Language Function: An Introduction to Pragmatic Assessment and Intervention for Higher Order Thinking and Better Literacy

by Ellyn Lucas Arwood

Literacy teaching tends to take a structural approach to language, focusing on auditory products or skills such as sounds, morphemes, words, sentences, and vocabulary. However, new research suggests that the majority of English speakers actually think and learn in visual concepts, and that there is a cultural and linguistic mismatch between auditory teaching methods and the way students think and learn. This has important implications for all educators including those who work with students with neurogenic disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorders and ADHD. In her new book, Dr. Ellyn Lucas Arwood outlines a revolutionary four-tiered model of how a learner acquires language, and suggests ways to impose visual language functions onto an auditory language like English in order to improve learning for both neurotypical learners and those with neurogenic disabilities. Dr. Arwood provides tried-and-tested intervention strategies that work with all levels of ability, giving readers the knowledge and confidence to teach learners to become more literate in a way that raises learners' abilities to think and problem solve. This book takes a fresh look at how language and literacy interact, and will be of interest to educators and special educators, speech and language pathologists, and other professionals who support language learning and development.

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

Ellyn Lucas Arwood, Ed.D., specializes in speech-language pathology, learning theory, cognition, and neuroeducation. She began working with autistic children in 1972 as a special educator. Dr. Arwood is a professor at the School of Education, University of Portland (OR).

Reviews

[Sharon Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book seems to have been written with educators in mind, I believe this should be required reading for all psychotherapists. I think it is crucial for counselors to have a conceptual model for how learning happens in order to increase the range of interventions available to bring about healing, and Arwood's model of language function does just that! This book links language function to cognitive, social, and emotional development; thus, the leap to therapeutic interventions for clients having mental health problems is a small one.