Literacy for life!
Chris Stone | August 23, 2011
This week is Speech Pathology Week – a week in which speech pathologists all over Australia are asking you to stop and reflect on literacy and how it’s shaped your life.
As a child, I was a notorious bookworm who frequently smuggled a torch and an irresistible book into my bedroom to read under the covers until well after lights out. My grandfather once told me, “If you can read, you can go anywhere and learn anything – your imagination and the words will take you there.”
Thanks to this, I’ve sailed the Mississippi with Huck Finn, surfed off Fremantle with Tim Winton, explored worlds both real and fantasy, learnt how to program the PVR and stay in touch with friends and family – all through the gift of literacy.
So, spare a thought for the more than 46% of working-age Australians who don’t have the reading, writing or numeracy skills to effectively participate in their workplace or community. That’s between 7 and 8 million adults in danger of being confined to low-wage jobs with little prospect of improvement – all because they have trouble reading or writing.
If this wasn’t worrying enough, 14% of 15 year old Australian adolescents don’t have baseline literacy skills, while up to 27% of Year 3 children in some states demonstrate a reading impairment.
Whatever’s happening, it’s happening early. Speech pathologists play a large part in helping people of all ages develop key speaking and listening skills, including awareness of the sounds in words and language comprehension, the foundation on which literacy is built.
As speech pathologists, we don’t have all the answers but by starting this conversation, hope to raise awareness of the critical importance of literacy and the need to address the increasing literacy problem in this country.
This week, over 4,500 speech pathologists across Australia will be running seminars, speaking to friends and neighbours, giving literacy advice, hosting story writing competitions and most importantly, celebrating the freedom and opportunities that come with being literate. So why not join them and celebrate ‘Literacy for Life’?
Chris Stone
is the National President of Speech Pathology Australia, the national peak body for speech pathologists and consumers of speech pathology in Australia. Chris has three decades of extensive experience as a speech pathologist and manager in rural and metropolitan health settings and is currently Director of Allied Health (Speech Pathology), Eastern Health (Victoria). She was awarded Fellowship of Speech Pathology Australia in 2007 and has held the role of National President since January 2010.SHARE WITH:
