For students aged 7.5 and older.
The PAL program is designed for students aged 7.5 years + with mild to severe phonological awareness/ processing difficulties associated with difficulties in decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) words. Resources from the program have also been used with adolescents and adults whose literacy difficulties are associated with phonological awareness/processing difficulties. The programme was developed in an inter-disciplinary manner by clinical Speech Pathologists and Occupational Therapists in consultation with Teachers.
The PAL develops students’ phonological awareness and processing skills, sound-letter automaticity and includes finely graded practice of reading and spelling. Non-words and real words are provided for practitioners to apply the program flexibly according to the student’s real word reading ability. Once full alphabetic reading at the single syllable stage is established, multi-syllabic word reading and spelling are addressed.
Each of the 19 sessions of the PAL has materials and activities for a group session, to be followed by an individual or paired session. Each section provides complete instructions for implementing all group and individual activities, as well as worksheets and record sheets to monitor progress. The revised programme has been set out in a user-friendly manner, with a suggested script for all group activities (see Sample Pages). It includes an extensive resource manual with in-depth strategies for supporting students with each of the activities as well as a CD containing all reproducible materials.
Objectives of the PAL Program
The PAL is an interdisciplinary programme that develops a range of literacy skills within students. The PAL aims to:
1. Improve phonological awareness and its application to reading and spelling for students diagnosed with phonological awareness difficulties.
2. Ensure automatic sound-letter links for consonants (including digraphs such as ‘th’), short vowels (e.g. ‘a’, ‘i’) and long vowels (e.g. ‘ie’, ‘oi’, ‘au’).
3. Improve accuracy and fluency of reading and spelling both single syllable and multi-syllabic words.
4. Address associated difficulties and maximise the ability of students to:
a) Maintain their alertness and attention in sessions.
b) Maintain upright sitting postures.
c) Write more easily and quickly.
5. Create a supportive environment that empowers each student to develop their own literacy skills, create a sense of achievement, and increase motivation to continue to learn outside of the PAL
sessions.