Child Language and Literacy Lab

This workshop on phonological awareness, hosted by Vanderbilt's Bill Wilkerson Center and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, will develop participants’ ability to improve children’s phonological awareness as a means to build foundational reading and writing skills - decoding and spelling. Phonological awareness is the ability to analyze the sound structure of words, with phonemic awareness specific to analysis at the level of individual speech sounds. Because the development of phonological awareness is addressed in instruction as well as intervention, the workshop is designed for all educators.

For more information on the workshop, please click here.

To register, please visit kc.vanderbilt.edu/registration.

School Speech-Language Pathology Conference

July 30-31, 2013

The Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center and Department of Hearing & Speech Sciences will be holding a School Speech-Pathology Conference at Vanderbilt University on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 30-31. To find out more about the conference, please click here.

The CHILD LANGUAGE AND LITERACY LAB focuses on the study of language and literacy acquisition in children with typical as well as atypical development. In our research we seek to better understand the language and literacy difficulties of children and to devise and test new methods of instruction and intervention to improve the language and literacy skills of all children. A better understanding of typical language and literacy development informs our explorations of language and literacy learning difficulties. In our training program, we develop graduate students' abilities to conduct language and literacy research and provide evidence-based language and literacy intervention and instruction.

For more information, please contact:

Melanie Schuele, PhD at 615-936-5256 or melanie.schuele@vanderbilt.edu

PARTICIPATE

Below is a list of studies for which we are currently recruiting participants. Click on the title of projects to view detailed information. Contact languagelab@vanderbilt.edu to volunteer for a study or if you have any questions.

COMPLEX SYNTAX DEVELOPMENT

Lab information

Consent form

DIRECTIONS

Click here for directions to the Child Language and Literacy Lab, located on the 10th floor of Medical Center East, South Tower (Bill Wilkerson Center).

FAMILIES: Language and Literacy Resources ~ Recommended by our lab members

Click title to link to web resource:

INVESTING IN YOUR CHILD'S LITERACY BANK ACCOUNT

READING ROCKETS

National Association for the Education of Young Children - Resources for Families

Nashville Community Parents Resource Center

http://pbskids.org/rogers/

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood has been relegated to the 5am Saturday morning slot on the Nashville Public Television syndicate. Therefore, I doubt many kids or their parents are actually up to benefit from this wonderful programming. While lacking the fast-paced pizzazz of much of the contemporary children's programming, the show (and website) offers a wealth of language-based learning opportunities for children and parents. There's a lot to explore on the website (e.g., classic songs with accompanying video clips like "You Can Never Go Down the Drain, imagination via the land of make believe, educational games on letter recognition and narrative creation, video "field trips" to places like an aquarium, musical set, doctor's office, and art museum, and much more). Everything is bound by a thoughtful consideration of what the 2-5 year olds' developmental perspective would be in a given situation. Mister Rogers strives to have meaningful dialogue with his television "neighbors." There are appropriate conversational gaps for "responses" and reflection. In my experience, children are not passive viewers, but actively engage with the material by audibly talking with/responding to Mister Rogers and the other characters. As such, some adults may find the show boring or plodding. However, the goal the show is to engage with and meet children at place whereby THEY can best process verbal information relevant to their real-world experiences and concerns and NOT to entertain parents. That said, most parents - myself included - are captivated by Mister Rogers. The website and program content, when collaboratively enjoyed by both parent and child, provide wonderful foundations for later family discussions and language-based activities AWAY from the TV/Computer. The show's philosophy, as taken from the website, sums up this mission nicely:

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood promotes values that are universally important to children and families.

Fads and fashion -- in television and in society -- change constantly, but the values on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are timeless and universal. The basic developmental tasks of early childhood -- the things preschoolers need to learn and understand to grow into succeeding stages of life -- remain constant regardless of time, place, or societal changes. So do the values that enable families (and whole societies) to nurture their children and help them grow.

These values, shared by Family Communications, professionals, and families across the country, include:

Children are precious, and their earliest years are exceedingly important in laying the foundation for who and what they become.
Children grow best when raised in responsible and caring ways.
The ability to love and be loved is supremely important in every person's life, and that ability is best nurtured in the early years.
Discipline and control are essential to healthy living -- and the best discipline and control come from within.
It is important to recognize the worth and the unique abilities of each individual child. Children can -- and do -- contribute in many ways to the life of a family.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monkey-match/id407251250?mt=8 or search for "Monkey Match" in the App store. Three games: Match upper and lower case letters, match words by initial sounds, match rhyming weds.

www.starfall.com: A great website for pre-readers and early readers. Appropriate for age 2 and beyond. The letter activities include lots of fun vocabulary and activities, making them enjoyable for all preschoolers. Great worksheets for parents to print out as well.

NEWS ... NEWS .... NEWS

Speech-Language Pathology #14 Job of 2012

NEWS RELEASE

April 20, 2012

Krystal Werfel to Receive

International Reading Association’s

Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship Award

At their February meeting, the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association announced the 2012 IRA Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship Award will be presented to Krystal Werfel, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Tennessee, for her dissertation “Contribution of Linguistic Knowledge to Spelling Ability in Elementary Children with and without Language Impairment.”

Ms. Werfel is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She received a BS in Child Development from the University of Tennessee and a MS in Speech-Language Pathology, with an emphasis in interdisciplinary aural rehabilitation, from Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include language and literacy development and intervention in children with language impairment and children with hearing loss.

The IRA Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship Award encourages and supports doctoral research on a number of issues, including beginning reading, stages of reading development, reading difficulties, readability, the relation of vocabulary to reading, and diagnosis of adults with limited reading ability. The Fellowship Award will be recognized during IRA’s Chicago Convention at the Research Awards and Address session on Monday, April 30, 2012 at the McCormick Convention Center, West, W375A, 4:00 p.m.

About the International Reading Association

The International Reading Association is the world’s foremost expert on literacy. A non-profit global network dedicated to advancing the quality of literacy instruction and research worldwide, the International Reading Association supports reading teachers and other literacy professionals by providing professional development resources, advocating for policy and practices that benefit all teachers and students, and conducting research that promotes informed decision-making about literacy practice in the classroom. Additional information is available at www.reading.org.

Media Contact:

Virginia Goatley

vgoatley@reading.org

(302) 731-6966

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