phonologicalawarenessinlowi-blog

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Cultural Competence in Working with Low Income Communities

I think it is extremely important to be able to understand the culture that people in poverty live in. It is important to take into account their various disparities. I want to establish the fact that there are disparities and difficulties that a parent from a low income background faces. These parents often have to work long hours in order to just barely be able to stay afloat. As a result, they have less time to speak, interact with their kids or teach them new words. It is important to understand that this does not make a parent a bad parent. I just think it is important to note these things in order to avoid incorrectly depicting a parent or guardian of a child in a negative light.

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmiU4IKVi0A)

I filmed this interview with Ms. Xigrid Soto to serve as a basis for establishing common questions about phonological awareness and development in low income communities. 

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Welcoming Families: A Parent Literacy Project in a Linguistically Rich, High-Poverty School.

Barone, D. b. (2011). Welcoming Families: A Parent Literacy Project in a Linguistically Rich, High-Poverty School. Early Childhood Education Journal, 38(5), 377-384. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0424-y

I really like this article because it is truly rich in information on how to increase parent involvement in developing skills needed for literacy. I think the immense importance of parents in this process is often underrated.This article shows successful ways to increase parent involvement. It also describes how to apply these strategies elsewhere.

[phonologicalawarenessinlowi-blog]

Single and Double Deficits in Early Readers in Rural, Low-Wealth Communities

Fedora, P. M. (2016). Single and Double Deficits in Early Readers in Rural, Low-Wealth Communities. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 32(2), 101-126.

This article is about research that tests the double deficit hypothesis in which students who struggle with automatized naming and phonological awareness and deficits in both of those areas indicate impairment in entry level reading. In the end, the research supports the double deficit hypothesis. This may serve as an early identifier for children who may have a reading impairment.

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Decreasing Reading Differences in Children from Disadvantaged Backgrounds: The Effects of an Early Literacy Intervention.

Hagans, K. K., & Good, R. (2013). Decreasing Reading Differences in Children from Disadvantaged Backgrounds: The Effects of an Early Literacy Intervention. Contemporary School Psychology (California Association Of School Psychologists), 17(1), 103-117. doi:10.1007/BF03340992

This research is a study of phonological awareness intervention on a group of 50 first graders who were randomly assigned to an experiment group which received intervention or a control group. Additionally, 25 middle-high income background children served as a means of comparison. In the end, an important difference was found between the children from low income backgrounds who received intervention and those who did not. Also, when compared to the reading skills of students of middle-high income backgrounds, the children who received intervention still fell short. However, the gap in literacy skills of the 2 groups did decrease after intervention.

[phonologicalawarenessinlowi-blog]

Enhancing Vocabulary, Print Awareness and Phonological Awareness through Shared Storybook Reading with Low-Income Preschoolers

Lefebvre, P., Trudeau, N., & Sutton, A. (2011). Enhancing Vocabulary, Print Awareness and Phonological Awareness through Shared Storybook Reading with Low-Income Preschoolers. Journal Of Early Childhood Literacy, 11(4), 453-479.

This article is about a study that compares the effects of shared story book reading on the language and literacy skills of low income preschoolers by measuring language, print awareness, and phonological awareness. Additionally, the study compared the results of children who received shared storybook reading intervention compared to a group of higher income children who did not receive intervention. In the end, the experimental group of low income children who received intervention ended up achieving higher scores in language, print awareness and phonological awareness than children from higher incomes who did not receive intervention. I think it is inspiring that researchers are actually finding measures that are so effective for children who are at risk of falling behind!

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Validity of the Dynamic Indicators for Basic Early Literacy Skills as an Indicator of Early Literacy for Urban Kindergarten Children

Rouse, H. L., & Fantuzzo, J. W. (2006). Validity of the dynamic indicators for basic early literacy skills as an indicator of early literacy for urban kindergarten children. School Psychology Review, 35(3), 341-355. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/219655284?accountid=14745

This article evaluates the validity of DIBELS testing as a means of screening urban kindergarten children for early literacy skills. I like this article because it shows the validity of the test by making connections between the child’s life and skills, to what is being tested. The research concluded that the DIBELS test is an appropriate screening tool for this specific population.  However, the article indicates that further research will need to be done in order to identify if this test is an appropriate screening measure for children of older populations. I chose to add this article to give an example of a test measure used as a screening tool for children in low income populations.

