Word reading: The role of the SLP (Colenbrander & Kohnen, 2023)

Purpose: Written and spoken language abilities are closely connected, and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can play important roles in the development of children’s word reading. However, SLPs may have less knowledge about word reading assessment and intervention than they do about oral language. Therefore, in this tutorial, we describe the skills required for successful word reading and outline evidence-based approaches to word reading assessment and intervention within a response to intervention (RTI) framework, with a focus on the role of the SLP.

Conclusions: Written language abilities clearly fall within an SLP’s scope of practice. SLPs can be involved in collaborative teams working together to design word reading instruction, intervention, and assessment. They can also be directly involved in word reading intervention and assessment with children on their caseload. Consequently, knowledge about word reading development, assessment, and intervention can enable an SLP to take advantage of the reciprocal connections between written and spoken language, in order to help achieve the best outcomes for their clients.

Supplemental Material S1. Further information and resources.

Colenbrander, C., & Kohnen, S. (2023). Word reading: The role of the speech-language pathologist. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_PERSP-23-00054

Publisher Note: This tutorial is part of the Forum: Evidence-Based Practices in Literacy for Word Reading, Morphology, & Vocabulary.