A RADLD information sheet from Professor Maggie Snowling and Professor Charles Hulme about links between language and literacy. This information sheet relates to the RADLD film and slides 'Oral language: The foundations of reading and reading intervention'

1. Key Points Sheet
Reading & Oral Language: Connections & Interventions
Professor Maggie Snowling & Professor Charles Hulme
• Language is the foundation of education and the medium of instruction
• Literacy builds on oral language - print is written language
• Numeracy draws on language skills. Arithmetic depends on verbal processes and children
need to understand the verbal problems they have to solve
• Language is vital for social and emotional development. Children need to be able to
communicate to make friends, to join in activities and to express their feelings
• Language – inner speech - is important for self-regulation and behaviour control
• 7–10% of children have language difficulties at the time of school entry; this is a critical stage for
learning to read.
• There are two kinds of poor reader: children with poor decoding (often called dyslexia) and
children with difficulties in reading comprehension (poor comprehenders). Both groups, and
especially those who have problems reading for meaning, have language difficulties.
• There are several reasons to assess language:
o to screen to identify difficulties;
o to investigate a possible cause of poor response to reading intervention
o to investigate a possible cause of behaviour problems
o to assess in order to plan intervention –‘diagnostic’ testing.
• Without good oral language, a child will not be able to read for academic purposes.
• Children with poor oral language are at high risk of educational failure.
• Evidence-based interventions can be used to promote language and comprehension skills.
Further information
Nuffield Early Language Intervention
(http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/news/nuffield-early-language-intervention-improves-skills-four-
months)
Centre for Reading and Language @ Oxford (https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/research/snowling-group)