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I like this website because it shows the importance of developing phnological awareness and promoting literacy in low income communities. It depicts a video with a message from President Obama himself. It gives an overview on the 30 million word gap between children of low socioeconomic backgrounds compared to those from others. It also lists several foundations and organizations that have teamed up in an effort to combat this word gap. 

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I found this video to give a more in depth look into specific programs being put into place to help bridge the word gap and promote phonological awareness and development in a low income family. This video shows how a program for language development in which children are given digital language processors, or word counters. This digital language processor counts the number of words that a child is exposed to throughout the day. A social worker is assigned to them, she visits them and shows them graphs of how many words the child has been exposed to daily throughout the week. I think it’s amazing that a year later, the parents of this specific child in a low income community increased their word count by 500 more words a day than when they first started. Although this increase is still not enough for the children to catch up to other children, I think it is amazing. This video shows the great importance parents have in the development of their child’s phonological awareness.

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I think this article is informative and important to read. It talks about a specific community in Escambia county where 27.4% of children under 18 live in poverty. It tells about how some of their kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students have fallen below state averages in areas such as print knowledge, phonological awareness, oral language and mathematics. The article lists the strategies that the community plans to implement in order to help solve this issue. The strategies listed are very achievable. 

[phonologicalawarenessinlowi-blog]

I love this article because it shows the effects of raising awareness for this problem in Low Income Communities. It gives great knowledge on the important time periods of development for children’s phonological awareness. It also gives information on resources or ideas that everyone, including parents, and children can take advantage of. I think this article could inspire similar ideas in other neighborhoods.

[phonologicalawarenessinlowi-blog]

SLP Working with Low Income Family Scenario

Suppose you are a Speech Language Pathologist working on developing literacy and phonological awareness with a child from a low income community. The mother of the child is responsible for bringing the child to his appointments. You are aware of the obstacles that clients from low income backgrounds face. However, the client’s mom has canceled several appointments. You don’t feel like the therapy will be successful due to the lack of attendance. What do you do?

a.) You inform the client’s parent that you will have to dismiss them if they miss one more session. You hope this will encourage them to attend the rest of their sessions.

b.) You talk to the client and find out what has been hindering their attendance at the sessions, you try to accommodate for the obstacles that have been preventing their attendance.

C.)  You inform the client that they have been dismissed due to lack of attendance.

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Family Member Scenario

Suppose you are a professional with experience working with phonological awareness and development in low income communities. One day, a family member from a low income community visits you. They have a child who is 3 years old. You notice that the child doesn’t know many words and uses only very short phrases to communicate. You want to talk to your family member about it but don’t want to overstep, what do you do?

a.) Don’t say anything to avoid any altercations. Let another professional inform the parents of the child eventually so you don’t overstep your boundaries

b.) You let the parents know that you suspect the child may be struggling with his/her phonological awareness and development. You try to tell them about different options that may help, and recommend that they be evaluated by a professional. You risk possibly offending your family members

c.) You avoid saying anything to the parents but try to help the child in subtle ways every time you see them in order to help them somewhat. This way you avoid offending your family members.

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ASHA on Cultural Competence

https://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Professional-Issues/Cultural-Competence/

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association states the following about cultural competence 

 “Cultural competence involves understanding and appropriately responding to the unique combination of cultural variables and the full range of dimensions of diversity that the professional and client/patient/family bring to interactions.”

I believe cultural competence is extremely important when working with any client that comes from a low socioeconomic status background. As a professional, one must understand and take into account variables that can affect a patient from a low income background such as problems with transportation, lack of healthcare, etc. It’s important to know and understand these obstacles in order to be able to appropriately treat and accommodate a patient.

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The Statisticks Lottery

I found this video to be helpful in highlighting the huge gap in phonological awareness and development of children from low socioeconomic backgrounds compared to children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. It shows the paths both children follow since birth.