Opening the Book on a New School Year: How SLP Maureen Wilson Uses Literacy to Build Connection and Confidence
As classrooms come back to life and routines fall into place, there’s no better time to spotlight the power of literacy in speech therapy. Meet Maureen Wilson, a seasoned school-based Speech-Language Pathologist with nearly two decades of experience and a deep passion for literacy-based therapy. Through a collaborative, inclusive lens, Maureen empowers the individuals she works with—many of whom use AAC or require additional support—to engage with books in a way that feels accessible, meaningful, and fun. In this month’s SLP Spotlight, Maureen shares how literacy isn’t just for reading specialists, how storybooks can become powerful therapy tools, and why individual choice, visual supports, and repetition are key to building confident, engaged communicators.
Why is it important for SLPs to support literacy, since it has traditionally been seen as the role of a reading specialist or teacher?
Assuming only a single profession can support the development of such a multifaceted skill is a very narrow way of thinking that we need to progress away from. It limits the approaches and methods that are used and can delay progress. Comprehension, phonological awareness and then more specifically phonemic awareness, vocabulary, narrative language, and more all go into literacy and are areas that SLPs have specific knowledge and training in. Working collaboratively with other professionals to support and develop a child’s literacy is the best way to ensure the child is seen as a whole and the root of the difficulty is addressed.
What does a typical literacy-based session look like for you, and how do you incorporate tools like AAC to support diverse communication needs during those activities?
One of the great things about literacy-based therapy is that it follows a framework. I track which phase my groups are in so I can pick right where we left off the next we meet. Even though there are different stages, elements of this approach are cyclical. We always review the information and vocabulary from the session before using the book and what story elements we have identified. This takes about 3-5 minutes and is done every session. Our students thrive on repetition to build neural pathways for this information and it also builds confidence. After our review we progress forward with our story as I point out vocabulary or model the skills for the language goals my students are working on. Then I have the students apply the skills that were modeled as we review the new information from the book. I am in an elementary school which means the groups of students I see tend to have varying skill sets and needs, including AAC. In this case I model the key word(s) from my question or statement on my device, which I encourage the other students to do as well, and then the student who has their the AAC device has the option to utilize it to communicate or may use the book itself since they are highly visual ( as well as gestures, vocalizations, etc ).
What advice would you give to other SLPs who are interested in weaving more literacy work into their sessions?
Just start and have fun with it! Grab a book you love and start turning the pages, you don’t even have to read it, just look at the pictures together. Books are typically something our students shy away from based on their past, challenging experiences. When we start with just the pictures it can reduce the intimidation factor our kids have built up over the years. This can be the bridge between therapy supports and the classroom. Integrating literacy should be fun and exciting! Have the students share their favorite books or even activities they enjoy that you can find stories on. Let them have a say and vote on the book you will use. Part of the literacy-based framework incorporates extension activities, finding some hands-on experiences you can all do together to help bring the story full circle. Make the initial step into literacy-based therapy be a group effort for you and your students.
How do you adapt literacy-based approaches for students with higher support needs or multiple disabilities, while still fostering engagement and meaningful communication?
All students can and should access literacy, it just needs to be at their level and needs to focus on what is going to be the most impactful and meaningful for them. This means I am going to use text that is at their level of understanding and ideally about a topic they are interested in. I may also scale the narrative language from the story down to simplify it. I can do this as a group lesson in a self-contained room or in a group session with peers who might have higher comprehension abilities. If they are in a mixed group in my speech room when provide feedback I am going to model my device for them and rephrase with the simplified terms for them and the group. Having visuals or pages in their communication device that represent story parts is also helpful with quick communication with options available to ask questions and give comments about the story too.
What is one thing you’ve learned since becoming a speech language pathologist that you wish all people knew?
I have been a school-based SLP for almost 20 years and each year I am surprised how narrow the view others have of our field is. Many understand that we address speech sounds but our jobs are so much more broad than that. We offer support in social communication, feeding, cognition, voice, as well as language and literacy development. We have the knowledge and skill set to support people beyond a slushy sound and are ready to help in whatever way we are needed.
