Speech Pathologists can quite often help with literacy. One of the key skills that kids with literacy difficulties often struggle with is called phonemic awareness. This is essentially the ability to identify sounds in words and move sounds around in words.
Decoding is the “sounding out” of words. Speech pathologists can help teach kids how to decode words, and how to break them up for spelling (eg fish – f-i-sh). Good reading instruction gradually teaches children more complex patterns and rules so even tricky words can be sounded out (eg -tion says “shen”). It’s often worth getting your child’s language skills assessed too, as there is a strong relationship between speech delay and literacy difficulties.
