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Certified Practising Speech Pathologist, Cleveland

Adolescent Literacy Support

Speech therapy designed to help adolescents with dyslexia learn to read

It can be hard to read.

The words ‘hard’ and ‘read’ in that first sentence may actually be so difficult to decode, that you or your adolescent child had trouble understanding the whole sentence.

Why? If we cannot understand 92% of the words in a sentence, this impacts our comprehension.

Learning To Read

Many people were not able to learn to read from the approach to instruction that was used over the last few decades. ‘Whole language’, with ‘predictable books’ and strategies such as ‘look at the picture, guess what word comes next’, are now proven strategies for poor readers.

Sounding out words and blending them back together is called Synthetic Phonics. Teaching the ‘code’ in a logical, easy-to-complex way is called Structured Synthetic Phonics.

Speech Therapy For Adolescents

adolescent literacy support for teens with dyslexia
As a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist, Jenny has worked with secondary schools in Brisbane, where up to 40% of students have difficulty reading and spelling a long, multi-syllabic word.

Why are long words important? Because approximately 80% of all words that a student reads in high school are multisyllabic. How can we expect students to learn when they cannot access the materials?

Adolescent students in high school, and adults, are not to blame for their literacy difficulties.

However, it is time to support students to learn to read and spell, with evidence-based literacy instruction.

Speech Therapy Sessions

Through speech therapy sessions with adolescents, Jenny is able to collaborate with groups of students, to improve their life options and their choices, through literacy.

Jenny has developed a number of group speech therapy programs to assist adolescents, wherever they are on their literacy journey.

Currently, the sessions available are:

  • Group 1 – Driven to learn: The language and reading skills required for attaining a Queensland drivers license.
  • Group 2 – A is for ass: Using ‘inappropriate’ words to teach literacy. Ideal for students ‘disengaged’ from traditional therapy and schooling.
  • Group 3 – How reading and spelling works with words: Students who need to read, understand and use the tricky words expected in high school.

Please note that speech therapy for adolescents, designed to improve literacy, is a corrective process of re-learning to read, spell and comprehend.  It takes time and commitment from the student, their carer and teachers, and involves an ongoing financial cost.

Jenny is happy to work with a variety of funding agencies to ensure students have access to high quality instruction.

  • Out of Home Care agencies
  • NDIS
  • Non-Government Organisations
  • Team Care Arrangements
  • Private Health Insurance.

However, it is time to support students to learn to read and spell, with evidence-based literacy instruction.