Characteristics of Children Who Struggle with Reading: Teachers and Speech-Language Pathologists Collaborate to Support Young Learners

Speech language pathologists (SLPs) have developed specialized knowledge about oral language and its relationship to early literacy development that can be particularly useful to early childhood educators. The purpose of this article is to highlight ways in which an SLP can support early childhood teachers in a Response to Intervention role by assessing and facilitating young students’ early literacy acquisition. In this article, we observe students who are struggling to attain one of the Common Core State Standards, discuss factors that may inhibit their typical development of early literacy, and illustrate several evidenced-based instructional practices to assist young students who struggle with reading to achieve success.