By

While all children develop at different times, there is an expected sequence of developmental milestones children should be reaching. PLD has provided handy downloadable milestone guides for children aged 6 months through to 12 years.  Designed by speech pathologists, occupational therapists and educators, the comprehensive guides give an overview of the Oral Language, Literacy and […]

By

It is quite common for children to arrive into Foundation without a dominant hand. As teachers are not Occupational Therapists, how do you help establish a student’s dominant hand as left or right and why is it so valuable to do so?  Research suggests that while a majority of children show a preference by 3 […]

By

Tip #1: There is a Need for Better Terminology and Understanding “Sight Words” mean so many things to different people. The term “Sight Word” often provides a false impression that these commonly used words are to be learned by sight (or visual memorisation). Research does not support teaching these ‘Sight Words’ as visual whole units […]

By

The WA Department of Education schools focus for 2020 has just been released, have you had a chance to check it out? If not, you can view or download a copy here as a PDF: https://www.education.wa.edu.au/dl/1zxeed For 2020 Western Australian schools are, among others, focusing on: Support learners to make the best start with access […]

By

Let us be calm when reading the 2019 PISA Testing Report and not point the blame solely at teachers. The report reminds us that there is much work to be done at the teacher training level, the curriculum level and also the classroom/school level.  Firstly, the recommendations from the Independent Review of the Teaching of […]

By

Did you catch our previous post, The Importance of Strong Oral Language Skills & Language for Literacy Success? We discussed how to create a high quality oral language program to foster a high quality learning environment and the importance of improving and consolidating oral language skills between the home and school. In this three part […]

By

With our increasing use of technology, is it necessary to teach handwriting in primary schools? Research suggests that the benefits of teaching handwriting go beyond simply writing (Dinehart, 2014). There is increasing evidence of a link between the fine motor skills required in handwriting and the development of cognitive skills which lay the foundation for […]

By

How to support the language development of children with English as a Second Language, also known as ESL and bilingual students? Learning to communicate using language is a remarkable achievement of early childhood. The progression of language development is very similar across children and even across languages. All children regardless of the language spoken begin […]

By

Synthetic Phonics is the gold standard, evidence-based approach to teaching literacy, which suggests the fastest pathway into literacy is knowledge of alphabet sounds and phonic sounds. Students require alphabet knowledge in order to embark on the process of learning to read and spell. However, rather than letter naming ability, letter sound knowledge is the more […]

By

Research repeatedly explains that it is essential to get it right when students are first learning to read. The bleak reality is that once students start to fall behind their peers, even with special funding and programs, it is difficult for many to catch up. With this in mind, this blog is devoted to early reading […]

By

What are PLD Decodable Readers? Decodable texts are specifically designed for early readers. They provide reading material that enables students to apply their alphabet sound skills, their early phonic knowledge, phonemic blending and decoding skills. The decodable readers gradually increase in length and complexity and also gradually introduce sight words. When are Decodable Books Useful? […]

By

PLD is working to preserve Indigenous languages through the creation of region specific resources. For over 10 years, PLD  has worked with a range of Indigenous communities for over ten years, including developing a range of online courses to support the literacy requirements of Indigenous communities. You can read more about PLD’s work within remote […]

By

With the changes in the National Curriculum, Foundation students (that is, Kindergarten NSW/ACT, Preparatory QLD/VIC/TAS, Pre-Primary WA, Reception SA and Transition NT), are required to acquire early reading and spelling and writing skills. This is new territory for educators working in the ‘Foundation’ years of literacy instruction. We have many teachers ask questions about early […]

By

Speech Pathology Week is here and director of PLD Literacy & Learning, Diana Rigg highlights the role of speech pathologists in schools in order to facilitate increased literacy outcomes. PLD has regularly stressed the way forward for literacy education in primary school is for speech pathology to have a larger involvement within schools. Researchers have […]

By

In the recent WA Education Department report, which highlighted the success of PLD literacy programs, Professor Louden asked the question ‘What do high-performing primary schools have in common?’. Louden’s research reported that seven of the nine high-performing schools had adopted what the researcher referred to as ‘lower variation teaching’. Lower variation teaching is defined as, […]