Literacy: reading, spelling and the language underneath

What it is

Learning to read and write depends on spoken language. Before children can read a word, they need to hear the sounds in it. Before they can understand a story on the page, they need to understand the words and sentences when they hear them. When reading or spelling is hard, the difficulty often begins in these foundations.

Speech-language pathologists support literacy by working on three connected areas.

Phonological awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to notice and play with sounds in spoken words: rhyming, clapping syllables, hearing the first or last sound, and blending or separating sounds (“c-a-t” makes “cat”). Research shows it is one of the strongest early predictors of reading success, and it can be taught.

Decoding and spelling

Decoding means linking letters to sounds and blending them to read a word. Spelling works in the other direction: hearing each sound and choosing the right letters. Children who find this hard may read slowly, guess from the first letter or spell words in ways that leave out sounds.

Language comprehension

Some children read the words accurately but do not understand what they read. Reading comprehension depends on vocabulary, grammar, background knowledge and the ability to follow a story or an explanation. Children with language difficulties are more likely to struggle here, even when decoding is strong.

Who we see

We see preschoolers who are building early literacy skills, school-age children who find reading or spelling hard, and teens whose reading comprehension or written expression is making school harder. Many children we see for literacy had earlier speech sound or language difficulties, since these are known risk factors. Others come after a teacher raises a concern or after a school assessment.

How we assess it

Our speech-language pathologists start with your child’s history: early speech and language development, family history of reading difficulties, school experience and the languages your child speaks and is learning to read in. Depending on your child’s age, the assessment may look at:

• phonological awareness, such as rhyming, syllables and sounds in words
• knowledge of letters and their sounds
• reading real words and made-up words, to see how your child decodes
• spelling, including which kinds of errors appear
• reading fluency and reading comprehension
• oral language: vocabulary, grammar and understanding of stories

You receive a clear description of your child’s strengths and needs, and recommendations for therapy, home and school. Whether a formal diagnosis such as dyslexia can be made, and by whom, depends on the province and your child’s profile. When another professional should be involved, we explain why. Learn more about our assessment process.

How therapy works at VoxLingue

Therapy is structured and explicit, which is what research supports for children who find reading hard, and it is built to be engaging.

Building sound skills

With younger children, we play with sounds through games: finding objects that start with the same sound, clapping syllables in family names, or moving tokens for each sound in a word. These skills are then linked to letters.

Connecting sounds and letters

We teach letter-sound links in a clear sequence and practise blending them into words, then reading short decodable texts. Spelling is taught alongside reading, so your child learns to hear each sound and write it.

Reading for meaning

Our literacy-based approach uses books to build vocabulary, understanding of story structure, inferencing and the ability to retell and discuss what was read. For older children and teens, we work on comprehension strategies, summarizing and planning written work.

Your role at home

Daily shared reading is one of the most helpful things you can do, in any language. A few habits make it more effective:

• Read together for a few minutes every day, choosing books your child enjoys.
• Talk about the story: ask what might happen next, or how a character feels.
• Play sound games in the car or at the table, such as “I spy something that starts with mmm”.
• Let your child see you read and write, from grocery lists to messages.
• Keep reading practice short and positive, and stop before frustration builds.

Bilingual and multilingual families

Many children in our communities learn to read in French at school while speaking English or another language at home, or the reverse. Research shows that core skills, such as phonological awareness and understanding stories, transfer across languages. A child who learns to hear sounds in Arabic or Spanish is building skills that also support reading in French or English.

Each language also has its own spelling system. French is fairly regular for reading but has many silent letters that make spelling harder. English has many irregular words. We take this into account and focus therapy on the language your child is learning to read in, while encouraging you to keep reading, telling stories and talking in your home language. Reading in one language does not take away from the other.

In person or by telepractice

Literacy therapy is available in person at our Marché Central clinic in Montreal, or by telepractice anywhere in Quebec and Ontario. Online sessions work well for literacy, with shared digital books, on-screen letter tiles and interactive games. For some school-age children, our group programs offer a chance to practise language and literacy skills with peers.

Getting started

You do not need a doctor’s referral. If reading or spelling is a struggle for your child, an assessment helps you understand why and what will help.

Call our Marché Central clinic at 514-467-9132, or request an appointment through our contact form. Availability of specific clinicians and languages varies, and our team will match you with the right person.