The Critical Age Hypothesis and Literacy Skills

The Critical Age Hypothesis and Literacy Skills

The Critical Age Hypothesis states that children need to be intelligible or possess clear, understandable speech by 5½ years of age, or they are likely to have difficulty with decoding and spelling (Bishop and Adams, 1990).   Decoding is the ability to apply knowledge...
Healthy Hearing and Speech-Language Development

Healthy Hearing and Speech-Language Development

More and more often, parents have reported that their child’s last hearing “test” was their newborn hearing screening (shortly after birth). Every child should have a formal hearing evaluation between the ages of 24-30 months, or sooner, if hearing difficulties are...
Speech, Language, and the Literacy Link

Speech, Language, and the Literacy Link

When children have problems acquiring language or have language delays, they are at high risk for difficulty in learning to read and write, and to listen and speak.  Problems in language can occur in comprehension and expression, or even in the components of language...
Developmental Dyslexia

Developmental Dyslexia

Developmental Dyslexia is dyslexia that is not caused by brain trauma. It is a language-based learning disorder. It is neurological in origin and characterized by poor spelling and decoding abilities. Basically, Developmental Dyslexia affects the ability to learn to...