassing: questions like ‘Do they make me look stupid? Is everyone laughing?’ can trouble learners to the point of developing social anxiety. That’s why a lot of educators choose to create support patterns that travel with readers, right the way through to college and work, in the form of a reading pen.
How do high school learners respond to literacy intervention?
Supporting reading needs in high school is a little more difficult. These learners have already been in education for almost a decade. If undiagnosed and unsupported that entire time, they’ve likely developed a foundational skills gap and self-concepts that might make an intervention harder to implement. It’s often as simple as believing that they aren’t cut out for academics or ‘there’s no point trying in [x] class.’ Changing stages can also have an adverse impact on education motivation.
There are often behavioral problems that develop as a result of unsupported reading anxiety. Resistance is often rooted in disbelief that they can respond academically—so it’s an exercise in challenging beliefs.
But many high school learners feel a sense of relief when reading support is successfully implemented, especially in a way that doesn’t attract unwanted attention from the rest of the class. Learners who may not have been considering college might decide to pursue it as the level of what they can read independently gets more complex, so employment prospects improve. Grade worries spike, however, as high school tests have tangible real-world consequences—so it’s important to ensure that learners feel supported in the exam hall too.
High school is where we see attitudes to human reading support really decline, as learners get older and worry more about how they’re perceived.
College and university students
As readers leave high school, interventions become less defined. Colleges and universities usually require formal diagnosis and assessment if learners are to receive assistive technology or special considerations in tests, and intervention is rarely in the form of a specific administered program. It’s more about helping learners access texts than it is about administering reading tuition, and it’s unlikely to be termed ‘intervention’.
But reading support itself will largely take the same form as it has done in high school. Some adapt their technologies, employing a screen reader to deal with digitized documents, or trying an additional reading pen that can support translation or note-taking too.
As learning becomes self-led, it’s common for students to feel like they miss the guidance that came with extended time with the same teachers in high school, who understood their reading needs more intimately than support services on campus might.
Readers at work
Workplaces also have a legal requirement to support employees with diagnosed dyslexia (although not administer tuition) under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the form of reasonable accommodations to their working practices. It’s unfortunately still the case, however, that many working adults feel anxious about disclosing reading support needs to their employer for fear of reprisals in the form of job loss, impeded progression, and a change in standing within the business.
The main source of reading support in workplace scenarios are text-to-speech technologies like screen readers and reading pens, and changes to visual elements of the reading process such as font, color and layout in communications. Job responsibilities can also adapt, such as passing on proofreading to another team member, or reporting via audio note rather than in a typed format.
Early literacy intervention, theory and practice
Learners who get support early tend to make progress before any major grade or confidence loss can take place. Learners who don’t may find themselves on a slightly more difficult path, but the science of it is the same: when we intervene, reading skills get stronger, and confidence grows. It’s not a case that a missed window of opportunity when a learner is 6 or 7 necessarily constitutes a lifelong reading deficit as with the right support, creativity and technology, reading with confidence is possible for everyone.
To find out more about how award-winning text-to-speech devices can support everybody from the youngest learners to those in the workplace, kickstart your reading support journey with C-Pen Reader 2 at Scanning Pens.
