Since we began the Salley research project, we have had the opportunity to follow up some of the children who were involved in the initial study and some children who have taken part in the Salley programme in a wide range of different settings. This has provided us with data about the potential long term benefits for a wide range of different children.

 

By tracking some of the children, we have been able to monitor their development and keep records of any assessments they have had during their early school life.

 

One child who participated in the Salley programme was Charlotte. Charlotte attended a small preschool three sessions a week and as a child with an August Birthday, received one year of nursery education before she went to school. The Salley programme ran throughout the week in the setting, as other children had different combinations of sessions.

 

Charlotte was involved in a research study which was totally separate to our own, as a child with a family history of dyslexia. Thus the tests that she has had have been carried out completely independently by researchers and by staff in her school setting.

 

Charlotte was assessed in July aged 4;11 as part of a speech, language and literacy project. Charlotte completed an assessment of her speech processing, language and literacy skills. Some of these were standardised, some were not. The literacy strand of the testing is reported here.

 

The comments and results are taken directly from the researcher’s report.

Literacy

•  Reception reading words – Charlotte read all 45 words correctly. 
• British ability scale reading – Charlotte did very well in this task. Her standard score is based on that of a 5 year old child. She achieved a score that was above average and at the 99.5th percentile. This is the age-equivalent of a child who is 7 years 10 months.
•  Letter Knowledge – Charlotte correctly identified the sounds of all 25 letters and could give the letter names of 13 of them.
• Phonological Awareness – Charlotte scored 10 out of 10 for this task.
• Spelling – Charlotte spelt 5 out of 8 of these words correctly. The spelling errors that she made involved the vowel sound in 2 cases and mixing up place of articulation in the other error (jan for jam).

 

Summary

“Charlotte’s literacy skills are outstanding.”

She was followed up six months later at CA 5;6 by the same research team.

Literacy

• Reception reading words – Charlotte read 44 words correctly (she read 45 words correctly previously).
• British ability scale reading – Charlotte did very well in this task. She achieved a score that was above average; at the 99.5th percentile.
• Letter Knowledge – Charlotte correctly identified the sounds of 24 letters and could give the letter names of 18 of them. 
• Spelling – Charlotte spelt 6 out of 8 of these words correctly (compared with 5 previously). She spelt the other words phonetically, that is how they sound, which is a natural step in learning how to write.

Summary
“Charlotte’s word reading has progressed very well.”

 

Charlotte has also been formally assessed in school using two reading tests – one during Year One (CA 5;6) and one during Year Two (CA 6:6).

 

Unfortunately it has not been possible to establish exactly which test was used at the end of Year One but Charlotte reported that it involved single word reading. She achieved an age equivalent of 8;6 as reported during her end of year report.

 

Charlotte has recently completed the NFER Group reading test at school.
Group Reading Test 6-14 (GRT) measures how pupils are performing compared to their peer groups throughout the UK. It also helps monitor pupils' overall literacy development in terms of the National Literacy Strategy. The test has been developed for use as a short screening / monitoring assessment for groups of children.

 

Charlotte achieved a reading age of 9:6 (at CA 6;6) on this test and has an expected Key Stage one outcome (as reported by these results) of level three. This is above the level expected by the average child of her age.

 

Whilst we cannot claim that all of her achievements are due to the Salley input that she received, we do feel that the early teaching of phonological awareness has helped her build a sound and solid foundation on which she has continued to build.

 

As the Salley authors, we are delighted to read about Charlotte’s success with literacy. We look forward to following how she and other “Salley” children are developing in the future.  

Angela Hurd