(Rockville, MD – April 10, 2008) Literacy is the focus of a new podcast produced by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). In this 18-minute podcast award-winning author David Baldacci discusses literacy, one of our most fundamental life skills.
Literacy problems in the United States have become a major public health problem with serious educational consequences and ASHA strives to change this scenario with proper identification and intervention.
“Unless you have strong literacy skills you’re never going to be able to achieve your potential as a human being” says Baldacci, who is also co-founder of The Wish You Well Foundation which supports family literacy in the United States through development and expansion of new and existing literacy and educational programs.
ASHA speech-language pathologists
(SLPs) have the specialized knowledge and experience needed to identify
communication problems and to provide the help children need to build
critical language and literacy skills. SLPs are often the first
professionals to identify the root cause of reading and writing
problems through the child's difficulty with language. With their help,
children can build the skills they need to succeed in school and in
life.
- One out of every 5 of our nation's school-age children suffer from reading failures.
- A majority of all poor readers have an early history of
spoken-language deficits. A recent study reported that 73% of 2nd grade
poor readers had phonemic awareness or spoken language problems in
kindergarten.
- A child who is not a fluent reader by 4th grade is likely to
struggle with reading into adulthood. Today, 41% of fourth grade boys
and 35% of fourth grade girls read below the basic level, and in
low-income urban schools this figure approaches 70%.
- Poor reading and writing skills have a devastating lifelong
impact – 75% of school dropouts report reading problems, and at least
half of adolescents and young adults with criminal records have reading
difficulties.
- Between 21% and 23% of the adult population (approximately 44
million individuals) can read a little, but not well enough to fill out
an application or read a food label.
- Approximately 45-50 million adults (between 25% and 28% of
adults) can perform complex tasks such as comparing, contrasting, and
integrating pieces of information, but usually not higher level reading
and problem-solving skills.
ASHA’s National Outcome Measurement
System (NOMS) data indicates that more than 70% of teachers who
responded to a survey believed that students who received SLP services
demonstrated improved pre-reading, reading or reading comprehension
skills. A majority of teachers also cited improvements in the student's
listening and written language skills and ability to communicate in
socially-appropriate ways (pragmatics).
For more information visit ASHA’s Literacy Gateway.
“The work they do and the work all
teachers do is critically important, there’s probably no more important
job in this world” says Baldacci of the work audiologist,
speech-language pathologists and teachers do, “they should know that
what they’re doing is incredibly important to the quality of life we
all want.”
David Baldacci has published sixteen
novels: Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth,
Saving Faith, Wish You Well, Last Man Standing, The Christmas Train,
Split Second, Hour Game, The Camel Club, The Collectors, Simple Genius,
and Stone Cold; and in his young adult series, Freddy and the French
Fries: Fries Alive! and Freddy and the French Fries: The Adventures of
Silas Finklebean.
To listen to this and other ASHA podcasts, go to www.asha.org/podcast/ .
ASHA,
located in Rockville, Maryland, is the professional, scientific, and
credentialing association for more than 130,000 audiologists,
speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing
scientists in the United States and internationally. For more
information on speech, language, and hearing disorders, consumers can
log on to the ASHA Web site at www.asha.org or call 800-638-TALK.
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