Major focus area

Speech Therapy -> Expressive Language

Short description

Communicative Reading Strategies (CRS) is a meaning-based feedback strategy emphasizing the process and purpose of reading that improves both language and reading abilities. This intervention approach is for school-age children who exhibit poor reading and/or poor language skills and focuses on language processing during oral reading (Crowe, 2003).

Long description

Communicative Reading Strategies (CRS) is a meaning-based feedback strategy that emphasizes the process and purpose of reading which improves both language and reading abilities. This intervention approach is for school-age children who exhibit poor language and reading abilities. Meaning-based feedback during oral reading makes the reader simultaneously apply and integrate oral and written language knowledge. This makes the reader become an active conversational participate who reconstructs the author’s message. For beginning readers or poor readers, creating meaning from the text is facilitated through feedback strategies that include questions, visual and verbal cues, explanations, and other comments that help the reader understand the printed text.

Method: In CRS the SLP uses an interactive conversation style by having the patient read small portions of text, asking/answer questions during and after reading, commenting, summarizing, reacting to events and retelling what was read. Prior to reading stories patients are asked to look at the pictures and make predictions about the story. The patient then reads the story while the SLP provides cues and feedback which include:

1. Preparatory set: “This is going to tell us who is in the story.”
2. Summarization: “So what did they do when they couldn’t find their key?”
3. Explanation: “So running, in this sentence, meant water that was moving.”
4. Pronoun Referencing: “He, in the story is really John.” 5. Cohesive Ties: “They didn’t want to go in because………”

(Crowe, 2003)