Speech and Language Pathologists at School to Prevent Functional Illiteracy Deriving From Disadvantaged Socio-Economic Backgrounds
Benedetta Di Luzio, Andrea Avellino
The condition of returning illiteracy, i.e., the deterioration of some skills acquired during early literacy, seems to be increasingly affecting wide swathes of the population, leading to the regression of the ability to understand simple and complex texts. With this study we wanted to investigate whether there are preconditions, already within the school curriculum, which affect the future development and maintenance of language comprehension skills. The study, conducted at two high schools in Rome, in comparison with the results of the OECD-PISA surveys, shows that socio-economic and cultural background is an incisive precondition, already at school age, for the development of information and reading skills. We have therefore identified in the specialist figure of the speech and language pathologist, a support for the definition of methods and strategies that prevent deterioration and promote the acquisition and enhancement of the skills described above.
Keywords
Reading, Reading comprehension, Speech and language pathologist, Functional illiteracy, Skills.