Are you confused about being asked to complete a language evaluation for reading when your concern is actually your child’s reading skills? Let’s talk about why that recommendation makes sense. The foundation of reading is deeply language-based. Reading brings together many skills that work together to help a child become a proficient reader. According to Reading Rockets, some of these language-based skills include phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, the ability to visualize, vocabulary, and rapid naming.
Why a Language Evaluation for Reading Looks at These Skills
First, let’s walk through each of these areas in more detail.
Phonological Awareness
To begin, phonological awareness is a broad set of skills that includes recognizing and manipulating parts of oral language. This covers rhyming, segmenting syllables, segmenting words and sounds, and blending words and sounds. Together, these foundational skills build the base that reading rests on. Our guide to the phonological awareness hierarchy shows the order in which they develop.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness describes a child’s ability to attend to and identify sounds, or phonemes. Beyond that, a step further that involves manipulating individual sounds in spoken words. For example, a child might change the /k/ in “cat” to a /b/ and know the new word is “bat.”
Visualizing
Visualizing refers to a person’s ability to form a mental image of something. In fact, this skill matters for both language and reading overall. Specifically, being able to visualize what is being said supports comprehension, follow-through, and retention, and the same holds true for reading. If a child can picture a word in their head, they will read, spell, and remember it with much greater ease.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary refers to the words a person knows and recognizes. Of course, this looks different for every child. As a result, a child’s ability to read and make sense of words depends heavily on how strong their vocabulary knowledge already is.
Rapid Automatic Naming
Finally, rapid naming describes a child’s ability to retrieve the names of things from memory and say them aloud quickly. This skill shows up across many areas of language, including reading.
Why Rule Out Language Skills First?
When a child struggles to read, an underlying language skill often drives the difficulty, and that gap tends to show up directly in their reading. Because of this, it is always worth ruling out these underlying factors first. As a result, treatment can target the root cause rather than isolated areas that will not move the needle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my child need a language evaluation for reading?
Reading is built on language skills such as sound awareness, vocabulary, and visualizing. Therefore, an evaluation shows whether a gap in one of these areas is behind your child’s reading struggles.
Who completes the evaluation?
A speech-language pathologist completes it. However, if the results point to a reading or math concern without a language gap, your child may be recommended to a learning specialist instead.
What happens after the evaluation?
First, your specialist reviews the results with you. Then they write individualized goals, and recommends a plan. Our guide to the evaluation process at ETLC explains each step.
How ETLC Can Help
Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center has locations in Johnston and North Liberty, IA, with virtual services also available. We can help your child feel confident in the classroom.
Learn more about reading and dyslexia support at ETLC or schedule a free consultation to talk with a member of our team.
You may also find these pages helpful:
- The Phonological Awareness Hierarchy
- Is Your Child Struggling With Reading?
- Speech Therapy and Tutoring FAQs: What to Expect at ETLC
About the Author
Sonia Strueby, M.A., CCC-SLP, is the founder of Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center. With over 25 years of experience as a speech-language pathologist, Sonia has dedicated her career to helping children overcome complex communication and academic challenges. She has advanced training and a special focus on treating dyslexia and childhood apraxia of speech, and she is passionate about providing families with a clear path to success.
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